What is Instant Scheduling and How It Will Make Your Business More Efficient

As a business owner, you know firsthand how important scheduling and planning are to maintaining smooth day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, finding the perfect time for a meeting can sometimes take longer than the meeting itself. This is frustrating for employees and staff, even more so for customers who’d like to set up an appointment but can’t seem to get a timely response from your company.

Luckily, there’s a solution to your scheduling problems—an online instant scheduler.

What is instant scheduling?

Instant scheduling is a type of software that facilitates instant event scheduling between two or more parties. Unlike scheduling apps or meeting planners that are dependent on receiving responses from all parties before booking an event, instant scheduling software removes the lag time between the scheduler and the person or company they’re trying to meet. It can significantly improve operational efficiency, helping companies book appointments faster and deliver better customer experiences.

How does instant scheduling work and what is its purpose?

The purpose of instant scheduling is to streamline the scheduling process by automating bottlenecks. It provides greater transparency to customers about a business’s current availability and makes it possible to offer 24/7 scheduling services.

To get started with an instant scheduling tool, a user will enter specific guidelines for when and how they’d like to be contacted, including days and times they’re available for phone calls versus in-person meetings, limits on how far in advance a meeting can be scheduled, or how shortly before an appointment’s start time an event can be added to the calendar. These parameters ensure the software works with the user’s schedule instead of against it. Once the user’s availability has been entered, the scheduling tool will go live and be available to others.

For example, let’s say a home services company was using the instant scheduling tool on their website. Their customers would be able to use the scheduling software to quickly see what appointment times are still available in the next week, select the time that works best for them, and submit an appointment request. The scheduling software would then instantly finalize their appointment, creating an event on the company calendar and sending the customer further details about their upcoming appointment—no waiting for a response, no calling three times trying to get someone on the phone, just instant bookings.

With the instant scheduling tool, the company can drastically improve the home service customer experience and deliver fast response times without a significant rise in operational costs.

What businesses benefit from having instant scheduling capabilities?

Any business that regularly meets with customers can benefit from having an online instant scheduler. Here are a few examples of how select industries’ day-to-day operations would be improved by implementing an instant scheduler.

Med Spas

Scheduling software is one of the simplest automation ideas for med spas, but it can have a huge impact on reducing the number of no-show appointments. Not only does it allow customers to choose times that work best for them, but the software can also draft effective appointment reminder texts with links to easily cancel or reschedule if needed. This process ensures you’re not left hanging and keeps communication between you and your customers open. It’s just one of many reasons why appointment schedulers are moving to the top of the list of must-have med spa software tools in 2024.

Medical Practices

Doctors are extremely busy. With so much going on, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks. In the medical world, scheduling software is one of the essential automation tools for family practice. An instant scheduling tool makes sure every customer receives a timeline response to appointment requests and reduces scheduling mistakes. Appointments are added to the calendar in real-time so you never have to stress about being double-booked again.

HVAC Technicians

When it comes to HVAC problems, customers want a quick resolution, which means getting a tech out to look at their HVAC system as soon as possible. An appointment scheduler makes it easy for potential customers to see your availability and set up an appointment in minutes. This scheduler keeps you ahead of competitors who still require their customers to call in and book appointments, helping you win more business and increase your revenue.

Plumbing Businesses

There’s never really a good time to have a plumbing problem, but they do seem to always happen outside of normal business hours. Scheduling software is a huge asset to plumbing businesses because it offers around-the-clock booking. This booking method means your anxious customers won’t have to wait until your office opens the next day to get themselves on the schedule. Plus, an instant scheduler will automate plumbing appointment reminders to ensure customers are ready for your arrival. This process reduces delays and helps keep you on schedule so you can make it to all your appointments on time.

9 Instant Scheduling Tools Your Business Needs to Hop on Right Now

Podium AI Employee

Podium’s AI Employee is one of the most advanced scheduling software options on the market today. It’s goal-oriented artificial technology (AI) that considers context, making every interaction feel personalized.

The AI Employee is just that—a virtual employee capable of independently using the tools on Podium’s platform to help your business schedule appointments, nurture leads, answer customer questions, and close sales at any time of day. Plus, Podium can easily integrate with systems such as DealerTrack to improve appointment hold rates.

Calendly

Calendly eliminates the back-and-forth communication when trying to plan a meeting by enabling users to set their availability and forget about it. Invitees can then pick the meeting type and time without any extra input from the user. What sets Calendly apart is its large number of integrations. It’s compatible with almost any type of calendar software.

Calendar

Calendar is a scheduling app that offers extensive statistics. Users can easily track their meeting lengths, no-shows and cancellations, attendance, and other useful information that can help businesses make data-driven decisions for improving engagement.

SavvyCal

SavvyCal is a calendar app designed for scheduling collaborations. Users can create meeting polls and easily overlay their calendars with polling pages to clearly see when they’re available. SavvyCal does integrate with other platforms for further workflow automation.

SimplyMeet.me

SimplyMeet.me offers an easy-to-use platform where customers can directly set up appointments with your business. It stands out for its customization options. Users can customize their domain name and choose from several templates to adjust the layout of their booking page.

Clara

Clara is a web-based AI scheduling tool. Simply integrate your calendar and enter your availability, and then the AI takes it from there. Users will interact via email with your assistant, “Clara”, who will respond and work with them to set up a meeting during one of your available times. Clara’s strong suit is its ability to operate independently while sounding like a real human assistant.

Motion

Motion is a project management platform with an automated scheduling tool. Users can assign a priority level to tasks and events, and Motion’s AI will create an optimized schedule for the day that prioritizes important tasks and automatically adjusts as new events are scheduled.

Sidekick

Sidekick is a great option for those who favor in-person meetings. In addition to Zoom and Google Meet integrations, it also allows users to save physical addresses for quick scheduling in the future. It also can provide automated note-taking during meetings.

Cal.com

Cal.com is a robust booking website with an extremely customizable back-end system. It’s a great option for teams that want greater flexibility and freedom when building custom workflows. It boasts 12 calendar integrations and 19 tools for video conferencing.

6 Instant Scheduling Best Practices You Should Follow

1. Encourage Instant Scheduling Based on the Availability in the Calendar

Instant scheduling software is capable of more than just setting an appointment. Whenever possible, use the instant scheduling feature to book meetings as it can use these touchpoints to automate other activities like meeting reminders, appointment suggestions, etc.

2. Avoid Too Many Appointments

Know your limits and don’t put too much on your plate each day. Too many scheduled appointments can lead to dissatisfied customers when small delays build upon each other and turn into long days and burnt-out employees.

3. Provide Appointment Overhead

Adding buffers between appointments will make a huge difference in how smoothly the day will go. Never book appointments back to back. Always leave a few minutes in between for employees to complete administrative tasks and get ready for the next customer.

4. Prevent Overbooking and Double-Booking

Double-booking is a costly error that permanently damages your business’s reputation. It should be avoided at all costs and instant scheduling can help you do just that by instantly adding events to the calendar so current availability is always up to date.

5. Have an Automated Follow-Up Mechanism

What is instant scheduling without automated follow-ups? Follow-ups are key to reducing no-show appointments, which in turn, saves you money. These short messages serve as both reminders and scheduling help, encouraging clients to cancel or reschedule if they can’t make it so others can take their appointment slot.

6. Gather Metrics About Your Appointments Over a Period of Time

Instant scheduling tools can provide detailed data regarding performance and engagement. These metrics can help you spot and fix bottlenecks as well as identify what types of meetings and which scheduling tactics are most successful.

Using these six scheduling best practice tips, you can take full advantage of the cost-saving benefits of instant scheduling and deliver faster, better scheduling services to your customers. And, when you partner with Podium, you’ll get access to even more AI-powered tools, like our AI Employee, which works tirelessly to communicate and schedule leads for your business 24/7.

Ready to see it in action and get an extra helping hand with scheduling? Check out Podium’s AI Employee today.