How to keep a record of clients for consultations for free and automatically?
Two phones, mail, messengers, website, Facebook and instagram. On any of these channels can make an appointment for a consultation.
And need to do:
• in response, send General information about the address, payment,
* record customer's phone and mail,
* track that there was no over-booking (double booking at the same time),
* relate to personal calendar,
• the day before the consultation you need to remind the client about the upcoming meeting.
It's awful. And I'm not the only one, I know. I've seen other psychologists torn between laptops and phones.
Now, if I had a Secretary... then I would have to work much more to pay for his hard work :) But, as I once said one smart colleague — "we have no extra money," and it's true. Therefore, we have to Dodge and look for solutions, preferably free.
I really like to automate everything, because I believe that if a computer can do anything for you, let it do it. I'd rather help another person.
So now I will tell you how I have organized the schedule of admission with the help of modern technology. I hope this will be useful for our colleagues.
Booking system
Keep the schedule the old-fashioned way when loading average and above-means to increase the risk of absences and double rebooking.
The booking system is a third-party service that takes over the function of accepting the record of a new client and somehow doing with it further. Their full of the: Russian and overseas.
The main functionality of the reservation system, the right psychologist:
* Calendar of busy and free time
* The ability to embed a reservation on the site (or just send the client a link to a page where you can make an appointment with a psychologist)
* Reminders to the client about the upcoming session
* Sync with your personal calendar.
• Optional — different address of the psychologist
* Optional-different services, such as a psychologist on Skype and face-to-face consultation
All other "bells and whistles", such as the loyalty program (when you send discounts to customers), a mobile application or a" black list " of customers — it's all redundant.
Separately, I want to say about reminders and about synchronization with a personal calendar. Reminders significantly reduce the percentage of absences for the primary session.
And reduce the risk that you have to redo the schedule at the last minute due to the fact that a regular customer in the morning changed plans.
Of course, they do not force the client to drop everything and come, but they give him an excuse and the opportunity to cancel the record easily, in a timely manner and without consequences for the psychologist.
Quite a large percentage of primary customers are recorded spontaneously, and then change their minds, and call you and say that he changed his mind — it's somehow so uncomfortable. In the reminder he has a link to cancel, all and business, and invent reasons optional.
In short, if you're not already reminding your clients about the upcoming session, it's time to start doing so.
In terms of synchronizing with your personal calendar, this option significantly reduces the risk for the client that you will find out at the last minute that you have a dentist appointment or something.
It is clear that you can cancel the dentist and take the client, but who among us did not call the client with the words: "Sorry, I just discovered that..."?