New conditional booking questions unlock personalization in the booking flow
At Appointedd, we understand the importance of a personalized booking experience. That’s why we’re excited to introduce our new feature – Conditional booking questions! This feature allows businesses to create follow-up questions based on the user’s response to the initial question.
By tailoring content to be more relevant to customers, businesses can improve the customer booking journey. We understand that each customer is unique, and by controlling which booking questions show depending on the answer selected for a previous question, we can create a personalized booking experience that is as unique as your customers.
Setting up Conditional Questions is easy. What businesses need to do is set an initial trigger question. Once the conditional questions are set, they will appear in the booking questions part of the booking flow. You can set up unlimited conditional questions, one level deep, which means that one answer can trigger multiple questions.
The trigger booking question can either be a checkbox and dropdown question. Businesses can choose any type of question for the conditional question. This is because there needs to be a specific set response to trigger the follow-up questions.
By utilizing Appointedd’s new conditional booking questions, you can enhance the customer experience and personalize the booking journey. This functionality is a fantastic way to improve customer satisfaction and increase customer loyalty.
We are excited to see how your business will benefit from this new feature!
Check out our Support Hub for step-by-step instructions on how to set up conditional booking questions >>>
Introducing customer file attachment in the booking flow
We’re delighted to announce the release of an additional feature immediately available to all Appointedd users: Customer File Attachment. Now you can ask customers scheduling an appointment with you to easily upload files during the booking process. Any file upload request, if enabled, will appear in the questions section of the booking flow.
Your customers can upload different types of files; from images to documents and spreadsheets, up to a maximum file size of 5MB.
Watch how your users can easily upload files during the booking process below.
Once your prospects or customers have scheduled an appointment with you and uploaded, for example, an image during the process, you can easily view or download the attachments on your end within Appointedd.
There are many different scenarios in which this feature can be particularly useful. A few examples of use cases include:
- Retailers can enable customers to upload images of what’s inspiring them to have a better idea of what they’re looking to purchase, whether it’s for fashion, clothing, make up, accessories or their home;
- Professionals offering various types of consultations can allow their customers to share safely and securely documents and spreadsheets to be discussed or considered during a specific scheduled meeting;
- Architects or designers can allow clients to upload inspirational images of their preferred homes or internal design styles;
- Hairdressers can allow customers to upload an image of their ideal hair style.
For more information, including how to set up this feature and supported file formats, please visit our Support Hub here.
Not an Appointedd user yet? Start your free trial today.
Appointedd targets global expansion with new localization feature
Today Appointedd is delighted to announce the release of its new localization feature, which will enable all its customers to translate and use the backend of the software in five different languages: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Following a period of strong and continued growth, the new localization feature represents Appointedd’s aim to constantly improve its offering to better serve its clients while also targeting further expansion in countries where English is not the first language.
Appointedd’s online booking and scheduling tools are already available in 16 languages and are enabling thousands of companies of any size – from SMEs to large enterprises – to take unlimited bookings in more than 167 countries. Thus, the ability for all Appointedd clients to use the software in their preferred language when managing their scheduling requirements has already been welcomed by those whose business operations span across multiple countries including:
- V.Ships – the global shipping company with over 60 offices in 30 countries
- Galeries Lafayette – the French department stores with over 280 locations enjoying over 1 million visitors per day
- Golf Town – specialist golf retailer with 47 stores across Canada and part of Sporting Life
- two of the Big Four accounting firms.
Leah Hutcheon, Founder and CEO of Appointedd, said: “I am really proud of the incredible efforts that our team has put into this new feature. Localization will be a game charger for many of our clients who, having teams in many different countries, will now be able to use our software in their preferred language.”
“As we live in a digital world, the ability of our scheduling tools to bridge the gap between virtual bookings and in-person appointments and between virtual consultations and in-person shopping experiences is now key for brands not only to drive efficiency, but also to build connections with their customers and unlock new revenue opportunities.”
Want to try Appointedd? Sign up for a 14 day free trial now.
Interested in our software for your Enterprise? Schedule a call with one of our experts.
Are you a customer? Read this support article on how to change the language you’re using in Appointedd.
Introducing promo codes: attract more customers and increase revenue
We’re thrilled to announce a powerful new feature: promo codes. We’re proud that Appointedd is now one of the very few online booking and scheduling platforms that allows all its users to create promo codes.
Promo codes are perfect for special promotions to attract more customers and increase revenue. These codes can be used by your customers while scheduling an appointment with you to redeem a discount on your bookable service(s). See how in the video below.
This highly requested feature allows all Appointedd users to:
- Run promotions to reach more customers and increase revenue, such as introductory offers or referral incentives
- Offer multiple price points for the same service (eg. corporate and direct customer pricing)
- Encourage repeat bookings and customer loyalty
- Run early bird promotions to fill up your calendar quicker
- Help your customer care team to delight customers by offering special promotions.
How to create promo codes within Appointedd
Creating a promo code within Appointedd is easy. Simply head over to Booking tools > Manage promo codes, and click on Add new promo code. Then, add the details below. When you’re done, simply click Save & publish.
On the Appointedd platform, you can also create multiple promo codes and easily enable or disable them with a single tap.
Promo codes also come with a reporting feature that allows you to see statistics and information about how promo codes are performing.
Ready to create your promo codes? Get started today.
Don’t have an Appointedd account yet? Start your 14 day free trial now.
Zapier makes us happier⚡️
Introducing… Appointedd’s native Zapier integration
At Appointedd we are constantly innovating to add new features to our award-winning booking and scheduling platform. It’s our practice to listen to our clients and prioritise new features that meet their demand, but it wasn’t feasible to create a native integration with every single requested app, until Zapier entered the chat. Zapier is a platform that allows users to move information between web apps, including communication, HR, Marketing, Sales, CRM and Support apps. We are now proud to offer businesses the opportunity to integrate their scheduling tools with 4000+ apps. You can find the full list here.
Nerdy bits
Although Appointedd does offer webhooks, using these requires developer knowledge and platforms. Zapier offers a user-friendly interface to connect various apps, either by using existing workflow templates or by creating completely unique information flows. Whether you’re techy or not, you can easily set up and use Zapier to connect with other tools.
Key benefits and how it works for you
With the Zapier integration you can move customer and booking information from Appointedd into other systems of their choice. Some examples of popular use cases include (but are not limited to):
- to gather CRM information during a booking flow. In this case, the customer information gathered in Appointedd’s booking tool will be shared with a dedicated CRM system, where it would connect that information to specific customer records in tools like Salesforce or Hubspot
- to gather marketing consent and communication details in booking flows. In this case, the consent agreed in the booking flow will be sent to a marketing system, and enable you to send out compliant marketing communications via tools like Mailchimp or Hubspot.
- to gather booking data into an analytics software. In this case, your Appointedd data will be shared to a tool like Google Analytics, where you can analyse/add to your existing dashboards.
- to streamline invoicing. In this case, your Appointedd system will be connected to a tool like Xero or Quickbooks to automate your invoicing via the accounting software.
- to manage recruitment. In this case, the personal information gathered in your Appointedd booking will be shared to track in an HR/recruitment software, such as Breezy.
The exact benefits will vary from user to user as this integration is super flexible – the opportunities are endless! The biggest overall benefit here is the possibilities themselves. Users can now connect Appointedd to (almost) any system via a user-friendly interface and create unique information flows to get their desired end result.
How to make a zap
Follow along with our how to make a zap guide to set up Zapier on your account and make your first zap. If you have any questions while zapping, you can get in touch with our 24/7 support chat for a helping hand. The chat box is always available in the bottom right hand corner of your screen when you’re on in your account.
Want to receive regular updates about our new product features and latest releases? Sign up to our newsletter for a monthly rundown of what’s up at Appointedd!
Introducing SAML SSO, our new knights in shining armour?
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Appointedd’s shiny new release empowers users to be more secure in their account. Calling everyone from Compliance Managers in financial services, to small business owners, everyone has a need to keep customer data safe!
Single sign-on (SSO) offers a simple and secure way for users to access Appointedd. With SSO enabled, users can sign in with their existing credentials without having to use Appointedd specific ones. This gives users, and organisations, the control to choose their authentication method, while eliminating weak password use and the need to remember different email and password combinations.
Nerdy bits
Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is an open standard that allows identity providers (such as MS Azure Active Directory) to pass sign in credentials to service providers (such as Appointedd). In the same way you can manage user access to various systems through one central Active Directory/Identity Provider such as MS Azure!
The new feature works with any provider using SAML 2.0 on most commonly used user management systems, including MS Azure.
How SAML SSO works and its benefits
Once enabled by an admin, this highly requested feature allows users to
- manage users from one central location
- increase security and control
- enhance the Apppointedd user experience
How to set it up yourself
You can follow along with our SAML SSO support guide here to set up SSO for your users. If you have any questions while configuring SSO on your account, you can get in touch with our 24/7 support chat for a helping hand. You can learn more about how SAML authentication works with MS Azure AD here.
Want to know more about SSO/SAML’s all about? Check out this blog by Parallels that goes into detail on the topic.
Reigniting the retail customer experiences: Appointedd X Confer With Partnership
Appointedd is teaming up with live video shopping specialists Confer With, empowering retailers to engage the new post-pandemic customer. Transforming the virtual retail experience, the integration of our cutting-edge technologies actively drives higher basket values, quality conversions and personalized retail experiences.
This new partnership will help retailers capitalize on the opportunities and mitigate the pressures of ever-changing consumer expectations. By offering customers virtual appointments, businesses can expect to see average order value increase north of 30%, in addition to the 10 x conversion rate from appointment booking to paying customer.
Reinventing the virtual experience
You don’t have to look too far to realize that customer expectations are changing. 71% of consumers now think more carefully about purchases, using technology to gather and compare information across several branded platforms. However, retailers are still grappling with orchestrating unified experiences across these platforms.
Omni-channel experiences are no longer exceptional but expected, and retailers are searching for ways to get ahead of the competition.
Frictionless search and buying experiences, matched with hyper-personalization are proving to revolutionize the online shopping experience, forever changing the way we interact with brands.
Appointedd’s online booking tools, partnered with Confer With’s video shopping platform are empowering retailers to not only take part but lead this retail revolution.
The live video shopping journey revolves around four core pillars: match, engage, immerse and convert. Core pillars that when implemented by forward-thinking retail brands, can increase online customer enquiries by 360%.
Match: with customers where it matters most
McKinsey’s recent research into global consumer sentiment found that 56% of consumers express discomfort when interacting with online user experiences, with many even struggling to find sufficient product information. Taking into consideration that 70% of consumers would actively consider other options if it took more than a few clicks to access what they wanted, brands can no longer afford to possess anything other than a flawless online customer experience.
The new Appointedd X Confer With partnership empowers retailers to connect customers with sales reps when they are most engaged. Allowing customers to make well-informed decisions with the most in-depth product knowledge available.
Appointedd’s award-winning online booking tools seamlessly integrate with Confer With’s software, not only allowing customers to book virtual appointments in a matter of seconds but enabling retailers to both automate and manage all bookings, rescheduling and cancellations, saving staff up to 8 hours of manual scheduling a week.
Strengthening the frictionless customer journey, Appointedd’s automated communication suite ensures that when a booking is made, cancelled or rescheduled, customers receive an automatic email notification, reducing appointment no-shows by 67%.
Multi-time zone features ensure retailers can engage a global customer base with their new Confer With virtual appointments by taking the stress out of confusing time zone math.
To further enhance the customer journey, custom question fields during the booking process ensure each virtual assistant is fully equipped with the customers’ unique preference information, enabling a truly personalised experience and basket to be created on the call.
Engage: customers with personalized expert knowledge
Establishing a quality digital dialogue that is rooted in personalization has been found to have an immense impact on purchase intentions. Recent research has found that 80% of shoppers are more likely to purchase from brands that deliver a personalized experience.
Therefore, engaging with a virtual assistant is key to that success. Once a customer interacts with a product or schedules a virtual appointment, they are connected to a one-to-one video call. Inside the video call, your specialists can perform a needs-based analysis to personalize the customer journey. Creating effective digital dialogue equips your team with valuable customer knowledge built on trust and transparency.
Immerse: the customer in a unified experience
Whilst conventional video calls possess little to no immersion, Confer With seamlessly integrates with your product catalogue, enabling sales specialists to guide customers through your entire product offering. Combining your product catalogue with Confer With’s software also allows you to:
- Monitor stock levels
- Combine unique customizable packages for each customer
- Demonstrate your products in a visually engaging manner
- Schedule future online and in-store appointments
Empowering your sales specialists with hyper-personalized tools to collaborate with customers, instead of just selling, creates a conversion rich environment.
Unlocking the power of upselling
In contrast, a low conversion environment can best be visualised as the aimless scrolling of rows upon rows of options. It’s a core hurdle to achieving average order value targets.
The Appointedd X Confer With retail solution integrated with any ecosystem, allows businesses to immediately capitalize on the endless upselling opportunities through:
Alternatives – The collaborative nature of a retail consultation allows sales specialists to further understand the customer, showcasing the most suited products.
Additions – Once the customer has revealed their preferences, specialists can display products straight from their recommendation engine, immersing the customer with visually engaging imagery of other relevant products based on their purchase behaviour.
Build loyal customer relationships that convert
Appointedd X Confer With retail technology ensures a flawless customer experience from booking to purchase. Allowing customers to book your specialists in a matter of seconds transforms transient website traffic into engaged opportunities, establishing a quality transition to the Confer With platform.
With Confer With’s basket technology, the customer and specialists can both add items to the virtual shopping basket. Once the session is complete, the virtual basket is automatically transferred to the eCommerce basket on the company’s website, allowing the customer to review and purchase.
Appointedd also allows customers to book time with specific sales specialists, allowing them to build relationships with customers. Our automated appointment follow-up comms provides a personalized touchpoint, encouraging customers to make repeat bookings with their favourite specialist.
Want to learn how Appointedd X Confer With’s cutting edge retail technology can power your virtual customer experiences? Book a call today
It’s time for professional services to embrace digital transformation
As the world waves ‘cheerio’ to Covid 19 restrictions, professional services firms (PSFs) have been both positively and negatively impacted contemporaneously. Some of them tell us that navigating the regulatory, ethical and legal responsibilities of this pandemic have provided many opportunities for lawyers, accountants, financiers and consulting service providers. However, this additional business for PSFs has often been negated by extra operational costs given that many of their clients’ priorities changed, resulting in turbulent workflows, delayed or cancelled projects.
Therefore many PSFs are now adopting new ways to embrace strategic cost reduction processes by firmly embedding robust digital process solutions at the core of their offering. The most impactful of which include scalable booking technology, automated communications, team and resource management systems to save time and improve their customer experiences. Cost reduction through effective digital transformation. It can seem inconvenient at first but quickly it underpins the very success of enlightened businesses.
The time is now
Our sector leading clients suggest that now is the crucial moment for professional services to learn from the massive shifts in business process and communication, and to apply these lessons to both mid-term action plans and long-term strategies to flourish. Dialogue with leaders from a plethora of other sectors have also confirmed this scenario over the last few months.
Today we’re all much more aware of the benefits of video calls and virtual collaboration tools in professional environments. The “virtual ways of work” have meant that we are missing out on physical human interactions. Let’s face it, we have all missed our colleagues at some point (and yes, some more than others). But I certainly haven’t missed driving in rush hour or shovelling snow off my car in the hope of getting to work safely when February throws everything at us, and I’m not the only one. A recent study found that 57% of staff do not want to go back to the old normal, and that returning to would negatively impact the mental health of 35% of employees. It’s for these exact reasons that many believe a return to normal to be near impossible.
The new normal
Professional services firms, their clients and workforces have developed much deeper understandings of digital communications and business management tools over lockdown out of necessity. But some have even started to question the importance of face-to-face meetings, working in the office and suiting up. This has been a challenge for some PSFs as their traditional fee-charging structures have been built up around physical meetings. Others are looking to embrace a hybrid future. But most businesses we’ve engaged with are absolutely convinced of one thing – analogue business systems are on their way out.
The exponential increase in the adoption of digital business technologies amongst PSFs means that there has been a rapid transformation since Jan 2020. PSFs truly understand that digital optimization is the new cutting-edge game in town. At Appointedd we’ve been amazed at just how much our clients have benefited from world-class booking solutions. From making their services bookable online 24/7, enhancing resource allocation with team scheduling and optimising CRM with automated email and SMS comms. It’s ‘the’ technology that’s really driving business optimisation, growth and profitability.
Powering global recruitment
For example, since introducing Appointedd’s online booking tools, V.Ships have empowered candidates to self-schedule phone and virtual face-to-face interviews. Once the candidate chooses the date and time and enters their personal information, a confirmation email is automatically triggered. Not only did this digital transformation enhance the candidate experience so significantly to result in a 46% increase in bookings, but it saved V.Ships large recruitment team an incredible 143 days of work in only a three month period. Candidates no longer have to wait hours for V.Ships to confirm their interview or assessment time – Appointedd seamlessly syncs with the recruiters calendar, only showing the candidates available times and confirmation emails are automatically triggered at the time of booking.
For forward-thinking business it’s clear, Covid 19 has created business opportunities right now for which agile PSFs can capitalise. Digital business transformation isn’t new. We only need to think about how Apple has transformed since the nineties (when they were almost bust), or how major fashion retailers unlocked the online shopping boom.
The opportunities
The market for professional advice, services and solutions (which encompass legal, accounting and consulting firms) is bright, but hybrid. Following an analysis by McKinsey, companies have accelerated the digitization of their customer interactions by 4 years, whilst the share of digitally enabled products in their portfolios has advanced a shocking seven years. Not only are our staff expecting a new normal, but our customers are too. Only those agile enough to embrace this digital transformation can capitalise on this bright future.
PSFs are investing in their data analytics and digital solution capabilities meaning that they are well placed to benefit through significant scale with their increasingly digital offerings. Support from companies like Appointedd means they can turbocharge their business operations and growth.
Impress with an enhanced customer experience
One such professional services firm that embraced digital transformation is TaxAssist Accountants which, after implanting Appointedd online booking and CRM suite, experienced a 95% increase in the number of positive reviews left due to such a simple customer experience. In a sector with which electronic word of mouth is so fiercely fought over, online scheduling software is an easy win.
Appointedd digital solutions provide a core enabler especially where service delivery is not dependent on location. Enabling digitally transformed models where accessibility and responsiveness are key, will differentiate businesses which are committed to optimising client experiences, staff effectiveness and overall business success.
It’s slick and it’s a slam dunk. If you think things are at a tipping point and believe this is the way forward to your professional service firm, please give Appointedd a call. It just might be the best call you’ll make today. Oh… and ‘Cheerio to Covid’ has a nice ring to it don’t you think? The thought of it certainly made me smile.
Top tip: Appointedd and Google Analytics
Before it became obvious that the current year is going to be different than any year before, the CTO of Tableau named some data trends that will shape 2020. Last, but not the least item on this list, is data management, which is the catalyst for business harmony. At Appointedd, we love both business harmony and data management. That’s why we’re proactively working against the data deficiency that, in some way or another, affects the majority of organisations, big or small. The way that Google Analytics “listens” to Appointedd bookings really streamlines operations.
Appointedd’s tech stack is equipped with powerful reporting tools that enable you to track the performance of your bookings, team, and revenue, among other metrics. But what about the first stage of the user journey, that starts long before the booking is made? Simply set up Google Analytics to “listen” for successful booking and empower your business to get even more precious intel on the performance of your booking widgets. Here’s how and, more importantly, why…
Why set up your Google Analytics to listen for a successful booking?
- With your Appointedd bundle comes an unlimited amount of booking widgets. Create, embed, and distribute as many of them as you wish. Integrating Appointedd with Google Analytics enables you to access more crucial business insights from your prospects, visitors, and customers.
- Understand performance of specific (landing) pages on your website and social media channels, and the conversion behind these marketing avenues.
- Emphasize pages and channels that work better than others and replace or work on those that are underperforming.
- Support your business spending with clear ROI insights.
- Add more metrics to your reporting – such as bounce rates, time spent on page before the booking has been made, visitor to customer conversion, used keywords that resulted in a booking, etc.
- Be better prepared for the service that has been booked, whether you’re inviting to book a demo, dog grooming, or an interview.
How to set up your Google Analytics to listen for a successful booking?
First things first, so let’s make sure you’ve got access to three following properties:
- Content management system of your website. You’ll need to access the file, which stores functions. For example, if you’re using WordPress, the file most likely would be called functions.php and stored in the folder with your theme.
- Edit access to Google Analytics.
- Read, Edit, Approve, and Publish access to Google Tag Manager, should you need to yet set up a Universal Analytics tag.
- Using this handy support article, create a function to parse the incoming data and listen for a message being posted and handle it with created parser.
- That’s it, now Google Analytics treats your bookings as events opening the range of additional reporting capabilities.
FreeAgent & Appointedd
Make your business finances stress-free by automatically generating an invoice with every online booking
At Appointedd, everything we do is about problem solving. We’re always looking to collaborate with teams and tools that make it easier for you to manage your business – which brings us to our FreeAgent integration.
Appointedd has teamed up with FreeAgent, the cloud-based accounting software, to help you take bookings online and manage the impact of those bookings right the way through your business.
How does the Appointedd and FreeAgent integration work?
By connecting your Appointedd and FreeAgent accounts, you can create invoices straight from your bookings.
When someone books an appointment with your business via Appointedd, a customer record is automatically created within our built-in CRM.
Appointedd then pushes that customer record through to the FreeAgent system, where an invoice is created and attached to the customer record.
The power of the integration is in ensuring the details of that customer are entirely in sync across both systems, and in tune with the details the business holds about that customer.
Seamless accounting built into your bookings
Appointedd’s online booking integration with FreeAgent takes care of the admin side of managing appointments, from the initial booking all the way through to the invoice.
With the Appointedd and FreeAgent integration…
- Customer records are triggered as soon as a customer makes a booking
- Those records are automatically created and maintained
- Your business can maintain regulatory compliance effortlessly
- You can use the time saved to take care of your business
With booking and finance admin taken care of, you’re free to concentrate on your core operations – in other words, spending time doing what you do best.
How do I get the Appointedd and FreeAgent integration?
The first step is to sign up to Appointedd if you haven’t already.
Next, pay a visit to our friends at FreeAgent if you don’t already have an account.
Once you’ve done that, you can connect your FreeAgent and Appointedd accounts in a few simple steps:
- Go to the integrations tab on Appointedd
- Click on the FreeAgent logo to log into your account
- Start generating invoices and manage your bookings seamlessly
Save time by automatically generating invoices for meetings – set your integration up today.