We live in a world where everything is on demand. From the latest blockbuster movie to a restaurant-quality dinner, a fresh pair of sneakers, or a brand new TV—you can have pretty much anything you want to be delivered to your door at a time that suits you. Home services are no exception.
When my aircon conked out in the middle of a warm August afternoon last month, I didn’t waste any time flicking through a phonebook. Call me lazy, but I wanted to exert the least amount of effort possible. I just wanted someone to fix the problem with minimum hassle. So, like most people*, I chose to book an HVAC tech online. *Source: Getapp
The simple fact is this: if you want more customers to book your services, you need to offer them the option to do it online.
But, it’s not just about getting more customers. If you’re keen to spend less time doing admin work, an automated booking system will replace the hours you usually waste on manual appointment settings.
Plus, it’s about staying at the top of your game. If you don’t want to lose business to your competitors, you must show customers that you have the most straightforward booking process.
So, online booking is essential for generating new customers, providing excellent customer service, staying competitive, and supporting business growth.
What is online booking?
If you’ve ever booked anything online before (and I am guessing you have done), then you have probably come across a few different online booking systems already. Workiz’s online booking feature allows customers to enter their information and book a service at a timeslot that suits them, right from your website.
Online booking can be added to all the places that your customers would usually find you. You can use it on your business’s website and social media pages and even on your Angie’s List and Yelp profiles. The online booking page is also available as a link that you can easily send by text or email.
Why is Online Booking important?
Nowadays, online booking isn’t a luxury feature, nor is it hi-tech. People expect it as standard. I know that I certainly do.
A few weeks back, I had a problem with the hot water in my house. It’s a rental, and there is a guy that we normally use, but he didn’t answer the phone. I couldn’t see an option to book him online. What do you think I did—waited and tried to call again later?
In case you didn’t guess where this is going… nope! I did not wait. I did a quick search on my mobile for a “plumber near me” and scheduled an appointment with the first reputable-looking company that I came across. They arrived later that afternoon. Unfortunately, our usual plumber missed out.
If you want to maximize every job opportunity, it is vitally important that customers can book your services: whether you’re there to answer their call or not.
Did you know that the majority of customers search online to find a plumber when they need one? This trend is actual for most other home services, too. A whopping 73% use online search when they need a locksmith, 62% for HVAC, 64% for appliance repair, and 58% for electrical services.
More to the point, most people didn’t have a company in mind when they were searching. Anyone could have picked up their job. As you can see, it’s well worth your while to make your business stand out online. If you don’t capture these potential customers, your competitors will.
Does my business need an Online Booking system?
Yes, an online booking system is great. But does your business really need one? You can manage fine without one… can’t you?
When it really comes down to it, you need to consider a few things:
- Do you want to grow your business?
- Are you looking to streamline daily processes?
- Do you want to be competitive in your marketplace?
- Is it important to you to provide good customer service?
If the answer to any of those questions is “yes,” then Online Booking will help you accomplish your goals.
To achieve business growth, you need to automate processes. It’s not practical, cost-effective, or secure to use a paper-based system or rely on human admin in 2021. Online booking is an easy way to support the growth of your field service business. It generates more customers, produces more revenue, and frees up your time for growth-focused tasks.
Users of Workiz’s online booking system have experienced up to double the number of new jobs every month.
Introducing online booking will also change the way that you manage your business. It helps to keep you organized and reduces the risks of double bookings or confusion over cancellations. Customers can only book according to your real-time availability, and when they do, you’ll get notified immediately.
One 2021 report showed that 94% of respondents would be more likely to choose a new service provider if that provider offered online booking options.
Luckily, deciding whether online booking would suit your field service business is not rocket science. If your business involves scheduling appointments for customers, then you stand to benefit greatly. Not only should your experience financial gains, but the refinement of your daily processes should also make your business easier to manage.
What is the best Online Booking system?
The best online booking system is customizable, user-friendly, and effective.
You can modify many elements within Workiz’s Online Booking feature, making it perfect for a variety of field service businesses.
“You can make the system all about you and how your company works.”—Melissa Souto, Director of Call Center Operations, Junk Doctors
Impressing your customers is about more than doing a good physical job. Providing people with a no-fuss online booking system means that they have a positive encounter with your company right from the get-go. And that’s worth its weight in gold: 80% of customers consider the experience a company provides to be as important as its products and services.
Workiz’s Online Booking feature is tried, tested, and proven to be effective. You can start getting jobs booked within a day!
Advantages of having an online booking system
Meet your customers’ needs
The benefits of using an online booking system are two-fold. It’s more convenient for the customer for several reasons. Maybe they remember they wanted to book your service while they are at work and can’t use their phone. Or when they are in an especially noisy or quiet area, like a busy train station or doctor’s waiting room.
In those cases, the company that offers online booking is more likely to get the job. Online booking helps you get the customers that you may otherwise miss out on.
Work smarter, not harder
You can get on with your day-to-day business activities—spending valuable time with customers, finishing up projects, and making money. While you’re busy taking care of those things, new client appointments are getting booked in the background with little to no effort on your part.
Plus, most people prefer to cancel and reschedule appointments online*. Rather than run the risk of canceled appointments, the smart option is to let people reschedule in the way that they like best.
Optimize your online efforts
The innovative tracking system tells you exactly where your online bookings are coming from. Target your efforts in the right place to maximize bookings! When you know that most of your customers find you on social media, but few people see you on Yelp, you can use this information wisely.
The 10 central values of Online Booking with Workiz
1. Profitability
You run a business, so you understand the value of a tool that can reduce costs and improve quality. When your customers can book online, it’s practically like having your own team of sales agents. Except they work 24/7 and with flawless precision (and for way less money).
Your staff can spend less time answering the phone to manually arrange appointments, which boosts their productivity in other areas. This, as well as the revenue generated from those extra online bookings, contributes to better margins. And most importantly—improved overall profitability. And who doesn’t want that?
Be smart, plug the drain on your operational costs, and use your resources to grow. Companies that use Workiz reported a 22% increase in revenue growth in the first few months thanks to our smart features like the Online Booking widget.
2. Attractiveness
Repeat business is great, but you need new customers to keep things moving. Online booking makes attracting new clients easy. They can see your availability and book your services at any time of day or night, from anywhere.
Right now, you could be attracting customers on your website but missing out on a ton of business through Facebook or Yelp. Give people the freedom to book on the platform that they want to. Cast the net wide and catch more clients.
Did you know? Some people really don’t like talking on the phone. According to Workiz data, up to 30% of people book jobs online exclusively. And who can blame them? It’s just what we are used to! If you’re not giving people that option, you are missing out on many potential businesses.
3. Reputation
Reputation is vital in any industry, and it’s something you need to maintain actively. For your business to thrive, you need to meet and exceed expectations. Embracing technology that improves customer experience will help to uphold your reputation. Online booking is one such crucial technology.
Show that you are a credible, reliable, and professional company worthy of your customers’ trust. When your customers enjoy your services, they will be far more likely to use you again—and to recommend you to others, too.
4. Good return on investment
We’ve all heard the saying: you have to spend money to make money! Well, it’s often true. But what people should be really concerned with is how quickly they can make that money back.
Let’s compare the online booking method to another marketing method, like ads. Not only are ads complicated, but they also require constant monitoring by a marketing professional (if you want any results, that is). It can take months before you hit the right ad strategy that brings you the jobs you want. Hundreds or often thousands of dollars can go down the drain in that time.
An online booking system, on the other hand, pays off from the very first month. Maybe even from the first day! It’s easy to implement, and because it’s automated, it requires little to no effort on your part. This system can schedule jobs for your business even while you sleep.
When you think about the office hours you save with an online booking system, it’s clear to see that the profit outweighs the costs.
5. Customization
Workiz’s Online Booking feature gives you total control over what information you gather from the customer. You can adjust the system’s look and feel by adding your brand’s colors and logo.
Choose which services you offer, as well as the length of your time slots, opening hours, and more. Workiz has made it easy for you to totally tailor the booking system to your unique needs, whatever your industry.
Workiz’s Online Booking system is highly adaptable and has been used for all sorts of service businesses, from spa installations to towing services, to junk removal!
Unlike other online booking software, your customer can use your customized form to make a booking directly from your website without being redirected to another web page.
“Online Booking is a big deal, and Workiz just gets the job done better than Housecall pro.” —Ivan, owner of JunkGuys Sacramento
6. Double booking
Instant booking means that you won’t miss out on the jobs that might have otherwise slipped through the cracks. Not only that: you can avoid the headache that comes with accidentally double booking clients.
Choose how many jobs can be booked in the same timeslot, and the intelligent booking system will schedule work in a convenient way for both you and your customers.
7. No pipelines
Have you ever missed out on a job because you missed a vital piece of information, something got lost in communication, or quoting simply took too long because of the middlemen involved?
Once your clients book a job via your online booking feature, your team gets a notification immediately. You can convert it to a quote or a job on the spot. Used with the Workiz field service management software, you can see the status of every job in one place and in real-time. You can assign it to one of your workers or automatically let the software do it according to which tech is nearby and available.
8. Save time on reports.
You can choose which data to collect from your customers, all saved and easily viewed within the Workiz system. Want to know where you can earn more money and what you can do better? Simply extract data on your jobs and revenues for a clear picture of the areas you need to optimize.
Pulling reports from multiple places and juggling excel sheets will become a thing of the past. The time-saving benefits extend to other business practices, too: your team will spend less time on customer phone calls, writing in calendars, and arranging appointments.
9. Flexibility
Did something come up? When life happens, Workiz’s Online Booking feature makes blocking out time slots a breeze. Adjust the system to your needs and disable booking when you have plans or other arrangements. You can even add days off for individual employees—or the whole office, if needed!
Customers will still be able to book appointments, only they will choose from time slots that suit you both. They can see your team’s availability in a clear, uncomplicated view. Online booking means there’s no need for the old back-and-forth over the phone to try to find a day you’re both free.
10. Workiz’s Online Booking system is better than competitors’
There is a reason Workiz is the #1 FSM software and communication platform. Our founders owned service-based businesses themselves and designed Workiz to solve the exact problems they faced. They saw firsthand how online booking skyrocketed their business and want to help you do the same.
Workiz’s online booking feature is convenient, customizable, and it’s easy to implement. It supports the smooth running of your business operations, saving your team time and cutting your costs.
How many bookings have you lost for the following reasons?
- Your phone line was busy with another customer
- The customer called outside of working hours
- It took too long to respond to the customer’s inquiry
Workiz solves these problems by providing customers with an instant and hassle-free way to get your information and schedule an appointment.
Workiz’s Online Booking widget in real-time:
Best Online Booking system for service businesses
Workiz has been called “an absolute game-changer” and “incredible” by those who use it.
“I absolutely love this software. It has been great for our business. Our online bookings increased 500%, if not more. Super easy to use. The reports and features they have are awesome.” —Mitch, Junk Masters (Facebook review from Workiz Client)
Workiz has been voted the winner of G2 Best Field Service Management Software in 2021, collecting recognition for Best Results, Best Usability, and Best Relationship. Check out some reviews from real Workiz users at G2 here!
“Both of our websites have online booking plugged into them. This is the main reason we switched [from Housecall Pro] to Workiz.
It’s very simple. [The client] clicks “schedule”—and it’s done. It sends that booking to our app, and we send them out to our techs. This is amazing! As soon as we switched to this platform, our online booking rate percentage just skyrocketed. Half of our jobs come from online booking.” —Ivan, owner of JunkGuys Sacramento. Watch the full video review here.
Whether your business is on-demand, seasonal, and operates with or without sub-contractors, Workiz can help you organize, manage, and grow.
Discover the Workiz Online Booking system
How does an online booking system really work? Well, with Workiz, it’s easy. Just add the widget wherever you want it: your website, Facebook page, Angie’s List profile, Yelp page, or anywhere else for your customers to find you.
The Workiz Online Booking system is designed to work with any website on any platform. Just pass on the information to whoever manages your website. They should be able to set it up for you in a matter of minutes. If you need any help, our friendly team is always on hand.
From appliance repair to HVAC and carpet cleaning to junk removal: let the jobs roll in!
All-in-all
It’s pretty clear that service companies will fall behind if they don’t move with the times. Online booking is essential for a modern, competitive business, especially one that is aiming for growth.
Let’s look at the facts: in terms of real money, on-demand service businesses saw their monthly revenues jump up by 371% after implementing an online booking system. In some cases, that’s over $100,000 more per year. Source: Workiz data
Despite that, most service businesses don’t have one in place. According to Workiz data, an incredible 77% are without any kind of online booking system! Yep, you read that right.
Luckily, now you know. You no longer have to be in the 77% who are missing out. Now is the perfect time to see what online booking can do for your business.
Create your own online booking widget for free, right now, with Workiz’s free trial! There’s nothing to lose, yet everything to gain. Use the button to sign up below.
