Allow customers to book appointments themselves on your website

Arranging a date often takes longer than the appointment itself. If you let customers book appointments themselves on your website, they won’t have to wait for your reply and you won’t have to keep comparing two diaries.

This only works if your available slots are accurate and the appointment is booked correctly straight away. With an appointment widget, the customer chooses a day and time themselves, whilst you decide what slots are available for booking and which aren’t.

How do you let customers book an appointment online?

You add an appointment widget to your website. This can be a button or a block on a page, in your own colour. The visitor then selects an appointment type, a day and a time from the slots you’ve made available. They then fill in their details.

The booking is added directly to your calendar. If the customer is already known to you, the appointment is linked to their existing contact record. If it’s a new customer, a new contact record is created. This ensures that the appointment doesn’t appear as a standalone entry in your calendar, but is linked to the customer’s details, previous messages and any quotes.

When scheduling appointments via your website, you decide how much of your time to make available for this. You don’t need to open up your entire calendar. It’s better to start small with the times when you would normally return calls or schedule site visits.

What availability do you set for online appointments?

Availability is the foundation. Only make the days and times available when you can actually meet with clients or schedule visits. You can also set the maximum number of appointments that can be booked at any one time.

Think about your normal working week in advance. Are you mainly on site during the day? In that case, you could, for example, set aside a few fixed slots for consultation meetings or site measurements. This prevents online appointments from being squeezed in between an installation job and a journey to the other side of the region.

Do you already use Google Calendar for private or business appointments? If so, link the two. Booked time in Google Calendar is taken into account, so the appointment widget won’t offer that time slot. New and amended appointments from Klantly are also synchronised with Google Calendar. This gives you a single overview, without any double bookings.

Why do appointment types make planning easier?

Not every appointment lasts the same length of time. A short consultation requires a different approach to a measurement visit, a maintenance visit or a handover. You should therefore create fixed appointment types, each with its own name, standard duration and colour.

You can also choose, for each appointment type, whether customers are allowed to book it online. For example, a customer might be able to select a consultation or a measurement visit themselves, but not book an installation slot. This keeps the online schedule clear and prevents appointments that still need to be assessed first.

A practical structure might look like this:

• Consultation: for customers who first have questions about the options.
• Measurement visit: for an on-site visit once the initial requirements are clear.
• Maintenance: for existing customers who wish to schedule a service.
• Handover: to be scheduled internally only if you are personally managing the planning for this.

The duration and description of the appointment type are automatically carried over when scheduling. Thanks to the colour-coding, you can also see at a glance in your calendar what sort of day you have ahead of you.

How do you ensure an online booking doesn’t remain a standalone appointment?

An appointment is only truly useful if everyone knows which customer and which process it relates to. That’s why an online booking should be linked to a contact. From the customer file, you can then add notes, create a quote or schedule a follow-up appointment.

This is particularly helpful when someone else takes over the conversation. The client then doesn’t have to explain again why they made the appointment. Everything that happens afterwards remains linked to the same contact. Centralised management of client data prevents appointments, messages and documents from becoming scattered across different locations.

You can also set up an automated response to a new appointment. This could be a task for the staff member handling the call, or an internal notification to ensure no one forgets to prepare. A follow-up can also be triggered if an appointment is cancelled.

What confirmation does the customer receive after booking?

After booking, the customer automatically receives a confirmation by email. A reminder follows later. This provides clarity for the customer and reduces the chance of you turning up to find the door closed.

You can decide for yourself which messages to use and adapt the text to suit your own tone. The confirmation and reminder are also recorded in the customer’s communication log. This means you can always check what was sent and when.

Practical example: a measurement appointment without four emails

Imagine this: you sell sun blinds and a visitor wants to know what options are available for their home. Normally, you’d receive a message asking when you can pop round. You suggest a date, the customer isn’t available then, and after a few messages, an appointment might finally be arranged.

With an appointment widget, that visitor can select the ‘measurement’ appointment type themselves on Sunday evening. They only see the times you’ve made available, choose a time and immediately receive an appointment confirmation. On Monday morning, you’ll see the appointment in your calendar and on the customer file.

Is there already a private appointment or another visit scheduled in Google Agenda? If so, that time slot won’t be offered. For the customer, it’s sorted in no time. For you, it means no extra round of emails, just an appointment that’s immediately in the right place.

When does online appointment booking work best?

An appointment widget works particularly well when the initial consultation is crucial for the sale, or if you frequently visit customers at home. Think of taking measurements, advising on a bespoke product, maintenance or an initial on-site visit.

It isn’t a complete scheduling solution for complex working days involving multiple technicians, materials and dependencies between jobs. So use online booking for the initial consultation or a straightforward visit. The rest of the scheduling remains a choice you make yourself.

Do you want to spend less time going back and forth over dates? Find out, with no obligation, how Klantly can organise your appointments and customer contact with ‘Start for free’.