As a small business owner, it’s crucial to stay organized and efficient in your day-to-day operations. This is especially true when your business is driven by appointments. If you’re trying to keep track of all your appointments and meetings on paper, it’s easy to become disorganized and overwhelmed.
Luckily, there’s a lot of great technology on the market to help you improve your scheduling workflow. Small business scheduling software makes it easier to schedule projects, manage staff, and keep track of all your appointments in one place. With automation and other customized features, the right scheduling program can increase productivity and revenue.
In the past, small businesses had to use several tools to manage the entire workforce and keep track of appointments. Today, technology has made it easier for businesses to become more efficient by allowing them to manage everything from one interface of scheduling apps.
Let’s take a look at what kind of scheduling technology is available in today’s market and how each scheduling program for small businesses can help you achieve your business goals.
Depending on which software you choose, scheduling software can be used to schedule meetings and appointments, manage labor hours, and even send reminders to customers and staff. These programs can also ease the pressure of scheduling shifts, covering absences, creating rosters, and assigning duties.
Some scheduling software is best suited for managing internal meetings (e.g. with large corporate teams). Others are better suited to manage external meetings (e.g. businesses with multiple customer appointments). No one scheduling program will meet every type of need, so it’s important to do your research to decide which features matter most to you.
Here are some of the features you may look for in the ideal scheduling app for small business:
Scheduling managers and supervisors are not always in the same place. Plus, many customers may access your calendar and booking form via their smartphones. The ability to access your scheduling software on mobile devices makes managing your team and customer base much easier. A scheduling application that you can access quickly from your phone or desktop computer can help you make changes and approve scheduling decisions in a matter of seconds.
When you get new scheduling software for your business, there is bound to be a short learning period where your team adjusts to the new workflow. A platform with great customer support can shorten this learning period (and boost your return on investment) by helping you make the best use of all its features. Look for a company that’s eager to provide tips for use and answer any questions you may have. It’s best if support is also available through multiple channels (e.g. live chat, email, or phone). This will make it easier for you to start using the program and save time on implementation.
Committing to another monthly bill as a small growing business is tough, especially if you aren’t sure if the software is going to work for your needs. When choosing scheduling software for your business, look for a free trial or a money-back guarantee before you sign up. While you can learn a lot about how a program works by reading reviews and browsing the website, it’s better to get your hands on it and see how it works in action. Try out the software before you buy to make sure it works for you and your team.
While most software subscriptions only offer monthly pricing, you can usually get a discount by paying yearly. Depending on your business, this may also be better for your billing cycle. Look for a scheduling app that allows you to pay either monthly or yearly (with a discounted yearly rate). You may even find one that allows you to switch to yearly billing after a month of testing out the software to see if it’s a good fit.
One of the main reasons you want to invest in scheduling software is to save time (not to mess around with setup and customization). While some platforms offer a complex interface with a lot of functionality, it’s easy to get lost in the settings. What’s more, they may require extra setup from your customer, which can deter them from using it at all. Great scheduling software should be easy to set up and use on an ongoing basis. It should also be easy for your customers to use in areas such as:
An app with great security is a must, especially if you’re in an industry where confidentiality is a legal requirement (e.g. healthcare or finance). Before you buy, make sure the software has sufficient security protocols to protect customer data. In some cases, you may want the option to restrict access by user or position.
While scheduling software should reduce the amount of manual effort required in managing appointments, sometimes you need to send a message to customers or staff. Great scheduling software will also make it easy to communicate with everyone involved in the meeting. Look for a scheduling platform with 2-way direct messaging, text and email reminders with easy reply features, message blasts, and follow-up message capabilities.
The best software automates a good portion of the scheduling process. You may look for great automation features such as:
Now that you know what to look for with scheduling software, let’s take a look at the 10 best scheduling software apps for small businesses on the market today:
GoReminders is your all-in-one tool for scheduling and appointment reminders. For each new appointment you create, you can easily send automated reminders via email or text to customers, staff, and even yourself. These messages can be customized to work for one-off or recurring appointments.
The platform is unique in the fact that it was built out of necessity. Both founders were struggling with missed appointments in their own small businesses and decided to build software to solve that problem.
GoReminders is designed to be quick and easy to use. That’s why it only takes 30 seconds to set up. From there, you can easily create and manage appointments, clients, and reminders with just a few easy steps. Just define the type of appointment, client name, service, time, date, and length. For regular customers, you can also set up recurring appointments and view them from all your calendars.
There’s a lot to discover with GoReminders, with plenty of features to optimize your scheduling workflow. Here are some of the most popular features:
Other valuable features with GoReminders Include:
GoReminders is a cloud-based multilingual appointment reminder service and scheduling tool best suited for small businesses (such as insurance agents, financial advisors, salons, dentists, doctors, auto repair shops, tattoo artists, etc.). Many large companies have made good use of the platform as well, including Aflac, Guitar Center, and Lowes.
Aside from being easy to set up and easy to use, GoReminders’ most powerful function is the ability to decrease no-show appointments with text and email reminders. This can save you a significant amount of time and money. Plus, if you need help making the software work for your operation, GoReminders offers great customer support to help you make the best use of all the features it has to offer.
That said, if you are looking to manage shifts for factories or internal meetings for large teams from hundreds of locations, this platform may not be the best choice. Also if you’re a software programmer looking to integrate scheduling into your own platform via API, GoReminders may not be optimized for your needs. The software is optimized for small businesses and independent contractors with small to medium-sized teams.
To make sure the software will work for your business, GoReminders offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. This way, you can test out all of the features and select a pricing tier that works best for you. After the trial, GoReminders also offers a 30-Day money-back guarantee, in case you feel the software isn’t a good fit for your business.
GoReminders offers a three-tier pricing model with two payment options: monthly and yearly. Each tier offers more features, and the yearly plan gives you 2 months free. Here’s the breakdown:
Powered by Squarespace, Acuity Scheduling is a cloud-based appointment management software that allows business owners to manage appointments and send reminders online. The software offers a 24/7 scheduling platform for freelancers and small to medium-sized businesses. Its main goal is to take the back-and-forth hassle out of scheduling appointments by allowing customers to book at any time.
Acuity Scheduling has quite a few features small businesses can take advantage of. Some of the highlights include:
Acuity Scheduling mainly targets people who offer private lessons or classes, or for owners of small businesses like bakeries or hair salons. If your business relies on video conferencing to host meetings, those integrations may be valuable to you.
While the platform claims to have a very minimalistic, user-friendly interface, it can actually be quite complex. So if you’re looking for a simple, intuitive way to manage your calendar, this may not be a good fit. While some customers report that the mobile app is more powerful than the desktop app, others complain that it still has limited functionality compared to competitors.
Acuity Scheduling offers a three-tier subscription model, with options to pay on a monthly or yearly basis. They also offer a 7-day free trial.
Here’s the breakdown:
Schedulicity promotes itself as an online marketplace. Users can list a business on their platform for customers looking to book appointments in their area. On the backend, Schedulicity gives you access to a number of scheduling and appointment management features. You can also add the Schedulicity button to your website and allow customers to book that way.
Out of the several features Schedulicity offers, the most popular are:
Schedulicity, an online appointment and calendar platform, is built for small business owners to schedule classes, workshops, and personal time. It is a simple, intuitive, and user-friendly application that functions as a calendar for mobile and desktop devices.
People who really want to take control of their marketing may do well with this app. Because they list your business on a marketplace, this may expose you to new customers online. However, it’s important to keep in mind that you’ll be competing with other businesses in your area and industry on the same platform. Besides that, it’s unclear how well Schedulicity’s marketplace is at generating leads, as most people tend to find appointment-based businesses through Google, Yelp, or the actual business website. So, it may not offer the most profitable form of visibility.
What’s more, clients and potential customers will need to create a Schedulicity account to book, cancel, or reschedule an appointment. If your client base is resistant to that level of engagement with a third-party app, this may not be a good fit for you.
Schedulicity offers two main subscription tiers: free and paid. The paid tier (Unlimited) has three sub-tiers depending on the number of users you add to your plan. For each paid tier, you gain access to all features, including everything in the free plan (with unlimited appointments) plus email and (limited) text reminders, customizable marketing tools, payment options, customizable service packages, and auto-billing.
But if you need to add more staff or locations to your plan, you’ll need to upgrade. Here’s what each tier includes:
Calendly is a popular scheduling and calendar management platform. The software’s main purpose is to automate scheduling for large teams with large volumes of meetings. Their website prominently showcases “Special features for teams who conduct meetings at scale.” They target people in sales, marketing, customer success, and similar team structures.
While Calendly may not be a great fit for every team or small business, they do offer some impressive features such as:
While Calendly can work for small businesses and independent contractors, their main audience is large teams. They offer specific solutions for sales, recruiting, information technology, and marketing. The enterprise version of their software is also great for large teams that need to juggle high volumes of meetings and multiple staff.
It’s important to note that Calendly does not offer a 2-way texting interface or follow-up/message blast capabilities. So, if you need a solution that allows you improve communications with customers in this way, Calendly isn’t a great fit.
There’s also a lot to set up in the beginning and many different preferences to manage manually. If you’re dealing with a very tech-savvy customer base, you may benefit from these features. However, if you’re looking for something quick and easy to set up and start using, Calendly may offer more than you need.
Calendly offers a five-tier pricing model. Here’s the full scope:
Mindbody is another marketplace app targeted specifically at small businesses in the fitness, salon, spa, and integrated health industries. By listing your business on their marketplace, their goal is to bring more people to your business through their app. They also provide scheduling, marketing, and payment processing tools to help you manage your appointments and grow your business.
Mindbody is mainly used by independent instructors and small business owners. Here are some of the most notable features:
With the Mindbody app, clients can easily look for nearby fitness classes, wellness appointments, and beauty appointments anywhere they travel. For health, fitness, and wellness businesses looking to grow rapidly and promote their business while managing their revenue and business analytics, this may be a good option.
However, if you are not in one of these industries, you may not receive the most effective support from their team. Mindbody is also one of the most expensive options on this list, and may not work well for small businesses with tight budgets.
With any marketplace service like this, the prospect of gaining access to an existing customer base is certainly alluring. However, it’s important to keep in mind that many people find businesses through Google, Yelp, or Facebook. Any new marketplace trying to compete with these giants may have difficulty generating enough leads to be valuable.
While there is no free trial of Mindbody available, they do allow interested customers to schedule a demo with their sales team. For paid tiers, Mindbody’s pricing varies somewhat by what type of business you own. Before you discover what each plan offers, you’ll need to select your industry (Fitness, Salon, Spa, or Integrative Health). Here’s the basic framework:
For all tiers (except Starter), building a branded mobile app is an add-on. You’ll need to pay extra for a customized mobile interface.
Like other marketplaces on this list, Vagaro promotes itself as a search engine for customers seeking appointments with salons, spas, personal trainers, professional services, and other similar industries in various locations. You can list your business on their marketplace and they’ll provide you with scheduling software and other valuable features on the back end.
At times, the customer interface for local businesses can appear disorganized. Because of this, it might not provide the best visibility for your small business. However, there are several valuable features that may make Vagaro a worthy choice.
Vagaro offers a wide range of features. Some of the most prominent include:
Vagaro may be a good fit for busy salons, spas, gyms, personal instructors, or other service-based businesses with lots of staff. If you are looking for a platform to promote your business and make use of multiple features that help you manage your entire business, Vagaro certainly has something to offer.
However, their main focus is on beauty, wellness, and fitness. If you’re in any other industry, you may have trouble benefitting from their marketplace. What’s more, very few customers search for local appointment-based businesses outside of Google, Facebook, or Yelp.
Vagaro offers a 30-day free trial with access to all features except text/email marketing and credit card processing. After that, users pay a monthly subscription fee based on the number of calendars (i.e. staff members) using the software. With all paid tiers, you’ll gain access to nearly all features.
The first tier starts at $25/month per calendar (or staff members). Then, it increases by $10/month for every new calendar or person you want to add to your plan. The highest paid plan is $85/month for 7 or more staff members.
The main tiers provide you with access to most basic features, including 1000 free email marketing messages, invoice generation, and booking forms. You can also list your business on their marketplace with any subscription tier, but in order to “get noticed” by more local leads, you’ll need to pay an extra $10 each month.
Beyond that, many other features are only accessible as premium add-ons. This includes:
10to8 provides scheduling and booking management software for large teams in a number of industries. The platform features a highly customizable calendar to manage meetings and appointments with multiple teams across different time zones. The software is powered by AI, which makes it somewhat unique among competitors.
10to8 offers some valuable features for small businesses and independent contractors. Here are some of the highlights:
Small businesses looking for a simple solution to create calendars, schedule appointments, and send reminders may benefit from 10to8. By making use of the enterprise software, you can gain access to many features designed to help you grow your business.
10to8 offers four main pricing tiers and an enterprise tier for large corporations. Each of the main four tiers offers monthly or annual billing options.
Here’s how each tier works:
Powered by Square, Square Appointments offers appointment scheduling and payment options in one platform. Square is also known for its ability to work easily from a tablet or mobile phone, which gives it a real competitive advantage on the market. Of course, the main competitive edge of Square Appointments is having your point-of-sale (POS) system and your appointment booking run on the same software. However, Square Appointments offers even more to small businesses.
In addition to its built in POS capabilities, Square Appointments has many features that can benefit small businesses, including:
If you are already using Square to process payments, upgrading to Square Appointments may be a natural progression for your business. However, the Free and Plus tiers aren’t ideal for large teams. Because these tiers don’t allow you to set multiple wage rates, customize user permissions, or set appointments with multiple staff, this can make managing teams difficult on many levels.
Square Appointments has three subscription models, including a free tier that offers a few basic features. For certain “qualifying businesses,” they also offer discounted pricing and likely unique customizations. Here’s a look at each one:
Appointlet is a simple, cloud-based, appointment scheduling platform focused mainly on increasing bookings for small businesses in the service industry. The software is optimized for a variety of team management and customer engagement needs.
While the software is somewhat simpler than other choices on this list, several features make Appointlet a worthy contender:
Appointlet specially targets teams that conduct group appointments, helping to ensure all attendees make the meeting on time. Ideal industries include sales, marketing, interviewing, customer success, and education. As such, large teams with specific objectives in these areas may benefit from Appointlet. Although Appointlet is created to function with practically all devices, it does not have a dedicated mobile app. If your business relies heavily on mobile devices to conduct business, this may not be the best choice.
Appointlet offers one free tier and two paid tiers (each with monthly or annual payment options). A 15-day free trial is available for any tier you choose. Here’s how each one works:
Setmore is advertised as a free (or cheap) scheduling software option for small businesses. It allows for 24-hour online booking and appointment reminders. It also includes payment processing options via Square and Stripe.
Setmore is simple by design, but some small businesses and independent contractors may benefit from features like the multiple third-party integrations.
Setmore is available on both desktop and mobile devices. The software’s full suite of basic features can help small businesses manage appointments and calendars in one place.
Here are the highlights:
Setmore is a good choice for many small businesses and contractors, but there are some drawbacks. If you want to be sure about the number of text reminders you can send with your plan, Setmore doesn’t offer a lot of clarity. But if your business relies on video conferencing to host appointments, their many integrations may benefit you.
Setmore’s pricing is a bit confusing, but it’s undeniably cheap across all plans. Here’s the breakdown:
When looking for scheduling software, there are certainly a lot of options to choose from. Most of the software options on the market today are geared toward specific industries or niches that may or may not work best for you.
It’s important to take a close look at your business model, your scheduling workflow, the size of your team, and the needs of your staff. What features are most important for you to optimize your day-to-day functions? Many platforms offer several useful features, but not all of them will be important for your business.
It’s also important to think about pricing. Looking at all the different pricing tiers can be overwhelming. But taking time to dig through different packages can help you see which option is the most valuable. Some pricing models may seem expensive upfront, but consider the return on investment you could generate from saving time and reducing missed appointments with the right set of features. What could you do with your business if you could use automation to take care of tedious tasks and get back more of your time?
With GoReminders, you can save time and money with just the basic suite of features. The software is flexible enough to meet the needs of many different types of businesses as they grow. It’s quick and easy to set up and even easier to use. Within just 30 seconds, you can start managing your busy schedule, reminding customers about their appointments, and growing your client base automatically.
Sign up for a free 14-day trial of GoReminders today to decrease appointment no-shows and boost your scheduling workflow.
Scheduling software for small businesses is a digital tool designed to streamline operations. It helps businesses manage and organize their scheduling activities efficiently. It allows businesses to schedule appointments, manage employee shifts, allocate resources, and eliminate no-shows.
Scheduling software offers several benefits for small businesses, including improved efficiency, increased productivity, better organization, reduced scheduling conflicts, enhanced customer satisfaction, and the ability to optimize resource allocation. It simplifies the scheduling process and saves time for business owners and employees.
Scheduling software provides real-time visibility into employee availability and existing appointments, making it easier to identify potential scheduling conflicts. It allows businesses to view employee schedules, customer appointments, and available time slots all in one place, minimizing accidental double bookings and scheduling errors.
Absolutely. Scheduling software is particularly beneficial for businesses with multiple locations or remote teams. It allows businesses to manage schedules for multiple locations from a centralized platform, ensuring efficient coordination and communication. Remote teams can access the software from anywhere, making it easier to coordinate schedules and keep everyone on the same page.
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