Online Booking Systems: More Than A Nice-To-Have

You’re a sole trader running your aesthetics clinic, slowly building up your patient base and juggling your ‘other’ job. You manage your bookings yourself and while you’ve thought about investing in an online booking system, it’s not a priority. You’re not confident using new technology and, well, your phone calendar works fine, so what’s the point?

We could throw a load of stats at you about how 40% of bookings are done outside of working hours or how 46% of bookings are lost because businesses don’t have an online booking system or how 47% of people prefer to book online… but let’s make it more relevant to you because you’re cynical of figures like this - they only matter for bigger businesses or are designed to sell you something and it feels meaningless, right? Okay, let’s see about that…

Why Are You Wasting So Much Time? 

Let’s take a typical example of a patient. Holly is 47, works full-time, has three kids and a busy social life. She regularly has Botox and skin treatments. Holly typically sorts out all her ‘personal’ admin around 9pm, after she’s cleared up the kitchen, has put the washing machine on and her husband suggests watching something on Netflix - at which point she picks up her phone, scrolls through instagram, buys a cushion on Etsy, emails the after-school club to see if they’re running in the holidays, transfers the money she owes to the gardener and chats to her friends on WhatsApp. She is reminded she’s got a girls’ weekend away coming up in a few weeks and Holly decides she wants to look and feel good for that. She sends you a WhatsApp to see if you’ve got any appointments in the next week. You then have a look through your diary and tell her you’ve got a slot a week Thursday at 4pm. Holly can’t do that, so you spend the next hour going through dates and times you can both do. You book her in.  A couple of days pass and Holly’s boss schedules a meeting for the same time she’s booked in with you. The following night the whole text messaging ping-pong starts again. That’s two evenings you’ve wasted sorting out one appointment.

Wouldn’t it have been faster, easier and better for Holly and for you, if Holly could have looked at your diary and availability on her phone and booked herself in in? Wouldn’t it have been better for Holly to go into her client area after she realised she couldn’t make the appointment and rescheduled herself?

By not using an online booking system you’re wasting your patients’ time and your own time. Shunning technology is, simply, very very inefficient. 

Why Are You Turning Away New Patients? 

Let’s take another example. Heather is 34, single and ready to mingle. She commutes by train to work and does a lot of her personal admin in the morning during her journey. Heather has decided her forehead lines have got worse and she’s feeling less confident about some hot dates she has coming up, she’s a tad concerned that her real self isn’t going to match up with her Tinder self and she wants to look as good as she feels. 

Heather starts Googling Botox practitioners in her area.  Heather finds your website, she likes the look and feel of you, she has a look at some of your before and after photos on Instagram and is impressed -  but you don’t have a booking link in your bio. Heather goes back to your website  but there’s only a telephone number to call to book. Heather hates chatting on the phone, she’s on a train and doesn’t want other people to hear her and, besides, it’s 8am, your clinic isn’t open yet. She discounts you and carries on with her research. She finds one of your local competitors on Glowday, checks out their before and after photos and reads a bunch of reviews from other patients too. She clicks to check availability and by the time her train pulls in, she’s booked a consultation for the following day. 

By not using an online booking system, you’re turning away new patients and new money.

Why Are You Throwing Away Money?

Finally, let’s talk about Helen.  Helen is a long-term patient of yours. Helen often cancels the night before because ‘she’s skint’ and at times, simply hasn’t turned up, because she’s “so sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I totally forgot!”. Helen is flaky but she knows you don’t mind (although you’re actually furious every time it happens) and it doesn't have consequences for her. So she doesn’t really think about it being a problem, because you’re nice and you don’t say anything and because she booked in with you by text message, you haven’t collected a deposit. 

Next time Helen decides to book in with you, she has to use your  online booking system, which means Helen has to enter her debit card details to secure her booking. With the new system, you have set a late-cancellation and ‘no-show’ fee for any patient. 

Helen doesn’t turn up to her appointment. Yet this time your booking system collected 20% of the treatment fee for you and stuck it in your bank. And from that day on, Helen always attends her appointments or cancels with plenty of notice.

By not using an online booking system, you’re loosing money.

Why Aren’t You Reminding Patients?

Poor old Helen. She’s so forgetful. But half the time it is a genuine slip - she’s so busy caring for her Mum and working at the hospital. She never forgets her dentist appointment though, because she has to book online for that and the system automatically sends her a reminder a few days (giving her the chance to reschedule if she needs to) and the day before so it’s top of mind for her. 

By not using an online booking system, you’re not giving your patients a great service.

Millennials Aren’t Young Now!

The millennial generation is typically defined as being born between 1981 and 1996, and its oldest members are turning 40 this year!  They are now often broken up between younger millennials (25 to 32 years old) and older ones (33 to 40 years old). Millennials form a huge part of your core target market! What’s more, this age group is a major global economic force, they have money to spend! And guess what? Millennials not only prefer to do everything online, they EXPECT to do everything online. Coming up behind them, Gen Z’ers, the elders of whom will be 24 now would prefer to have their Botox virtually, if they could.

If you’re not investing in online booking, you’re not investing in your business, your future, your profitability and your success! 

Get Online Booking Set Up Now

To find out more about how Glowday PRO is much more than just a booking system, read this and discover how we can help you run and grow your entire business.