Giving appointments by phone or WhatsApp works until it stops working: calls while you are with another client, messages at eleven at night and slots left empty because nobody confirmed. Online booking does not get rid of the phone, but it takes the repetitive part away from it.

How it works

The client goes to your website, sees the free slots, picks one and leaves their details. The appointment appears in your calendar and they receive a confirmation. Before the appointment they get a reminder, with a link to change or cancel it if they cannot make it.

Behind it there is a calendar (for example Google Calendar) and a booking tool (such as Calendly or Cal.com, or a custom-built one) that talk to each other so the same time is never offered twice.

Which businesses it suits

  • You work by appointment: consultations, treatments, classes, visits.
  • Your services have a more or less fixed duration.
  • Some of your clients write to you outside your opening hours.
  • You spend time every day fitting the diary together.

It suits less well if every appointment needs a conversation beforehand to find out what is required. In that case a short “first call” booking can work, and the rest is still arranged by hand.

What you have to decide first

  1. What can be booked. A short list of services with their duration. Five clear ones are better than twenty similar ones.
  2. When. Your real opening hours, the breaks and the minimum notice with which you accept a booking.
  3. With whom. If there are several of you, whether the client chooses a person or is given the first free slot.
  4. Which details you ask for. Just enough to serve them: name, contact and, if needed, a comment.
  5. What happens if they cannot come. Until when they can change the appointment by themselves.

Common mistakes

  • Two diaries. If you keep writing appointments on paper as well as in the calendar, sooner or later they clash. Everything must go through the same calendar.
  • Too many steps. Every extra screen means people dropping out. Service, time, details and done.
  • No reminder. It is the part that helps most to get people to show up, and the one most often left unconfigured.
  • Hiding the button. “Book” should be visible on every page, on mobile too.

And those who prefer to call?

Let them keep calling. Online booking lives alongside the phone: you put that appointment in the same calendar and the system stops offering that slot. Over time, more and more clients usually book by themselves.

If you want to see an example you can try, there is one in booking website.