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“You need to use online scheduling for your business.” If you’re in event planning, you’ve probably heard that advice more times than you can count.
Let’s face it: Event planning often means juggling countless phone calls, overlapping meetings, and missed appointments. But what if you could offload some of these tasks to an online scheduling system that can handle them before a real, breathing human ever does?
So after days of research, YouTube binge-watching, and case studies deep dives, it’s time to share our top reasons why online scheduling could be a game-changer for your event planning business.
Grab some popcorn your favorite juice and get ready to dive in!
What Roles Does Online Scheduling Have In The Modern Event Planning business?
Time is money, and so are resources like support agents and training, and this is where online scheduling comes into play. An online scheduling system can significantly cut these planned costs, but how exactly does that work, you ask? Here’s the lowdown:
Online scheduling tools will make it a no-sweat for attendees to book their spot and therefore reduce double-bookings and missed appointments. And because online scheduling software are designed specifically for managing schedules, they make it easy-peasy for your teams to bring all that matters, including event space, to a single platform and seamlessly update and work with the data.
However, using online scheduling in your event planning is not just about your in-house teams. Your clients will love how easy it is for their attendees to secure their appointments with just a few clicks!
And if you thought that’s all, gear up! Most appointment scheduling software can integrate with third-party messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal. The takeaway from all of this? Guests can confirm and reschedule their appointments right from their favorite messaging app, eliminating the headaches of learning new systems. You can even integrate with text alert software so that you can reach people directly via SMS.
Does online scheduling get any better than that? And the answer is, yes, it does! And that’s what we’ll discuss in our next point.
Why Is Online Scheduling Essential For the Success of Your Event Planning Business?
Now that we have established how online scheduling is revolutionizing the event planning industry, let’s explore some more reasons why it is essential for the success of your event planning business.
Drives more traffic from Google
Google quickly realized that people prefer engaging with local businesses. So, if you build a strong local presence, search engines will likely reward you with valuable organic traffic.
Ranking in local search results is all easier said than done. But one thing is certain, using a top-notch appointment scheduler can give you a significant edge in the SERPs.
For those out of context, high-quality scheduling software can integrate with Reserve with Google (RwG) to let event prospects find and book events (or event planners) nearby directly from search results, easy-peasy for them—and for you!
It’s safe to say that without strong scheduling software, managing these attendees’ bookings would have taken hours and hours.
Decreases no-shows rate
Will there be no-shows and cancellations in the events you plan? Absolutely. And that’s true in quite literally any event, and that’s a tough challenge because you schedule staff based on the number of appointments, and no-shows can completely mess up your plans.
But if you’re looking to reduce no-shows in the events you organize, an online booking system is still your best bet! Tools like SimplyBook.me come with real-time reminder features that automatically notify clients about the event time and location.
You won’t have to worry about sending those reminders yourself. And while it might not eliminate all no-shows, it will definitely help lower the rate.
Even better, online booking systems let clients cancel or reschedule their bookings on their own (yes, you heard that right!). This makes life a bit easier for your staff, letting them focus on more important tasks instead of dealing with those time-consuming details.
Reduces human errors
Hate to say it, but if you’re still managing appointment bookings manually, you’re definitely falling behind. Not only does this leave room for human error, but it can also cause poor client experiences, which can seriously hurt your business’s reputation—and we’re not exaggerating.
Online scheduling to the rescue!
Scheduling systems come with built-in automations that feel like magic! Clients and employees can share their availability, and the system manages the rest—finding the best time for both, sending automatic reminders and logging customer details. It takes all the heavy lifting off your plate.
Offers round-the-clock accessibility
Another great thing about online scheduling is the accessibility and convenience it offers for both clients and planners.
Appointment bookings can happen round the clock without having to wait for office hours. This flexibility means they can secure their spots when it’s most convenient for them. The end result of all this? A better customer experience and more people showing up at your events.
For planners, this constant availability means less time spent on endless back-and-forth with clients and vendors, which prevents them from being tied to their phones or computers during their working hours.
Boosts revenue
Of course, boosting revenue deserves a spot on this list, and it’s not really hard to see why!
Scheduling systems offer real solutions for your business from the minute you and your clients announce the event until you collect the final customer feedback. They manage appointment confirmation, waitlists, reminders, reschedules, cancellations, we could go on, but you get it.
Some scheduling tools even go the extra mile by integrating with payment gateways, so you never miss out on payments (for paid events), and just as you’d expect, when guests pay upfront, they’re way more likely to show up and stick to their appointments.
But revenue alone doesn’t tell the whole story, and that’s why we’ll dig deeper and explore some success stories of companies that use online scheduling in their event planning.
Success Stories of Event Planning Businesses
Now comes the fun part!
We could go on about the benefits of online scheduling for your event planning business, but nothing beats real-life examples. That’s why we’ve gathered some success stories to back us up on this.
Enough talk. Let’s start our exploration!
Diversified Communications ULC
Our first success story today is from Diversified Communications ULC, a Canadian global media company and the brains behind big medical conferences like Pri-Med Canada. This heavy-hitter event planner got it right when it adopted an event app to simplify registration and scheduling processes for clients and vendors.
The online scheduling system empowered Diversified Communications ULC to bring the data of over 3,600 attendees and 200 companies into one central platform.
Now, for the numbers! This strategy allowed the company to save $8,000 on printing and shipping costs, but that’s not all. The event app also boosted attendee engagement and increased adoption rates by 155% (yeah, 155%).
GetWellNetwork
Continuing with our stories of healthcare, GetWellNetwork, a well-known healthcare tech company, also resorted to an event app to manage attendance at its biennial GetConnected Conference and avoid any technical issues or manual appointment errors.
Using online scheduling to optimize the event experience of attendees was a terrific idea for GetWellNetwork because this move took the GetConnected Conference to a whole new level in terms of attendee engagement, and numbers don’t lie: 73% of attendees affirmed using the app to secure their spot. Just mind-blowing!
Zoomtopia 2023 by Zoom
Saved the best for last! The giant video conferencing application Zoom (Yes, even Zoom) used an online scheduling system to coordinate both in-person and virtual attendees at their annual Zoomtopia conference in 2023.
The integration between the booking system and the eminent virtual platform allowed participants to automatically receive all session details, such as registration information and session tracks, right in their email inbox.
If these success stories aren’t a cue for you to start using online scheduling in your event planning business today, we don’t know what is.
Wrap Up
That’s all for now. We hope your creative battery is recharged!
We’ve shared with you the benefits of online scheduling and real-life success stories of some well-known brands. But a mere reading won’t do much if you don’t actually take action and start implementing online scheduling in your event planning.
And if you’re looking for even more insights on this topic, plenty of our case studies discuss the impact of online scheduling. Go have a look at the SimplyBook Blog.
Author Bio:
Amine Boussassi is an SEO content writer who has been featured on big names like ActiveCampaign and ClickUp, and Flippa. He is enthusiastic about the SaaS world, no-code solutions, project management tools, and everything in between. His overarching mission revolves around empowering companies to achieve high rankings on Google.
Find me on LinkedIn.
