Best Appointment Scheduling Software for Small Business in 2024

Users can use appointment scheduling software to keep track of all their appointments and bookings. You’ve come to the right place if you want to find platforms for making appointments that work for you. This buyer’s guide will help you understand what appointment scheduling software is and what you should look for in a good program of this kind.

Trying out the free trials or demos of the best appointment scheduling tools that the top appointment scheduling software companies offer is a good way to start. This will let you compare them to find out more about their features and see if they meet your needs. You can check to see if Calendly, Easy Busy Pets, and HoneyBook, which are all popular tools for making appointments, offer a free trial. Our reviews of appointment scheduling tools gave these apps high marks, so check them out and compare them wisely.

The best software for making appointments can be used to set up tours, special events, workshops, and classes of all kinds. They can be useful in a number of fields, such as:

• Education like schools and teachers
• Field services, such as house cleaning and pest control
• Food services like restaurants and caterers
• Auto maintenance, such as car washes and going to the mechanic
• Financial services like accountants and tax consultants
• Fitness and recreation, such as personal trainers, yoga studios, and gyms
• Health and beauty like salons and spas, and medical practices

Below are examples of the best appointment scheduling software for small businesses.

1. monday.com – automates project workflows and doubles as an appointment scheduler. It is highly collaborative, thus boosting team productivity by automating recurring and menial tasks. This saves you and your team hours.
2. Easy Busy Pets – a cloud-based, all-in-one pet care management tool. The website builder also includes a schedule manager. Customers can easily schedule a pet appointment with an online booking and scheduling system.
3. HoneyBook – a small-business management platform that helps organize your calendar, meetings, proposals, updates, and payments. Keep track of your work with easily organized files.
4. Acuity Scheduling – an appointment scheduler allowing real-time appointment viewing and booking. Clients can book appointments on your website or social media. Get notified of client appointments and set reminders, confirmations, and follow-ups.
5. SimplyBook.me – a business scheduling and booking system that lets your clients book on mobile devices and desktop PCs. After a booking is confirmed, they receive an email or SMS reminder. They can cancel anytime as well.
6. vcita Online Scheduling – a self-service scheduling and appointment tool integrated into the vcita business management suite. LiveSite lets clients book, reschedule, and register from any device. Integrate your website’s calendar to sync all appointments.
7. Workiz – improves corporate procedures with its easy-to-use field service management program. The app includes a drag-and-drop calendar for scheduling and editing service appointments. You can track client accounts and interactions as well.
8. Zen Planner – a fitness business management and scheduling software that includes attendance tracking, member performance monitoring, invoicing and payment processing, marketing functions, online scheduling, and more.
9. Skedda – online scheduling software for desks, meeting rooms, studios, co-working spaces, and sports facilities. Create and cancel bookings, and create, update, and remove client bookings. You can also restrict account bookings.
10. Rosy Salon Software – a salon and spa management software that helps improve customer relations, productivity, and profit. It provides online client scheduling, appointment setting, text and email communications, product reservations, and more.
11. Square Appointments – helps clients book, cancel, and reschedule appointments. It sends clients email reminders and allows them to view their visit history. When a client selects multiple services at once, it blocks the client’s calendar.
12. Calendly – a simple yet powerful scheduling app that saves time, boosts service sales and improves quality. Set your availability, share links, and automatically add appointments to your calendar. The app organizes group events well.
13. Checkfront – offers online booking and customer management tools. It processes bookings, reservations, and payments and integrates with online services to simplify appointment management. The system automatically backs up data to the cloud.
14. TeamUp – a gym and studio booking and payment system. It manages timetables and accepts student fees. It makes booking and payment easy. Clients can change appointments without calling or using social media.
15. YouCanBook.me – integrates with Google and iCloud calendars. Its customizable scheduling page allows customers to book appointments and receive alerts. You can control your availability with your calendar and post or email a revised booking grid.
16. 10to8 – a cloud-hosted appointment management tool for small businesses. It eliminates schedule conflicts, missed meetings, and client miscommunication. It offers 24/7 scheduling features to simplify managing schedules and appointments.
17. Bookeo – helps businesses and individuals schedule online appointments. The system makes reservations and booking easy. Embedded widgets allow bookings on your website or Facebook page. It doesn’t matter where you are.
18. Appointment Plus – rebranded as DaySmart Appointments, this schedules and manages appointments, ensuring no clashes or overlaps. It sends email and text message reminders to customers after, so no appointments are missed.
19. Zoom.ai – lets you embed a scheduling call-to-action on your website, share a scheduling link, and schedule meetings directly from email and chat platforms. It automatically books and coordinates meetings.
20. SuperSaaS – a customizable scheduling solution that you can also white-label to remove all references to SuperSaaS. It allows for custom scheduling, enabling customers to book from a list. It doesn’t charge a commission for appointments.

Downloaded to your computer or used online (SaaS).

Desktop programs are licensed and installed on the users’ computers. These systems have a lot of features and can be changed to fit your needs. But one downside is that they usually don’t have an online portal that customers or employees can use. Apps that have been installed need to be maintained, supported, and updated by the person who has them.

As a hosted software solution, a third-party provider offers Web-based systems. The fact that customers can book and schedule their own appointments over the web is a big plus.

Appointment Management Software for Customers

Customer Appointment Management, or CAM, is a type of appointment scheduling software that is used by large companies with a lot of mobile workers. It automatically schedules and sends people to their homes for appointments. SaaS is how the software is sold.

CAM software uses its own algorithms to figure out how mobile employees work so it can accurately predict when a service technician will arrive and cut the time a customer has to wait to an hour. These SaaS systems are easy to set up and use, and the pricing plans are flexible.

Online booking: Customers can make, change, or follow up on appointments using a simple drag-and-drop interface online. Some apps let people make online reservations that are then automatically synced across all of their devices.

Automated scheduling in real time: When a booking request is made, the platform can confirm or deny the appointment right away based on availability. It can also keep track of a waiting list of appointments that can be used to replace existing ones if they need to be moved or canceled.

Calendar: Users can put meetings or appointments on their calendars and share them with people in different places. This feature might also let you sync with other calendar apps, like Google Calendar, that other people use.

Automatic reminders: If a customer has an appointment coming up, you can send them an email or SMS text message to remind them.

Viewable schedules of professionals: Customers can look at the schedules of all the professionals in a company so they can make an appointment with the one they like best.

Staff scheduling: Managers can keep track of employees’ work hours well if they look at their calendars in real time.

Online payments: Some apps let you connect to electronic payment gateways so that you can get paid when customers book appointments.

Deal management and promotions: You can put promotions and deals on employee calendars that are only good for a certain amount of time to get more bookings.

Reduces the number of people who don’t show up for their appointments: Once you set it up, appointment scheduling software for small businesses keeps track of upcoming appointments and automatically calls, texts, or emails customers to remind them of their appointments. Some apps even let customers confirm appointments through these reminders. This helps reduce the number of people who don’t show up and lets companies make better use of their employees’ time.

Boosts the efficiency of the staff: During peak hours, service professionals are busy with multiple customer appointments. If they don’t use software to schedule appointments, they might end up booking the same person for two different times. This can make customers angry and slow things down. The software makes scheduling and changing appointments easy, and your staff can confirm appointments with customers, so they don’t waste time.

Boosts sales: The software automates the scheduling work, so your employees can focus on serving more customers every day and making more money that way. It works well with electronic payment gateways and makes billing faster, which helps your company get paid faster.

Helps gain and keep customers by making it easy for them to book appointments for your service: This will give them a better user experience. They don’t have to wait until regular business hours to make an appointment. They can do it at any time, anywhere. So, appointment scheduling software can help you market your services better so you can get new customers and keep the ones you already have. Surveys show that a good number of customers would rather make appointments online than by phone or in person.

Helps people find your business: You don’t have to make an appointment during normal business hours. Customers might want to make an appointment in the middle of the night, but your office is closed. By using software to set up appointments, potential customers can easily contact your business through the calendar on your website and set up an appointment.

Among the standout developments for appointment scheduling software for small businesses or enterprises, the following changes stand out:

More people adopting

Online booking systems are being used by more and more service-based businesses in all parts of the world. By using this software, businesses hope to make more money and cut costs. Also, they want to save time and make their employees more productive with software for making appointments.

Fewer free systems

A lot of vendors no longer give away free online booking software. They’ve realized that giving away free services doesn’t make financial sense because they need a steady income to keep improving the system and providing free customer service. But you can sign up for a good appointment scheduling system at an affordable price.

More mobility freedom

Customers are using tablets and smartphones more and more to make online reservations. In fact, the mobile browser Safari is becoming more popular than the desktop browser Internet Explorer. This is because many people now use iPads to schedule online appointments.

Don’t launch too soon. If you launch your online scheduling system too quickly, you could get into trouble. First, ensure that your employees, services, and resources are set up and ready to go before letting customers use the software to book.

Test the system. It’s a good idea to thoroughly test the system and schedule a few practice appointments for your employees to learn how to book. This will also let you see how your customers see the settings and change them if necessary.

Integrate your different systems. Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees tend to use multiple systems for CRM, customer communication, managing payments and invoicing, etc. They can gain a lot by putting all of their software on a single platform so that data can be shared easily. Companies should put all of their different functions into a single, powerful scheduling system to improve efficiency and output.

Some businesses, especially SMEs and field professionals, start a transaction by setting up an appointment. So, you need to pay attention to a few things about the small business appointment scheduling software you’re looking at when scheduling appointments. Here are a few examples:

• Making plans for customers. Find good software for making appointments that give you tools that make it easy to set up appointments with your customers. In this field, the self-service feature is also popular since your scheduler will probably run 24/7, and the software will be left unattended most of the time.
• Calendar Management. The appointment scheduler you choose can’t just let you add a calendar that you or your customers can use to set up appointments. You should also be able to see your calendar both in a big picture and in more detail, share it in more than one place if you need to, and easily pick the dates when you’re not available, among others.
• Robotic Reminders. Reminding clients about their appointment can cut down on the number of people who don’t show up or cancel at the last minute. Choose a solution that can send reminders through multiple channels, like SMS and email.
• Automation in real-time. When an appointment is set, your scheduling tool shouldn’t take too long to let you know. This would also give you a chance to cancel the appointment if the time is bad.
• Reliability of the cloud. Most likely, your software for making appointments will be in the cloud to be used online, available 24/7, etc. So, you need to check if the vendor has a good uptime rate, backup and security features, fast servers, and other things.
• The interface is clean and easy to use. This is especially important for a self-service appointment scheduler, where a complicated-looking calendar and form can scare away potential clients.