Microsoft Bookings Wants to Help Customers Schedule Meetings

A business thrives when customers can easily connect with their staff. For a service store, consulting firm, accounting firm or any business that relies on fixed meetings with clients, you can increase revenues if you program intelligently, and you can hurt the profits if you are running a three-track circus. Customers want a simple way to schedule time with a consultant, technician or other expert, as they are also busy and overloaded most of the time.

As we are all inundated with email and social networks, not to mention meeting requests at work, Microsoft created an application that helps customers schedule meetings directly with their employees. Microsoft Bookings is a smart application because it cuts the noise, but you may not know all the benefits and how it can help your company more, especially since there are other options for programming.

Greater benefits

It is not a good sign (although it is for Microsoft, since the market is so mature) when the main competition for any application is a blackboard in an office. Microsoft representatives told Business News Daily that many small and medium businesses use a whiteboard in an office to communicate about schedules, mainly because it tends to work. Some other tools are available (see below), but smaller companies sometimes also use Microsoft Excel for programming.

The biggest benefit is speed. Customers see a simple website that allows them to book the meeting, reschedule the appointment and receive reminders by email. Internally, each employee has a place to see which appointments are on the agenda. In fact, you may find it easier to schedule Bookings appointments on behalf of clients because the main benefit is how employees can consult the same calendar.

You can run Reserves as a stand-alone site or insert the application into your own company's website, making it appear that you yourself have encoded the programmer. Microsoft allows you to add custom marks to create a consistent appearance. You can add custom fields, such as an alternate email for the customer or if a down payment is required. Everyone from a CPA to a carpet installer can rely on the application, and it's simple and quick to use.

Prices

The most important decision you should make when it comes to reservations is if you want to stop using an existing spreadsheet or whiteboard. Some companies have difficulty adopting something new if the current system works, so it is part of their evaluation process.

Here's the good news: if you're already using Microsoft 365 Business or Office 365 Business Premium, you already have access to reservations. If you are not using one of those plans, basic pricing plans start at around $ 12.50 per month per user for access to the letter.

Competition

Another decision is whether to consider a more elaborate tool. Reservations do not offer many extras, only the custom fields that you can add to the planner. A much more advanced tool, such as Square Appointments, costs $ 30 per month for a user, but if you add more seats, it can increase to $ 50 per user or more per month. MindBody is another more advanced option, but prices tend to be even higher as the feature set increases.

With Bookings, there is an application for iOS and Android, and the interface is clear and easy to use, but it is not a high-end application. Square Appointments and MindBody, for example, allow you to add an electronic commerce component to sell products as part of the programming process.

However, reservations can be a great option for a company that needs simple programming without complications, and customers will not have to discover advanced features.