Today an increasing number of businesses are realising the benefits of having their own online booking system built from scratch. Online booking systems are not just for large businesses, but SMEs and freelancers too. It doesn’t matter whether you own a large chain of restaurants or a small mobile hairdressing company; any business with a product or service that can be booked, reserved or rented can benefit from using an online booking system and here we will explain how.

24/7 bookings

One of the main benefits of online booking systems is that they allow customers to place their booking at a time that is most convenient for them. Using an online booking system, they can make their booking at any time of day or night, without having to worry if it’s within business hours or not. If you think about it, customers are much more likely to make a booking in the evening, as unlike when they are at work, they will have more time to surf the internet at their leisure. Offer your customers an online booking system that is always open for business and you stand the best chance at significantly increasing your number of bookings.

Save money

Did you know you could save a lot of money by having your own bespoke booking system? Rather than having to pay commission to an external booking portal every time a customer places a booking, you will simply pay the licence cost for your software and not a penny more. By having your own booking system created, you will be essentially cutting out the middleman.

Online booking systems can also save businesses time and money spent on admin. A number of processes can be automated by the software including:

• Checking your availability to avoid double bookings
• Collecting customer information
• Sending out emails to confirm booking
• Updating availability after booking has been made

Automating these processes will allow you to spend less time on admin and more time on other important business tasks.

Plan your resources
Using online booking software will also help you to plan your resources more effectively. For example, if you manage a restaurant, the online booking software will be able to tell you how many bookings you have and how many people you need to cater for. This will make scheduling staff far easier, as you will be able to work out how many people you need on the floor and how many you need in the kitchen. Better planning of resources will prevent time delays through staff shortages and enable you keep your customers 100% satisfied.

Increase profits
Investing in an online booking system will prove to offer an excellent return on investment, as not only will it help you to increase the number of bookings you take, but also allow you to make a higher profit on your appointments.

The great thing about online booking forms is that they can also be used to upsell your products or services, advertising things like add-ons and extras to customers. These may be things that your staff would forget to mention, if they were taking a booking over the phone during a busy period. Customers are also more likely to upgrade their booking and buy extras if they can do it online, as they will have more time to make their decision.

Conclusion
As you can see, there are many ways a business can benefit from investing in an online booking system. Not only will bespoke booking software increase their number of appointments and help to generate a higher profit, but it will also help with scheduling, allowing for the better planning of resources, with reduced admin costs.

Let us Help 

If you require a booking system please let us know your requirements by completing our simple form

Click here to Contact Us