We’ve talked a lot this month about setting appointments at your SMB via text message. In this blog post we’re going to provide 8 examples of HOW to do it. These are taken directly from our customers setting appointments with their customers.

Appointment Setting: Understanding Samples and Templates.

1) Reaching Out to Past Customers –

Perhaps the most often-overlooked appointment setting method is reaching out to old customers. In a dealership, this could include texting people who bought from you in the last year using Kenect’s new Broadcast Messaging feature. You could text everyone who bought from you in the last 24 months (or whatever time period you decide) at the same time. The text could read something like this:

“This is Jim at Jim’s Powersports. We hope you’re enjoying your new side-by-side. It’s January right now and we’re not terribly busy. Let’s get you in for a Spring Service right now so you don’t have to wait in line with everyone else in May.”

Send that and you’ll have your service department full all winter.

2) Setting the Appointment with Inbound Leads –

This is the most frustrating thing for SMBs around America: someone comes to your website, expresses interest, but then doesn’t actually set an appointment or do a consultation. They just stop replying and you never hear from them. They vanish.

How can you get them to set an appointment and show up to that appointment.

I’ll share an example at a law firm.

Law Firm – In this example someone has texted your website and asked a question: “Do you guys do personal injury work? I was in a car accident.”

You reply and say that you do, in fact, do personal injury work. And then they don’t reply.

Instead of just letting them disappear. Start asking them direct and open-ended questions:

“When did your accident occur? How badly were you hurt?”

If they still don’t respond, go directly to the appointment ask: “Let’s jump on a video chat right now and talk through it. I can get things moving this afternoon.” Or “I have time at 2 and at 4:30 today for a call, which works better?”

3) Setting the Appointment with Someone Who Wants to ‘Shop Around’ –

Retail, event venues, and even dealerships and law firms see this: the dreaded price shopper. This person will text or call in and say “how much for x?”. You give them a price and then they say “thanks, I’ll text/call you back.”

Spoiler: they’re never going to call you back in their natural life.

How can you get them to set the appointment then and there?

Here are a couple of tested tactics:

- “I’ll lower that price by 10% if you book with us right now.” – Make them feel like they’re getting a deal and that if they stop texting you, they’ll be losing out on something big.

- “Let’s get you set up to come in right now, I’m here for the rest of the afternoon, what time can we expect you?”

Far, far too many businesses just give the price out and then let the person hang up the phone or stop the text. If you do that, you’ll never get them as a customer or client.

‍