Biggest Mistakes Businesses Make When Setting Up Appointments

Jan 13
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3
min Read
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Business Texting

Businesses work hard to get and keep appointments, but there are some things to watch out for as you interact with customers.

Make sure you start off on the right foot when setting an appointment by meeting the customers where they want to be.

Text, don’t call.

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is to rely heavily on calls to set appointments. This is not the case anymore.

We have seen a dramatic change in the way customers interact with businesses in the past 18 months, and it all comes down to simplicity and convenience.

Customers want you to text them. In fact, a recent study showed that nearly 90% of customers would rather interact with businesses via text instead of calling.

Set up a system.

Another major mistake is that businesses don’t have a plan in place if customers want to text.

This can be as simple as setting up a texting platform for them to use, or making sure you are offering them the option to text, so you are not limiting the number of leads coming in.

Give customers a choice.

You don’t have to cold call every potential customer, give them a choice to text you on their own.

Through the Kenect platform, we can add a button to your website, allowing the customer to click on it and text in questions about certain products, and set up an appointment with you.

This takes some of the burden off your sales team, but also increases the likelihood of a sale. If a customer texts in on their own after looking at the product, that means they are already interested and likely to buy.

Route appointments correctly.

This is a mistake that is easily corrected. Once you have someone click the “text us” button on your website, what happens?

We suggest that you be proactive to make sure the customer sticks around.

First, create an automatic text that is sent to the person who sent the text that thanks them for contacting you.

Next, make sure a real person is placed into the conversation within seconds to help manage the appointment and ensure that the person is real and is serious.

Double check scheduled appointments.

Once you have talked with the customer, be clear about the date and time of the appointment you set with them. This may seem like a simple thing, but it’s very important.

Too often conversations about appointments are left vague and frustrating.

Make sure you also follow up on the appointment with the customer as a reminder, especially if it’s set a few days in advance.

You want the customer to know you are on top of things, and to make sure they show up and complete the sale.

Learn more about appointment setting here.

Get texting for your business