Benefits of Appointment Management Software

The benefits of appointment management software, when implemented into your digital transformation are countless. PriceWaterhouseCooper recently reported that 81% of banking CEOs are concerned about the speed of technological change, more than any other industry sector. Many financial organizations are scrambling to implement digital processes to innovate customer experience, and disrupt their competitors.

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Starting to seriously consider implementing enterprise appointment management? Take advantage of the latest trends, and what Coconut can do to help in our Appointment Management Data Sheet.

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The Unexpected Benefits of Appointment Management Software

With a variety of new SaaS solutions available, each promising to help improve some aspect of your financial organization, how can you determine which solution will have the most impact? To start, you have to consider which of your business goals are most important to you and carefully consider how the solution is going to help you accomplish them. Technology implementations that modernize existing processes is a far more efficient use of time and resources with the added benefit of limited disruption to your organization. As a competitive differentiator, appointment-driven businesses need to focus on creating a streamlined, high caliber customer experience. However, many financial institutions still book appointments through a manual, outdated process which forces their customers to phone a contact center and wait on hold while an agent reviews and compares staff availability between both a calendar and a separate staffing list. This process often takes several minutes to complete and resulting in poor customer experience, disrupting the customer journey. When considering new implementations, start with technologies/software that will improve your organization’s existing operational systems, such as your appointment scheduling process. This will afford you the opportunity to reduce operational costs in your contact center as well as become more accessible to customers by offering an online channel. The benefits of implementing appointment management software are important for the success of your organization, and enterprise scheduling can help you accomplish these objectives. You might be considering implementing enterprise appointment management, but you may not have the budget readily accessible at present. Or it doesn’t seem like the most important priority at the moment. If this sounds familiar, hear us out.

“Implementing appointment scheduling is not one of our priorities at this point.”

Although you may not think that implementing online scheduling is a top IT priority, the impact of this type of solution can span from your contact center to your branch locations, and it can help achieve other initiatives you have set for your business. The benefits of scheduling software are that it allows you to be a competitive player in your industry while also helping you accomplish the objectives your organization has set for the year.

Benefit #1

“Well, enterprise scheduling can help your organization accomplish its yearly objectives.”

Although implementing this type of solution may not be the top priority on your organization’s to-do list, the benefits of scheduling software can help accomplish some of its annual objectives. Here are some examples of business objectives that online scheduling can help accomplish:

• Provide customers with enhanced digital accessibility.
• Streamline the internal contact center processes.
• Reduce the cost of operations.

Tandia Financial Credit Union, implemented Coconut Software’s enterprise appointment management solution, with the goal of improving member experience by simplifying the process of scheduling appointments through their contact center. This initiative was detailed in their annual report where they stated “We completed the first phase of introducing an integrated calendar system called “Coconut Calendar” to simplify the process of scheduling appointments with all our people throughout Tandia.”

“As well as provide a competitive edge.”

31% of customers said that they would leave a current service provider if a competitor offered online scheduling. Enhancing the customer experience reduces churn and prevents your clients from switching to a competitor that offers a more efficient and accessible experience. Digital tools like online scheduling provide your business with access to operational efficiencies which are necessary for its growth, as well as provide increased access to customers, improving their scheduling experience. And these differentiators help to position your organization as an innovator.

“We don’t have the budget for a new technology implementation right now.”

Although enterprise scheduling may not have been taken into consideration when creating your operations budget, the money that it will save your organization can easily pay for itself. Here’s how.

Benefit #2

“The benefits of appointment management software include drastically increasing the productivity of your business.”

Time is money and optimizing staff time directly enhances the productivity of your business. Here are some ways in which appointment scheduling allows your staff to optimize their time:

• Frees branch staff up from answering the phone to book appointments
• More timely services due to reduced walk-ins
• Reduces idle time due to no-shows

“As well as increase the number of booked appointments, boosting your businesses revenue.”

Whether your organization is implementing online scheduling in its contact center and/or creating an online appointment scheduling channel, both tactics will allow your business to drive more appointments to its branches. On average, our customers noted a 12.5% increase in booked appointments after implementing an online appointment management solution. Your call center will be set up with an efficient scheduling process that will result in your reps being able to accommodate more customers in a day, leading to more appointments being driven to your organization’s branches. Offering an online channel also allows your customer to have the luxury of scheduling appointments at their own convenience. Some of our clients in financial and business services organizations have found that after implementing an online scheduling solution they were able to start capturing more appointments after the hours of operations, scheduling 41% of their appointments between the hours of 5 pm and 9 am.

“I don’t have the staff resources at the moment for an additional implementation.”

Technology implementations are notorious for eating up your staff resources, as well as much of your own time, and this may be a barrier in your mind to considering the solution. What you may not realize though, is that implementing Coconut Software’s appointment management solution requires less of your organization’s internal support than launching many other types of SaaS solutions.

Benefit #3

“With Coconut, you can complete the implementation quickly with little staff resources.”

If a scheduling software was not planned into your yearly schedule then it is understandable that your organization would be hesitant to commit to a new implementation that would take your internal operations team away from other tasks. However, Coconut Software’s enterprise scheduling solution is an easy implementation and does not take much time, and uses few of your staff resources. Our Professional Services team is present to support you every step of the way. The only staff resources that we require is a Project Manager from your team to lead the implementation in your organization. This implementation process, when working with Coconut, can be completed within 5-8 weeks, and our support and onboarding team will guide you every step of the way to ensure that your transition to using Coconut is as smooth as possible.

“And, once implemented it requires few resources to maintain.”

After implementation, the system requires very few resources in terms of maintenance. Application administrators will have to maintain the scheduling system in terms of updating data. There will be a customer success manager dedicated to your organization that will be available to ensure your success after implementing the scheduling solution, and they will meet with a member of your business team on a quarterly basis to ensure the solution is providing the best results for your organization. Enterprise scheduling software offers multiple benefits for appointment-driven organizations who are looking to improve their customer scheduling experience, streamline operations in their contact center, and branch locations but have few staff resources and time to manage implementation. As many of our clients have seen, the benefits of a scheduling software drastically outweigh the objections and the return on investment begins to become evident shortly after implementation. What is accomplishing your organization’s objectives and increasing your businesses revenue worth to you?

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What Next?

Starting to seriously consider implementing enterprise appointment management? Take advantage of the latest trends, and what Coconut can do to help in our Appointment Management Data Sheet. Ready to get started? Schedule a consultation today.