How Jackson Hewitt Increased Scheduled Appointments With Coconut Software

By Kelly Wilson - Sep 17, 2018

How Jackson Hewitt Increased Scheduled Appointments With Coconut Software

With the goal of reducing churn and increasing appointment scheduling volume, Jackson Hewitt introduced Coconut Softwares appointment management software.

The Result? An increase in appointments scheduled by 41%, and a decrease in churn by 8%.

Interested in learning more? Download Coconut Software Appointment Management Data Sheet today.

As an appointment-driven business responsible for over 2 million tax returns each year, Jackson Hewitt implemented Coconut Software to enhance the appointment scheduling process for both their customers as well as their staff.

Shara Abrams, Senior Vice-President of Franchise Operations at Jackson Hewitt took the time to answer a few questions about their appointment scheduling implementation and share some insights into how this solution has helped enhance their appointment scheduling process.

What Were the Appointment-Scheduling Pain Points That Led You to Seek a Solution?

Abrams – “A few years ago, we set a goal to book one million appointments and the campaign worked–we had a huge uptick in people calling our contact center and branches to book appointments. But the higher-than-normal contact volume paired with the inefficient appointment scheduling system we had in place really crippled operations. We were not able to accommodate the high contact volume, and it created a bad experience for our customers.

Internally, we had previously been using our own homegrown appointment management software, but it didn’t provide any reporting or insight into booked, kept or missed appointments, or who those appointments were with.

This lack of visibility into upcoming appointments made it very challenging to manage our business at the executive and franchise level and often resulted in customers walking in and surprising employees at our branches … “Hi, I have an appointment” and “Oh really? Welcome, sit down.”

What Were You Looking for in Your Appointment-Scheduling Software?

Abrams – “We were looking for a solution that would allow our clients to book appointments when they wanted and with whom they wanted, but also improved our back-end management that could replace our old, homegrown, outdated software.

We needed to be able to give management visibility to upcoming appointments, as well as reporting that displayed how many appointments were being booked, missed, kept and completed.”

Why Choose Coconut Software?

Abrams – “We reviewed over 20 different software vendors to find a solution that would be right for our business and ultimately chose Coconut because of their flexibility and their desire to collaborate with us to meet our needs.

Coconut was completely flexible in coming up with creative solutions within their software to meet our needs and also meet our clients’ needs. Their solution allowed us to know what appointments we have upcoming so that we can prepare for staffing, how many appointments we had booked that were missed, and allowed our tax pros to be prepared because they knew ahead of time what appointments they had booked for the day.”

How Did You Roll Out Coconut Software’s Solution?

Abrams – “Adoption of the implementation by franchise owners was very important to us. To ensure that tax preparers used Coconut, we set up the solution to track key franchise performance metrics. Knowing that they’d be evaluated on completed, canceled, and no-show appointments, franchisees saw the importance of ensuring that their staff used the software rigorously.

We kicked off customer adoption by making the appointment scheduling calendar link accessible from as many touch points as possible, such as our website, tax return portal, as well as email communications.”

What Benefits Have You Experienced Since Implementing Coconut Software?

Since implementing Coconut we have seen a 41% increase in booked appointments and an 8% increase in kept appointments. While it’s great to get appointment scheduling, kept appointments equal tax returns and that’s where we make money!

This solution has also helped improve the customer experience which continues to be a real priority. Jackson Hewitt implemented Coconut Software’s enterprise appointment scheduling solution to enhance the appointment scheduling process for their customers, as well as improve back-office efficiencies.