E-appointment

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E-Appointment refers to the online booking of appointments over the Internet . E-Appointment enables a customer to book an appointment with a service provider around the clock .

The classic way of making appointments by calling the service provider through e-appointment becomes a self-service service for the customer. Self-service always offers two key advantages:

1. Availability: Self-service is no longer dependent on the availability of the service provider.
2. Cost savings: Self-service does not tie up any staff at the service provider.

E-Appointment makes appointments independent of the opening times and the availability of the service provider, and with E-Appointment a service provider does not need any personnel to make appointments.

An e-appointment application that is used to make appointments online can use appointment rules to control when which appointment is possible and how long the appointment lasts. This makes it possible for the service provider to assign different automated appointments . Automated waiting lists for possibly canceled appointments increase the utilization of the service providers. Sending appointment confirmations and appointment reminders via email and / or SMS increases customer adherence to deadlines .

Some solutions offer payment for the service while booking online and provide other important tools for small and medium-sized companies . E.g. it makes sense to integrate the customer management into the booking system, since customers enter their contact details anyway when booking an appointment. For regular customers by the input eliminates the contact details for each appointment booking.

E-appointment is a special form of e-commerce in the area of ​​appointment booking. Further synonyms for e-appointment are online appointment scheduling, online appointment allocation, online appointment booking and online booking system.

In addition to the area of ​​application in the classic service segments, e-appointments are also increasingly in demand in the healthcare sector . Patients book medical appointments online and are informed about or reminded about the appointment by email or SMS. Many manufacturers of doctor's practice software are now integrating the option of e-appointments into their systems, but there are also various providers who have explicitly specialized in this area.

E-appointment as a marketing tool

The first gathering of information from a potential customer over the network often happens outside of business hours or possibly quickly during working hours. He cannot be called back immediately or does not have the time to fill out a long contact form, but should still be in contact with the provider and even be able to make an appointment. This with the purpose of gaining new customers.

Due to the new applications such as social networks , online appointments are becoming more and more important in service marketing . For example, appointments are communicated to customers via prominent "choose appointments now" buttons on service provider web pages, in e-mail newsletters and in skyscrapers, regardless of the time of day and exactly when the customer is in the mood.

More and more appointments are being used online for events such as courses, lectures, parties, etc. Due to the fact that online appointments can be accessed via a link, they can be recommended to friends on social networks. The trend goes so far that appointments will also be findable in search engines in the future .

E-appointment software and sales models

E-appoinment software falls under two categories: desktop applications and web-based systems (also known as SaaS ).

Desktop applications are programs that are usually installed on the service provider's computer hardware. This often means additional work for the service provider for installation , ongoing maintenance and upgrades .

Web-based systems are usually provided by a service provider as a hosted software solution, usually via a web browser . One of the greatest advantages is the availability of any platform , operating system and device , as well as the lower total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to traditional desktop applications.

Different pricing models are available. Desktop applications are usually billed with a one-time license fee. Whereas the vast majority of web-based systems are licensed as a subscription or rental. E-Appointment applications are almost exclusively offered as SaaS and are therefore also sold as a subscription license.