- Calendar And Scheduling Features
- Client Self-Scheduling
- Intake Forms
- Contact Management
- Reports
1. Calendar And Scheduling Features
The software boasts of a robust calendar system. It syncs schedules across multiple calendars, including Google Calendar, iCloud, and Microsoft Outlook Calendar. This way, when you add an appointment to Acuity’s calendar, it automatically updates any external ones that you use. The calendar works well if you have a regular work schedule or otherwise. You can set your availability to show customers the same working hours for every day of the week. Alternatively, you can define different working hours for different days of the week too.
If you want to look in-demand to your customers, the app has two unique settings that allow you to do just that. First, with the ‘Make Me Look Busy’ setting, you can show customers only a small proportion of your available time slots. After you choose the percentage of slots you want to hide, the software shows only the rest to your customers, making you look all booked up and busy. Second, you can choose to show customers open slots only before or after an existing appointment. This feature is especially useful if you offer different time slots to your customers but want to ensure that they book appointments only in a single time slot on a given day.
Furthermore, you can block off gaps before or after each appointment so that you have enough time to freshen up before or prepare for an upcoming client session. Another nice feature is that you can create unlimited types of appointments in Acuity. You can choose between a one-on-one meeting, group event, one-time service, and public or private appointment types, to name a few.
2. Client Self-Scheduling
Using Acuity, you can create a client scheduling page where customers can book, cancel, or reschedule their appointments. You can choose to have your customers access this page either through the software or embed it within your website. Importantly, the software allows you to customize the appearance of your client scheduling page such that it matches the rest of your website. You can change everything from the logo to the color and font of the page.
Additionally, the app automatically displays appointment times in the customer’s time zones, a feature that prevents any schedule mix-ups from happening. Then, every time a client books an appointment, the software notifies you instantly, so you never miss anything. Furthermore, you can set up the software to send customers email and text reminders of upcoming appointments. Due to its integration with various payment gateways, you can also choose to receive payments and tips from your customers directly through the software, right when they book, further reducing the chance of a no-show.
The software also has several marketing tools that you can use to attract and retain customers. You can offer your customers exclusive deals with a holiday, membership, or group discount. Additionally, the app allows you to create and sell gift certificates and packages to your clients as well.
3. Intake Forms
The software’s intake form feature is another powerful tool in its kitty. This time-saving feature allows you to gather valuable client information beforehand, speeding up proceedings on the day of the appointment. The best part of this feature is that you can ask an unlimited number of questions in each form, allowing you to collect in-depth customer data beyond just their names and email address. Besides this, the app also offers users a variety of intake form types to choose from. These include text boxes, drop-down lists, checkbox lists, and yes/no choices. You can even ask customers to upload images, files, or documents through your intake form.
Alternatively, you can set your intake form to be only for internal use. In this case, the forms, though attached to a customer’s appointment, need to be filled out on the admin side. This feature is an excellent tool for medical professionals who need to fill in SOAP notes after examining a patient.
4. Contact Management
The scheduling software’s client module stores all your customer’s data in one central location so you can easily search for information. The app’s powerful search tool pulls up data by a first or last name, email address, and phone number. You can also filter search results to show inactive customers or recent appointments. Once you select a customer, the app displays their appointment and payment history along with all the information collected on them through their intake forms, giving you a holistic view of your client. You can add customers, edit client information, and delete inactive ones through this client module too.
5. Reports
Acuity Scheduling allows you to generate several reports in four main departments:
- Appointment reports: It gives you an analysis of all your appointments. These reports can be segregated by appointment types such as paid appointments, no-shows, or canceled appointments.
- Revenue: This breaks down your profit margins showing you which events generated the most revenue and which were unprofitable.
- Users: These reports show you how many appointments were self-scheduled by your customers against those booked by your employees.
- Add-ons: Lets you see how well your marketing strategies have worked in attracting clients
- Tips: Reports on suggestions received through the software by customer and appointment type.
