The business need

For businesses with mainly back-to-back customer appointments in their calendars, such as dentists, counsellors or private banking advisors, a cancelled customer visit means not only lost revenue, but also cumbersome manual rescheduling and a disrupted working day. Not being able to fill your full working day capacity also represents a lost opportunity to shorten your waiting list and offer other customers the flexibility of a last-minute appointment.

The solution

Lekab’s intelligent solution Automated Scheduling allows you to improve customer service and resource utilisation by automating the management of limited time slots. Automated Scheduling automates two-way mobile communication with your customers to enable self-service booking, reminders, re-scheduling and waiting list processing.

Integration to your booking system

The solution integrates with your calendar/booking system whether it resides in an office program, a specialized application, a standardized ERP/CRM solution or any outsourced booking service.

Self-service and reminder

Customers can choose from a selection of available time slots using their mobile phone. When the scheduled appointment approaches, the customer receives a notification by voice or SMS, prompting a confirmation or cancellation which leads to an automatic update of the organiser’s calendar and a notification to the organiser.

Notification

Following a cancellation, the customer is offered a selection of new time slots. If a new appointment is confirmed, calendar information is updated again and the reminder process triggered again when the new appointment approaches.

Waiting list processing

When an appointment is cancelled, the first person on the waiting list is contacted and offered the freed time slot. If the offer is not accepted within a given time frame, the next person on the waiting list is contacted. When a confirmation is received, calendar information is updated and the organiser receives a notification.

Key advantages

• Less no-show
• Maximize booking rate
• Customer satisfaction

SMS flow examples:

OUTBOUND SMS

• Automatic confirmation upon booking
• Automatic reminder before the meeting
• Offer new available time slots

REPLY-SMS

• Confirm and accept appointments - status will be automatically updated in the calendar
• Turn down appointment - the calendar will be automatically updated with status and a new time slot can be offered
• Free time slots - status will be automatically updated in calendar