Today, more than ever, the Internet plays a big role in our everyday lives. It’s no surprise that individuals and businesses alike are using the Web as a way to interact and communicate with one another. For example, last week I noticed that my home heater appeared to be malfunctioning. Later that day at work, I decided I had better do something about the problem. The challenge was that I happened to be at work and I didn’t want my ornery boss to notice me using the company phone for personal business. What could I do?
It occurred to me that at the very least I could use various search engines to locate a heating and cooling company near my home. After a few short minutes, I found one. I was writing down their phone number and thinking to myself that it would be a miracle if I could make it home in time to call and schedule an appointment before they closed for the day when I noticed that there was a link on their website where I could go and schedule my own appointment!
The heating and cooling company was using an online scheduling software system that empowered me as a customer to schedule when someone from the company would come and visit my home. I found this to be both fascinating, and incredibly liberating. I was able to take care of this matter from work without even having to pick up the phone. Best of all, I could see what days were available and I was able to pick an open time slot on a day that I knew I’d be able to get home from work earlier.
The benefits of a web based scheduling software system became apparent to me from that moment onward. From a customer’s perspective, nothing could be easier than seeing what days and times are available to schedule an appointment. From the perspective of the company, I’d imagine that their lives are made easier because everyone can see what appointments have been scheduled. No more having to chase down the person working at the front desk who might have stepped into the washroom for a moment in an effort to find out if a particular day and time was available to schedule an appointment with a customer.
Needless to say, having the ability to access a schedule from virtually anywhere in the world via the Internet is a tremendous asset to companies that use this type of system as well as their customers. Everyone benefits from the transparency and peace of mind a system like this brings with it.