- Naveen S G
Top 3 Free Appointment scheduling software for small business
Updated: May 28
If you're a small business owner, then you know how important it is to stay organized and on top of your schedule. One way to do this is to use appointment scheduling software. Appointments take time, but scheduling shouldn’t. Appointment scheduling software is a great way for small businesses to manage customer appointments. This type of software can help businesses keep track of appointments, schedule reminders, and even send out automatic confirmation emails. Appointment scheduling software can help businesses save time and money, and it can even help improve customer satisfaction.
A meaningful and memorable experience starts with a connection and flexible appointment scheduling software is the key to building a professional connection with your customers. It helps to build quick and hassle-free connections with your customers.
Using online appointment scheduling software, you can make your business bookable 24/7. Publish your booking page wherever clients find you - Embed Leadmonk on your website or Add Leadmonk to your emails, text messages, WhatsApp, or social media profiles. Using text and email reminders, you can reduce no-shows.
Small businesses from the following industry verticals greatly benefit from the appointment scheduling solution:·
Doctors, Dentist, and Chiropractors
Salon, Spa, and other Beauty Services
Professional Services - Legal, Accounting, Real Estate, and others
Entrepreneurs
Freelancers
Consultants
What to Look for In Appointment Booking Software
As you know not everyone is comfortable using an email address. Think about people in the informal sectors, retired professionals who are not net savvy. For them, it will be friction if they are asked to book appointments using only an email address.
A mobile number has come to be widely accepted as a mode of customer identification in the mobile-first digital world. The flexibility to book an appointment using a mobile number or email address without the back and forth reduces the booking friction for the customers and makes the process much simpler for everyone involved.
When choosing appointment scheduling software for small businesses, there are several important factors to consider.
First, the software should be compatible with your business existing calendar system such as Google/GSuite/Outlook/Office 365 Calendars.
Second, it should be user-friendly and allow small business owner or their clients to easily schedule, reschedule, and cancel appointments.
Third, it should offer flexibility in terms of scheduling options.
Forth, it should give the flexibility to your clients to book appointments using their email address or mobile number without the back-and-forth messages or emails.
Fifth, it should have a built-in email and text message reminder system to help ensure that appointments are not forgotten or missed.
Finally, it should be affordable.
Ease of Use
When it comes to appointment scheduling software, a user-friendly interface is key. You want a system that is easy to use, so you or your clients can easily schedule, reschedule, and cancel appointments. You want an interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate. Another important feature to look for is the ability to customize the software to meet your specific needs. Make sure you choose software that can be easily customized to fit your business.
Appointments Scheduling Flexibility
It should give the flexibility to your clients to self-schedule online/in-person appointments without the back-and-forth email or messages. It should be user-friendly and allow the small business owner or their clients to easily schedule, reschedule, or cancel appointments.
Meet one-on-one or in a group, or as a team. Meet online or in person. Scheduling software should support all these appointment combinations.
Appointment reminders are essential for ensuring that your appointments go off without a hitch. Look for a system that offers text and email reminders, so you and your clients never forget an appointment again.
It should have the option to collect payments when appointments are booked to reduce no-shows and to have high-quality appointments.
Customization and Automation
Booking software should also support you to publish your scheduling links wherever clients find you – Embed booking links on your website or add booking links to your emails, text messages, WhatsApp, or social media profiles.
It should have a feature such as a custom intake form to collect the details you want from your clients as part of appointment booking.
It should have the capability to present your preferred availability instead of just all your availability. Also, an option to set a lead time to make sure you get enough time to prepare for your appointments.
It should support automatic time zone detection and video conference features for overseas clients. Also, it should have the option to fix the time zone for in-person appointments so that invitees see the availability in your time zone.
Top 3 Free Appointment scheduling software for small business
There are many great appointment scheduling software programs available, but which one is right for your small business? Here are the top 3 appointment scheduling software programs for small businesses, based on features, ease of use, and price.
1. Leadmonk
A mobile number has come to be widely accepted as a mode of customer identification in the digital world. Leadmonk gives the flexibility to schedule an appointment without needing a customer's email address, as specifying a customer’s mobile number can do the trick in a few seconds.
As you know not everyone is comfortable using an email address. Think about people in the informal sectors, retired professionals who are not net savvy. For them, it will be friction if they are asked to book appointments using only an email address.
The flexibility to book an appointment using a mobile number or email address without the back and forth reduces the booking friction for the customers and makes the process much simpler for everyone involved.
We think Leadmonk is the truly versatile appointment scheduling software available in the market for the following reasons:
All the other tools available in the market support appointment scheduling only using the email address. Whereas Leadmonk is the first online appointment booking software that lets your customers book time with you using their mobile number or email address without the back-and-forth emails or messages.
It gives an option to your customers to choose between WhatsApp and SMS to receive appointment notifications.
Meet one-on-one or in a group or as a team (Collective and Round Robin). Meet online or in person. Leadmonk supports all meeting combinations.
Provision to make each appointment type behave as a standalone calendar for free-busy availability check instead of checking the connected calendar. This avoids the need to have multiple Leadmonk user accounts or multiple calendars.
Give multiple meeting location options to invitees. At the time of appointment booking, the invitee can choose his/her preferred location.
Not only you can connect 6 calendars to your account but also you can take appointments to any of these calendars. This is helpful to manage your work life efficiently.
It integrates natively with G-Suite, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Outlook, Office365 Calendar, MS Teams, Zoom, and other popular business apps to support your business in a wide range of prospect and customer scheduling scenarios.
Automatic time zone detection, setting lead time for appointment booking, automatic SMS/WhatsApp/Email reminders to reduce no-shows, and many more
Collect payments using Stripe.
Collect required details using custom intake forms at the time of appointment booking.
Who is it for?
Leadmonk is perfect for any person or business no matter if you are starting or have been around for a while.
It meets appointment booking requirements of customer-facing teams such as Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Freelancers/Consultants. It can also be used to manage bookings of Meeting Rooms and shared resources. It is also suitable for industry sectors such as Doctors, Dentists, Chiropractors, Salon, Spa, and other Beauty Services, Entrepreneurs, Educators, Coaches, Recruiters, and Professional Services companies such as Legal, Accounting, and Real Estate. It can also be used as an online event booking software or online meeting booking software.
Pricing
Basic Plan: Free-forever plan when you just want the basics
Professional Plan - $8/user/month (annual plan) - When you need advanced scheduling features
2. Calendly
It needs no introduction. It’s been around for several years and many businesses use its software. Calendly supports 1:1, group, round-robin, and collective meeting scheduling algorithms. But it does not support mobile number-based appointment scheduling. Also, it does not have WhatsApp integration to send meeting notifications. SMS notifications work only from the professional plan onwards. There is no provision to take multiple appointments here. Also, you can take appointments only to the main calendar even though you can connect 6 calendars.
Pricing
Basic: Free, one calendar per user
Essentials: $8 per user per month, 2 calendars per user
Professional: $12 per user per month, 6 calendars per use
3. Acuity Scheduling [Squarespace Scheduling]
Acuity Scheduling is a cloud-based appointment-scheduling software solution that enables business owners to manage their appointments online. The product caters to the needs of small and midsize businesses as well as individual professionals. Acuity Scheduling is suitable for service-based businesses such as training and tutoring centers, coaching and consulting, photography and video production companies, fitness studios, salons and spa centers, and health and dental clinics. It does not support mobile number-based appointment scheduling. Also, it does not have WhatsApp integration to send meeting notifications.
Pricing
Acuity Scheduling’s plans start at $14 a month. The Growing plan costs $23 a month. This brings up the total number of calendars to 6 instead of just 1. Finally, the Powerhouse plan costs $45 a month and gives you up to 36 calendars. You can try these plans for free for a maximum of one week.
Save time on scheduling. Spend time on the things that matter.
Appointment scheduling software can help small businesses keep track of customer appointments and manage their time more efficiently. All these scheduling applications have features that can make your life easier. Among all these, Leadmonk is the truly versatile scheduling software for you and your business. It’s easy to use and the most user-friendly. Give it a try and let us know what you think of Leadmonk.