Appointment booking software helps to create a positive and painless customer experience, but it also comes with some highly compelling business benefits, such as increased conversion rates, higher footfall figures and, in some instances, an entirely new customer base.
Many leading retailers are using appointment scheduling software to easily enable customers to pre-book in-store services online, or during Covid-19, to schedule time-slots to enter stores. It’s also proving to be particularly valuable for driving virtual appointments for services that can take place over video or phone calls.
Learn more about Qudini’s appointment scheduling software.
This not only saves customers time and allows store associates to better plan their days, it also comes with a number of bottom-line benefits, including:
1) Increased customer conversion rates
Allowing your customers to book an appointment with store associates for particular services means it’s possible to pair the right consultant up with the right customers based on their specific needs, and it gives store associates ample time to prepare in advance. Also, the majority of customers who bother to book an appointment in-store are already engaged in your brand and your service.
As a result, many retailers experience an increase in customer conversion rates, as their service is more personalized and targeted. For instance, a prominent travel agency experienced a 10% store conversion increase.
“Qudini has enabled us to have a much more pleasant customer experience in-store and we can definitely see that we’ve had a percentage growth in terms of revenue.” – Franchise Partner, Specsavers
Another brilliant example comes from luxury department store retailer, Brown Thomas, which is home to a number of beauty brands including Bobbi Brown, Clinique and Charlotte Tilbury. The brand allows customers to book in-store appointments with its beauty experts – and 78% of these customers end up making a purchase.
2) Increased customer footfall
Another added business benefit is an increase in footfall traffic to stores. By giving customers the certainty of knowing they will receive service when entering a store, many more customers are prepared to make the journey. Not only that, it’s a great way to raise awareness for your store portfolio – not everyone will be aware of the nearest or most convenient stores to them.
Another department store retailer found that, after enabling customers to schedule appointments online, 60% of service footfall was coming from online appointments. And electronics manufacturer and retailer, Samsung, experienced equally as impressive results after using our appointment scheduling software.
3) New customers
Appointment booking is also a useful way of attracting new customers to your brand. While e-commerce sales are growing in popularity, there’s also an increased demand for personalized in-store services.
A travel agency found that 60% of store appointments were from new customers, while a retail bank doubled the number of virtual video appointments just by allowing customers to book online.
Brown Thomas also managed to attract a new – and young – customer-base during the Covid-19 lockdown by hosting virtual appointments with beauty and style experts. These virtual appointments became incredibly useful at drawing in new customers, with approximately 60-70% of all its appointments being with new customers. On top of that, virtual appointments were high in demand, with 50% of all time-slots with experts being booked.
