Businesses often find managing multiple activities and appointments in the daily schedule challenging. Either some tasks are missed or remain half done.
The reason behind this is using an old school way of managing tasks, using spreadsheets. Managing appointments on a spreadsheet is not an option, especially when your business starts to grow. The process is time-consuming and prone to human errors.
Before your clients feel that their inquiries are not heard or you don't offer great client support, it is time to digitize the process.
You need a calendar that lets your customers choose when to make an appointment and also helps your staff members keep track of their own schedules.
This blog focuses on the scheduling software Calendar 365 and other important features that Dynamics 365 CRM users can use to book appointments.
Direct integration with CRM
Calendar 365 directly integrates with CRM so that you don’t need any third-party extensions to fetch CRM data.
When you use standalone appointment scheduling software, you have to use third-party extensions for CRM integration, which obviously costs extra. Moreover, it also limits customization options for users.
A Dynamics 365 Calendar plugin is the most effective and affordable approach. Since the Dynamics plugin works directly with the CRM, there is no need to use a third-party extension.
The Dynamics plugin makes customization possible. In accordance with your CRM entities, you can request any custom information from users in the form.
Online appointment scheduling
Before a few years ago, customers would call or email to inquire about available appointments. But why waste your or your customer's time when you can easily schedule an appointment online?
For instance, you run a business and have five employees who participate in five activities. Adam only takes introduction calls, which can take up to 15 minutes. He works from Monday to Friday and is accessible from 9 am to 5 pm. You can add all of these details and buffer time between appointments using Calendar 365.
Bella conducts demo calls, which typically last for thirty minutes. She is available from 11 am to 3 pm Monday to Thursday. Similarly, add the availability of all your employees.
Once you enter these details, create a booking link. And share it on different platforms like on the website, in emails, and on social media platforms and easily book appointments.
On the booking page, clients can see different types of events like introduction calls, demo calls, and more. In addition, the name and designation of the staff members, as well as the appointment duration, will be available.
The purpose of the meeting—the kind of event—must first be chosen by the customers. Then they can see the available time slots. The time slots are dynamic and change based on the event type. After selecting all the required details, customers confirm bookings. An email will be sent to the customer and associated employee.
You can also use this feature internally within businesses. Meetings with upper management can be scheduled by employees through the booking link.
Recurring and Collision-Free Meetings
Some meetings occur on a daily basis, like the standup meetings with various teams to determine who is working on what.
Sending invites to team members daily is not ideal.
Thus, you need a feature in your software that can take care of such requirements. The other major feature highly demanded by businesses is collision-free appointments. You don't want to schedule a meeting when your invitees are unavailable. When you double-book an invitee, you should get a message from the calendar that the respective invitee is unavailable.
Calendar 365 supports both these functionalities available in Calendar 365 to make error-free appointment bookings.
Cancellation and Rescheduling Appointments
Appointment canceling and rescheduling are very common. The challenge here is that it impacts employees' productivity. Their time slot will be wasted. But if they had known about it earlier, they could have plan something else.
What you can do is allow customers to reschedule the meeting. Any changes in the meeting timings will be updated in the calendar in real-time.
The initial meeting time will be available to other customers. As a result, employees' time will be maximized.
You can also set a time limit by which customers can cancel or reschedule appointments to avoid any last-minute changes.
Reminders
Without reminders, half of the meetings would never take place. If you want everyone to show up on time, it is advisable to send reminders.
You can send a meeting reminder ahead of time, but when to send an email reminder is up to you.
Email reminders are also beneficial for office meetings. It ensures all the meetings happen on time and with all the invitees available.
Availability Management
Calendar 365 lets you see all the ongoing tasks and resources associated with those tasks. You can give a new task to the resource available for the day.
When assigning tasks, especially high-priority ones that require immediate attention, having visibility into your team's schedule can make a big difference.
Calendar 365 lets you see every activity that is happening. It helps while assigning work to resources so that no one has to overwork!
Customization
It doesn’t look nice if the appointment booking page appears different then the website's theme or brand color.
An ideal calendar must be customizable to the fullest. You should be able to customize it to match the theme of your brand and your workflow.
Calendar 365 is fully configurable in terms of appearance and functionality.
Wrapping Up!
Slowing down a little bit and making connections may be beneficial in today's fast-paced society. However, the process of connecting shouldn’t be slow or time-consuming. Online appointment scheduling processes are the fastest way to connect to customers, prospects, or employees. And Calendar 365 can help you exactly with that! It is the best tool Dynamics 365 CRM users can integrate into their CRM for appointment scheduling. Explore more about Calendar 365 – A Dynamics 365 Calendar plugin here!
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