5 Online Tools for Scheduling Appointments

All of Your Schedules can be Just a Click Away!

Managing your time takes a lot of effort and discipline, and when it involves others, it gets even more complicated. From work to home and family life, it can feel a constant juggle figuring out how we ask for other people’s time and fit it into ours.

It will be no surprise that nowadays there are several applications available to help companies and individuals manage scheduling appointments, shifts, events or meetings. These services have lots of different features and purposes from scheduling your employees’ shifts at work to planning gatherings and events with family and friends.

But which online tools should you use? Since there are a lot of them out there – and your time is important! – we’ve narrowed down the list to five of the best apps that can help you set-up and schedule important work, meetings, and appointments.

1. Doodle

Doodle is a web-based app that allows you to arrange and organise meetings or events for a group of people, be it a small gathering or for an entire company.

Organising a meet-up with a group begins with a “schedule poll”. You simply need to create a poll of available times and dates, and then send it to those you’d like to attend. They will then choose their preferred time on the grid and once it’s done, it will send back an email of the final most popular time. Doodle syncs schedules with your calendar – be it Google, Exchange, Outlook, Lotus or iCal – and this will prevent any clashes or conflicts.

Its MeetMe feature also gives you the freedom to make your calendar viewable by your colleagues or friends and allows them to book you for a meeting or coffee depending on your available time.

Platform/s: Web, iOS, Android
Available Plans: Free, Private, Business

2. ScheduleOnce

ScheduleOnce is an online scheduler designed to help businesses book appointments with new customers. It’s ideal for businesses who would like to cut to the chase when it comes to lead generation. This app allows potential new customers to schedule a call, demo or consultation with your company from your website, so they don’t need to pick up the phone or send an email and wait to hear back. It also helps you collate their details in your system and not waste any time preparing for your consultation, demo or new client meeting. You could also use it to invite people to attend a class or workshop.

ScheduleOnce allows you to create your own Cancellation or Rescheduling terms and conditions. You can also create an automatic refund scheme for cancellation or automatically process rescheduling fees for those who wants to reschedule.

Platform/s: Web, Chrome
Available Plans: Plus, Premium, Professional, Enterprise

3. Findmyshift

Findmyshift is an online employee scheduling system but it can also be used to plan appointments and meetings. It enables you to schedule an unlimited number of employees’ shifts for months ahead and you can add comments to shifts like their break time, if they’re on call, or where they are assigned to work. Once they have been assigned shifts, they’ll receive a notification through email, text, or via the mobile app’s push notification. You can schedule meetings by assigning the same date and time to all your required attendees, and then applying the same comment to describe what the meeting or appointment will be about.

The key advantage of Findmyshift is that everyone – managers and staff – has access to the most recent, updated staff schedule. Employees don’t have to keep calling their managers to confirm their schedule, and shift reminders are sent before they start work so they aren’t late or show up at the wrong time. Findmyshift also has a time clock and time sheets function so you can use the system to generate payroll, at no extra cost. Using past, present and future data in your employee schedule, there are also lots of different reports available on Findmyshift, like budget forecasting, hours worked and time-off or sick leave reports.

Platform/s: Web, iOS, Android
Available Plans: Free, Volunteer, Business

4. Setmore

Another app for managing the attendance of workshops and classes, Setmore’s class scheduling feature helps you manage both workshops and attendees. It would be a great app for a teacher, instructor or anyone whose business revolves around meeting regularly with different people.

It would be especially useful for businesses that have loyalty schemes as Setmore allows your repeat customers to schedule recurring appointments. Alternatively attendees can decide how long they want the interval between each appointment to be so they define how often they meet with you or attend a class. This also helps you plan for future deals and promotions that both your patrons and new customers can take advantage of.

Platform/s: Web, iOS, Android, MacOS, Linux, Windows
Available Plans: Standard, Premium

5. Appointy

Appointy’s features are similar to Setmore, however, Appointy also collates customer feedback.

Once a customer books an appointment for a certain service, once the appointment is over, they will receive a follow-up notification from the app asking for their feedback. You will then be able to use this feedback to improve your own business or attract new customers. You can also use Appointy to sync with social media channels, or to set up a customer loyalty program.

Appointy doesn’t only benefit customers who can get their services on a desirable time, it is also a good tool for open-minded entrepreneurs who see the value of customer feedback in refining their business or services, as the data Appointy collects encourages you to review and improve the way you work.

Platform/s: Web, iOS, Android
Available Plans: Free, Small Business, Medium Business, Multiple Location Business