Appointment Scheduling Gets Better With Q-Flow 6

Appointment Scheduling is one of the key user experiences Q-nomy addresses. In previous posts we discussed how vital appointment scheduling is for omni-channel retail, and portrayed our extensive appointment scheduling solution for Operating Rooms and other healthcare scenarios.

Now, with the release of Q-nomy's Q-Flow 6, everything gets even better. "Better" as in "Show-me-the-money" better.

To understand why we think Q-Flow 6 is such a great platform for scheduling, let's take a step back and remind ourselves why organizations want their customers to book appointments in the first place.

The primary motivation for having customers show up for scheduled appointments rather than arrive randomly is efficiency. When we know in advance how many customers are going to arrive at any given moment we can plan our resources better, or alternatively, limit the number of appointments based on available capacity. The higher the appointments-to-random visits ratio is, less staff is needed to serve the same number of visitors, and the waiting time is shorter too. This is true for any type of service – retail, healthcare, government and so on.

The secondary motivation, which applies mainly to retail, is increasing sales. Studies show that customers who show up for appointments end up spending more money with the business, compared to random walk-ins. This is in part thanks to improved customer experience, and in part due to agents being able to better prepare for appointments, work on their up-sell pitch and more.

So how does Q-Flow 6 make things better? The key term here is "Customer Engagement". And the key tool is "Q-Flow Connect".

Q-Flow Connect improves customer engagement by keeping customers constantly involved in the pre-appointment process. With Connect you can send information and directions to customers prior to meeting with them, and receive feedback from the customers that can be processed by the system. For instance you can ask customers to confirm the appointment (and automatically cancel, or call them, if they don't confirm), or integrate more sophisticated interactions such as asking customers how they intend to arrive to their appointment for sending focused directions depending on whether they arrive by car or by public transportation.

This in turn has two important effects: First, as customers feel more engaged in the process, they are less likely to forget their appointment or show up late, which has a direct positive impact on staff efficiency. Second, the extra information gained in the process allows service and sales reps engage in a more effective conversation with the customer, which contributes to sales as well as overall customer satisfaction.

Mission accomplished: Q-Flow, already a class leading software for appointment scheduling solutions, just got better!