After mustering the courage to switch from the conventional telephonic booking system to online booking, your law firm immediately becomes available to clients to book or schedule an appointment online from social media platforms or the website. Every law firm’s usual workday includes juggling client meetings and counsel. To be efficient and productive, prioritizing tasks is essential.
The online booking system is a web-enabled appointment scheduling system that enables people to schedule an appointment quickly and securely from internet-enabled devices such as laptops and mobile devices with lawyers and law firms. Besides, the online appointment scheduling software has features such as automated reminders. The feature informs the clients and lawyers about the appointment scheduled in advance. Furthermore, the online booking system also efficiently organizes the appointment schedule, making it easy to access and make changes effortlessly.
Let us closely analyze why law firms should use an online booking system.
1. Reduces time consumption
The online appointment system reduces the time consumed for scheduling an appointment. Scheduling appointments is a highly time-consuming task. For instance, the client would have to ring up the firm to know whether there are any schedules available, and the staff at the firm goes through the schedule to find an appropriate time to schedule an appointment. That task alone consumes a significant amount of time. The online appointment scheduling system makes the schedule much more accessible to clients without the hassle of contacting the office directly and talking to the staff over the phone for a long time.
Picktime is a legal appointment booking and scheduling software that effortlessly digitalizes the appointment scheduling system. As a result, potential clients can quickly access the firm and lawyers. You may wonder how. Since the software digitalizes the scheduling system, the potential clients know when the schedule becomes available. They can conveniently and securely schedule an appointment. That would also improve the appointment scheduling system transparency as the clients can schedule a meeting by themselves. Law firms can effortlessly integrate payment gateways to receive partial or complete payments from clients.
Moreover, the software sends automated reminders to clients. You can also integrate popular video conferencing platforms such as Google meet and Zoom. As a result, you can consult the clients remotely if needed.
2. Reduce operational costs
The appointment scheduling software can reduce operational costs significantly. Here is how it works. In the conventional system, the client has to contact the firm or the lawyer directly. The staff at the firm had to go through the schedule and find a free schedule. The process is time-consuming not only for the firm but also for the clients as well. With the software, you do not have to hire staff to schedule appointments. That reduces operational costs.
3. 24/7 access
After digitalizing the scheduling system, the clients can schedule an appointment 24/7. In the conventional system, clients must contact the firm during office hours. Then the staff schedules an appointment. After digitizing, the client can schedule the appointment themselves anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, potential clients these days prefer scheduling appointments online to contacting the firm directly. The significant advantage of the software is 24/7 scheduling, rather than regular business hours.
4. Advance payments
Another significant advantage of appointment scheduling software is receiving payments in advance for recurring appointments. Picktime has a dedicated booking equipped with Stripe or PayPal access. The firms can request their clients to make partial or complete payments in advance when scheduling the appointment.
The clients can make payments via online banking, debit or credit card once the client completes the payment. The software issues a digital receipt.
5. Intuitive and customer-friendly
Clients these days want a better booking experience from the firms. Furthermore, enhancing customer experience makes them happy, and they are more likely to avail of the services when needed.
Before scheduling an appointment, you can request essential customer information on the booking page, such as basic details. Afterwards, you can introduce your terms and conditions for the client’s consent. If permitted, you may add the customers’ emails to receive promotional emails from the marketing team.
6. Avoid no shows
The movement that is lost is lost forever. For instance, when a client does not show up for the appointment scheduled, that could have a negative impact. To avoid such a situation, the firm or the lawyer has to follow up with the clients manually. Such a process consumes a significant amount of time you can prioritize to do essential tasks. You can eliminate following up with clients manually. The software sends out an automated reminder via email or SMS. As a result, the client gets informed of the appointment and attends the meeting. If the client cannot participate in the meeting, the client can postpone or reschedule the meeting. To do that, they may go back to the booking page and make the necessary changes.
Since the scheduling system gets digitized, the clients can reschedule the meeting by themselves. Moreover, you can schedule another appointment instantly if the schedule is free.
