How to Increase Your Business Revenue with an Online Booking System
Small business owners know better than anyone that every client and every penny adds up to create the bigger picture and the bottom line. If you are such an individual and you are looking for ways on how to increase online sales for your small business, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll explore the ways in which an online booking system can help you do just that. So, sit back, relax and keep reading!
Ways to increase online sales through an online booking system
If you haven’t implemented an online booking system in your business yet, you’re right to wonder: does booking software promote sales? The short answer is yes. But the reasons behind this are covered in more detail below.
1. Customers increasingly prefer to make online bookings
The proliferation of the internet and the mobile devices that can access it means an ever-growing number of people are using the web to make online bookings. It’s a faster and more convenient way for them to seek out and book services.
If you don’t have an online booking system and you’re essentially still doing things the old-fashioned way through call centres and telephone calls, your competition will quickly outperform you. By offering a service that’s quick and easily accessible, you are more likely to acquire more customers, thus affecting your bottom line in a healthy way and growing your service business.
2. You can better cater to returning customers
In many cases, returning customers and repeat bookings are the cornerstone of businesses. The same is probably true for yours.
If you have loyal customers who keep coming back for more, you need to manage their requests faster and offer them a greater service experience to ensure you retain their loyalty. In addition to this, loyal customers tend to spend more at businesses that they trust, so you’ll not only retain them but earn more from them, too.
3. Optimise the performance of your social media channels
If you have a social media presence (as you should), you know that you can target customers both organically and through paid ads. When you do so, you can link your online booking system to your social media accounts and get instant bookings. This way, you’re directly affecting your bottom line while making your social media channels work for you.
4. Making upsells and cross-sells has never been easier
If you offer a plethora of services, then encouraging your clients to book one service as well as another complimentary one is a great way to boost your revenue. These upsells (sales of more expensive related products or services) or cross-sells (sales of related services) can significantly impact the amount of money your business can earn and they are often critical ways for many businesses to stay afloat.
5. Your business will be available 24/7
With an online booking system, your business will literally be open for business 24 hours a day. This means you can accept orders for your services at any time of the day, waking up to a full schedule of jobs. This can impact your bottom line in favourable ways as you won’t have to chase leads but they will be coming to you instead. Offering these levels of convenience to book at any time of the day also means that you can offer a more personalised and pleasant booking experience.
6. You can reduce appointment cancellations
Because online booking systems can send automated reminders to customers about when their service is due, the chances of experiencing cancellations is much smaller. It’s also an effective way for those businesses which rely on appointment-based revenue to thrive financially and not lose out on customers who have already booked. By giving customers the freedom to reschedule, you are simply rescheduling your payment date but are not losing out on the job or appointment at hand.
An online booking system you can trust: ServiceOS’ features and functionalities
By now, you are probably convinced that you need an online booking system for your service-based business. But where do you start in terms of finding the right partner and software to meet your needs? The answer lies in ServiceOS. The online booking system that can help you with service delivery related to your:
- Check-ins/check-outs
- Real-time location tracking
- On-site price changes
- Surge pricing
- Real-time job tracking
- On-demand requests
- Workforce management
- Easily manageable checklists
However, ServiceOS can also help you boost your sales through online and offline booking forms, sales scripts, call centre automation, call-to-booking application, video consulting and more.
With regard to customer service, you will be able to quickly address complaints through a complaints management system, an online training platform, customer relationship management, etc.
In addition to this, you’ll be able to boost the relationship with your suppliers and employees. This is done through partner profiles with performance dashboards for easy monitoring and evaluation and live availability management.
We all know that finance is a critical aspect of any business. This is why you can rely on commission plan management and automated payments.
Finally, ServiceOS can help you with legal and marketing aspects of running your business. For the latter, you can take advantage of advanced notifications as well as membership club, loyalty and subscription offers.
Who is the ServiceOS online booking system ideal for?
If you are unsure of whether the ServiceOS online booking system is right for you, take a look at just some of the industries and service-based businesses that use it:
- Domestic cleaning
- Gardening
- Handyman
- Removals
- Pest control
- Home maintenance
- Plumbers
- Electricians
- Gas engineering
- Constructions
- Self storage
- Beauty & wellness
- Healthcare
- Food and delivery
- Driving schools, and
- Many other service-based businesses.
Because each of these business types and industries are service-based and require a professional to go out into the field and deliver a service at the customer’s home, an online booking system is the ideal solution. It enables customers to book conveniently and quickly from their personal computers or even their mobile devices. This reduces waiting times or time spent speaking to call centre agents and minimises the chances of errors being made during the booking.
Concluding remarks
Every small business owner wants to know how to increase sales online. The answer to this never-ending question is always streamlining your operations while offering your customers maximum benefits from your business so that they get value for money, a personalised experience and that they return for more.
All this can be achieved with an online booking system such as ServiceOS. It’s efficient, straightforward, safe and easy to use. It’s one way you can boost customer satisfaction, enjoy stronger and faster data analysis, boost your lead generation efforts, manage your resources better as you scale, enjoy greater efficiencies, streamline your payments and even showcase your brand in the best possible way.