Automate Your Front Desk. A small business guide from Setmore. Fill your calendar faster // Get more done // Work smarter

Transcription

1 Automate Your Front Desk A small business guide from Setmore Fill your calendar faster // Get more done // Work smarter

2 Contents Intro: Wearing Many Hats 3 Why Automation? 4 Online Customer Scheduling 6 Social Media Scheduling 7 Marketing 9 To-Do Lists 12 Text Reminders 13 Accounting 16 Taking Customer Calls 17 Customer Rewards 20 Online Payments 22

3 Wearing Many Hats Most people who become the big cheese of their work environment started out as specialists in their field, and you might be no different. You might be the best when it comes to giving a haircut, drafting a business report, or fixing up a car. But making the leap from service provider to captain of the ship also means taking on new roles outside your comfort zone: payroll, marketing, staff management, and so on. What we really need is the ability to time travel, so you can extend your workday two or threefold to get everything done. But time travel doesn t exist, so we ll just have to use automation instead. 3

4 Why Automation? Automation is simply the act of delegating those menial administrative tasks to software processes, so they don t eat up your workday. This allows you to stay focused on the big picture. Average pay for a receptionist: $24,280/yr Most solopreneuers can t afford their own assistant. Automation takes care of the little tasks, saving you time and energy. Businesses that do have a receptionist need to maximize their productivity. Automation extends the capabilities of your current receptionist. Ready? Let s get started. 4

5 81% of consumers research goods and services online before committing to a purchase decision. 5

6 Online Customer Scheduling Skip the phone call and give customers a path to book online. By adding online booking to your website, you re giving customers the ability to immediately book an appointment with your business at the time when their interest level is at its highest point. Setmore Appointments gives you numerous ways to add free online appointment booking to your website or Facebook page. Click here to learn more about self-service customer appointments > 6

7 Social Media Scheduling When it comes to automating your social feeds, software offers you the ability to schedule out posts in advance, across multiple social media platforms. So you can queue up the next week s worth of tweets and Facebook posts on Sunday night, and not have to worry about it for the rest of the week. We prefer Buffer as the tool of choice, which offers a good balance between simplicity and capability. You can start with a free plan and upgrade to add more accounts and schedule more posts. 7

8 If something can be done 80% as well by someone else, delegate. - John C. Maxwell 8

9 Marketing marketing consistently gets about 20-30% in terms of open rate, and most consumers these days expect some form of marketing from the businesses they frequent. If you re unsure about what to , do include basic information such as your open hours, holidays and closures, locations, and local promotions. 9

10 Marketing (cont.) MailChimp is the go-to tool here, because you can start for free and use their super slick drag-and-drop interface to make beautiful templates in just a few clicks, no coding or design expertise required. You can also build out campaigns that send a whole chain of s to your constituents, automatically, as soon as you add them to the campaign or they sign up via your website. Bonus: Setmore + MailChimp Setmore offers a MailChimp integration that will automatically export any new customer contacts from Setmore to your MailChimp welcome campaign. Since customers can add themselves to your Setmore account through the online Booking Page, new customers will get added to your MailChimp campaign lists without you having to do anything! Click here to learn more > 10

11 There is nothing like a concrete life plan to weigh you down. - Indra K. Nooyi 11

12 To-Do Lists Trello is an app that s essentially digital sticky notes, but it s a super easy way to track productivity. The advantage here is that your whole team can use it, and it s free. Start by making 4 columns: Ideas, In Progress, Completed, and Stalled. Add cards or tasks under each column to represent work that needs to be done. You can assign members to each card, and add due dates that will automatically ping members by when a deadline approaches. Move tasks from column to column to track progress, or have your team members do it for you! 12

13 Text messages have a 98% open rate. Text Reminders No-shows punch holes into your work schedule and take bites out of your profit margin. The best way to curb no-shows is to send a text reminder, hours or days before the appointment. A subtle reminder pings your customers to let them know when and where their appointment is, and it s a helpful way to engage them without being intrusive or spammy. 13

14 Text Reminders (cont.) Already using Setmore for online customer appointment scheduling? You can upgrade to Setmore Premium to add unlimited, automatic text reminders to your toolbox. Text reminders in Setmore Premium are linked to each appointment on your calendar and update dynamically to include the customer s name, appointment date, and time. If you save yourself one missed appointment per month, your subscription will have paid for itself! Click here to learn more about text reminders in Setmore > 14

15 Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. - Robert Collier 15

16 Accounting Unless you re a numbers person, you probably don t look forward to balancing the books. We re talking about the nail-biting/hair-pulling labor of tracking revenue, payroll, inventory, invoices, and generally doing what you can to keep your business in the black. Luckily, software can do most of the heavy lifting for you. Apps like Freshbooks let you do all of the above and then some, like giving you the ability to log an expense by snapping a photo of the receipt with your phone. The best part: it s designed for entrepreneurs with zero accounting experience, so it ll work even if you ve never heard the words double entry before. 16

17 Taking Customer Calls You can t afford to let calls go to voic . Customers may drop off without leaving a message, or if they do leave a message, it can take several more attempts to finally connect and schedule an appointment. By automating your phone calls with a live answering service, you re ensuring that there will always be someone to pick up the call and book an appointment, day or night. 17

18 Taking Customer Calls (cont.) Setmore Live Booking is an extension of the free online scheduling platform whereby a friendly US-based receptionist will answer your calls and book appointments on your Setmore calendar for you. Sign up from inside your Setmore account to get started. Learn more about Setmore Live Booking > 18

19 Know what you bring. Know what you don t bring. And build a team that covers everything you need. - Angie Hicks 19

20 Customer Rewards Incentive programs help bring customers back, and reward your most loyal customers with gradually bigger and better freebies. In the past, the best you could offer was a Buy Ten Get One Free punchcard. Nowadays, apps let you sign customers up in a digital rolodex with just a phone number or address. The system automatically tracks purchases and sends out promotions via or text. From your end of things, you ll get analytics that measure how often your customers are coming back and who the best ones are. To get started, check out FiveStars or Belly. 20

21 75% of consumers prefer paying by debit or credit card, vs. 11% for cash. 21

22 Online Payments Most consumers pay for everything with a debit or credit card, and very few people carry cash. Being able to process card payments is no longer optional, it s a requirement. By allowing customers to pay for their services when they book them online, you ll secure a more firm commitment from them, reducing no-shows, and you can focus on quality of service during the actual appointment. There s no sweeter thing for a customer to hear than, You re already paid up. Bonus: Setmore + Stripe Setmore s Stripe integration allows you to take credit or debit card payments online, at the time of booking. Click here to learn more > 22

23 Save time while booking time Setmore automates your customer appointment scheduling. Sign up for a free account today at Copyright 2017 Setmore Appointments, all rights reserved.