Many service-based business owners use an online appointment scheduler. And you should! They make scheduling appointments with clients a breeze and allow prospective clients to get on your calendar without the back and forth of email. You know we live in an era of instant gratification!
While using an online appointment scheduling software can be a major timesaver in your business, it can also cause major headaches when not setup correctly.
I can’t tell you how many times a business owner has told me, I just need a minute to pee! They end up in back to back meetings sometimes for hours at a time. Not only is this immensely frustrating, literally “going” from meeting to meeting leads to a poor client experience (not to mention the effects on your bladder!).
Back to back meetings mean you have ZERO time to prepare for your next client call leaving you jumping on with that “what are we supposed to be talking about?” look on your face. Not to mention you have had ZERO time to process what you just went over with the client whose call you’re leaving.
I’m guessing you end up forgetting about tasks you were supposed to do or half listening for the last several minutes fearing you’ll be late for the next call!
Now not only are you ill-prepared for your client call, now you’re late! Which often means your late to your next call…. this hamster wheel is exhausting, which is why it’s imperative that you go through the settings in your scheduler to make sure everything is in good working order.
There are lots of schedulers out there but the two that are most popular are Acuity and Calendy. My FAV is Acuity (<< affiliate link) so the instructions I give for finding these setting will be for it, however, Calendy can do many, if not all, of these things as well.
Also Block Off
This is by far THE most important setting to check to avoid the above scenario from happening (that whole hamster wheel thing).
What this setting does:
This setting allows you to add buffer time to your appointments. For example, if you have a one hour coaching call you can also block off time on either end of that appointment. Say 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after. Let’s say a client schedules a one hour coaching call with you at 11 am. Your scheduler will not only block off 11 am – 12 pm, it will also block off the time between 10:45 – 11 am and 12:00 – 12:15 pm. Meaning another client call CAN’T be scheduled until 12:15.
Ta-da!
You have time to pee.
How to set it:
- In left nav bar, click Business Settings → Appointment Types.
- Click on one of your appointments.
- Under DURATION click the blue text that reads “Block off extra time before or after…”
- The Also Block Off option will appear. Add in time before and after.
Melissa’s Recommendation:
I recommend at least 15 minutes before and after each appointment. If you tend to frequently go over your meeting time (we’ll cover how to handle this in a future blog) you may want to add a larger buffer or if you often travel for meetings.
Accept ‘appointments until fully book’ OR ‘a max amount of appointments’
Maybe you aren’t in back to back calls for hours, but you’ve likely found yourself smack dab in the middle of a week filled with random connection calls or TONS of client calls. One leaves you feeling a bit unproductive and the other leaves you working like a madwoman to handle all the client work. No fun. You need to check the setting Accept ‘appointments until fully book’ OR ‘a max amount of appointments’.
What this setting does:
This setting can be used to limit the time you spend on calls each day or week so you have time to, you know, work! There are a couple of options (I’ll cover those below) but the point is to build in parameters so your calendar isn’t so booked with calls you can’t work.
How to set it:
- In left nav bar, click Business Settings → Availability.
- Above your calendar you’ll see a small sub navigation (Availability, Settings & Scheduling Limits). Click on Settings.
- Above the green calendar button you’ll see the word Accept followed by a drop-down that allows you to choose either: appointments until fully booked OR a max amount of appointments. Click the later option.
- Here you have the option to limit the number of hours per day you’ll be on calls, the max number of appointments per day or the max number of appointments per week.
Melissa’s Recommendation:
Look at your week as whole and determine how many hours you can spend on calls. Remember you need time for client work, content, etc.! Next see how many calls fit into that number of hours and use the ‘Max number per week of…’ option.
Yes, I understand that some calls may be 30 minutes while some are 60, 15, etc. Average it out and then adjust as needed. It may take a couple of weeks to find your call sweet spot but it will be well worth it!
Minimize gaps between appointments
Now that you have built in parameters so you aren’t booked solid with calls, you want group your calls together. Just as you can’t get any work done when you’re going from cal to call, it’s also highly unproductive to have lots of weird small gaps in between calls. It’s very difficult to get anything accomplished when you have 20 minutes until your next call. In order to group your calls together (batching), you need to minimize gaps between appointments.
What this setting does:
Based on your selection, Acuity will group your calls together so you aren’t experiencing lots of small, unproductive gaps on your calendar. How does it do this? It will limit what it shows as available to someone looking on your scheduler to only show the appointments that are immediately before or after other appointments. For example, if you have a call at 11 am, when someone views your scheduler they will see the time slots 10:00 am or 12:00 pm while your afternoon openings will not show.
How to set it:
- In left nav bar, click Business Settings → Availability.
- Above your calendar you’ll see a small sub navigation (Availability, Settings & Scheduling Limits). Click on Scheduling LImits.
- The last option (above the green save setting button) is the option to Minimize gaps between appointments and try to cluster them together during the day. Make sure this box is ticked.
- Two options appear, ‘Avoid any gaps between appointments during the day’ and ‘Avoid small gaps, but allow big gaps of at least {insert number of hours}. Choose the latter option and insert the size gap you’d like (number of hours).
Melissa’s Recommendation:
Start with the option Avoid small gaps, but allow big gaps of at least 2 hours. See how this affects your schedule. If your appointments are still feeling a bit all over the place, continue to increase the time amount or select the other option (avoid any gaps). Now if you typically only have 3 or 4 hours per day to work, you may want to select the Avoid any gaps between appointments option right away, this will help you maximize your time.
If you want customized help surrounding these settings or use a different scheduler, schedule a strategy session with me. We’ll go through each appointment type and additional settings to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success instead of a day without bathroom breaks.