Tips & Resources

10 ways to boost your financial return from TIMIFY

TIMIFY
By TIMIFY
12 February, 2021

Find out 10 tips on how to use our scheduling software to generate more bookings, more customers and more revenue

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Over the last year we have seen an influx of businesses using TIMIFY, from those seeking to modernise their customer experience to others needing an online appointment booking system to support services during the pandemic.

Particularly during COVID-19, some clients are only now realising the benefits of our complete, end-to-end solution after initially integrating the system as an emergency measure.

From overhauling how customers interact with services, to improving communications, resource management, marketing opportunities, personalisation and data insights – there is much to discover. 

We want to ensure the full range of features are being used to enhance every aspect of your service delivery, raising customer satisfaction and ultimately generating additional revenue.

Below we summarise 10 key tips to ensure to ensure you’re maximising your revenue potential from TIMIFY:

1. Promote online booking through all relevant channels

An occasional post or email about online booking will not get enough customers using the system to realise its full benefits.

Our booking widget places an interactive component on any web page or Facebook profile, letting users book your services without leaving the web page they are on.

Build widgets dedicated to a specific service and use them in relevant marketing, comms channels, campaigns, or even paid-for search.

Create QR codes for customers to scan on their phone and be taken directly to the booking form they need. Place them in store windows, reception areas or flyers.

2. Incorporate online booking to marketing campaigns

Whatever the new offer, service or product you are looking to promote, work online booking into campaigns to incentivise take up.

You could offer discounts or tickets for events only via online booking. 

Use QR codes to link to different offers and promotions aimed at different customer groups. Place them in targeted communications to those groups such as newsletters and social media posts.

The more creative ways you can find to introduce customers to your online booking offerings, the broader take up will become across your user base, increasing economies of scale.

3. Make customers aware of other services you offer 

Our Upselling app allows you to choose one of your services and, when a customer is in the process of booking that service, select any of your other services to be promoted alongside.

The customer can simply add additional services in a few clicks, without needing to go through a separate booking form for each service or appointment.

You can also set when additional services will take place – simultaneously to their original booking, straight after or at a later time. 

This allows countless opportunities for tailoring service combinations and offers – for example, adding colouring and styling services to occur simultaneously to a hair cutting appointment, or a massage session added straight after a yoga class.

4. Use our marketing tool 

TIMIFY’s marketing tool lets you create promotions for a designated time period.

All promotions created will be listed first on your booking widget, making customers aware of the latest offers every time they open the booking widget. 

This is ideal for businesses focussed on getting maximum exposure for numerous seasonal promotions, which change frequently throughout the year. 

For instance, a 20% discount on a ‘Complete Massage Experience for Two’ during Valentine’s week, or perhaps an early bird discount on an appointment with your accountant before the end of year rush.

5. Empower customers to manage their own appointment scheduling

Convenience is king. TIMIFY makes it easy for customers to cancel or change an appointment online, from home or on the train, 24 hours a day.

Make sure this capability is clearly displayed on all relevant comms so that customers use it. It provides flexibility when plans change and helps filter bookings down to only those who have a genuine intention to attend.

Your operations benefit too, as the moment an appointment is cancelled, the slot automatically becomes available for new bookings – customers get more choice and your booking staff save time. 

This is the convenience online booking adds to your customer experience, encouraging repeat bookings and prompting positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

6. Offer personalised services

Many businesses, particularly those in the retail sector, have met the challenge of limited customer access to stores by specialising in a variety of personalised services.

This could include dedicated consultations, personal shopping and fitting sessions, product support, V.I.P. events, and more. TIMIFY gives customers the convenience of booking an appointment for their personalised experience online, while customised booking forms allow you to gather key data beforehand (sizes, preferences, special needs etc.). 

Our customers have seen a four-fold increase in basket sizes from personalised sessions in comparison to those of walk-in customers.

7. Use TIMIFY data to inform key business decisions

Our Statistics Dashboard provides comprehensive data on the performance of your services, resources and branches, as well as the habits and behaviours of your customers when booking services.

This data is priceless in determining priorities for your business, whether it’s identifying peak online booking times, or knowing which services and resources are most popular.

Not only does TIMIFY interpret this data to inform business decisions, our Branch Manager tool also implements them with a range of controls and settings which can be adjusted at a local or global level. 

8. Modernise your customer experience and services

As well as bringing 24/7 online availability to customers bookings, TIMIFY can also adapt and enhance services to meet the challenges of the marketplace – for example, not being able to meet customers face-to-face.

Some firms have made a significant move to offering video-based services, both one-to-one or in group or class settings.

Others have used online booking, with advanced options around pre-set buffer times between appointments or digital queue management, to safely offer pickups or individual appointments in-store.

During the pandemic this has been highly valuable for services reliant on consultations (financial, health, fitness, retail), so much so that many will continue offering video services after COVID-19.

Other innovations include auto-booked resources, automated invoicing, ultra-fast booking apps for call centres, and personalised welcome screens for waiting rooms.

Furthermore, our app marketplace allows you to incorporate third-party services to TIMIFY, including Zapier, Intercom, Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, and many more.

9. Gather customer feedback – and listen!

Customer opinions on your services are essential, whether you use them to monitor customer satisfaction or to generate testimonials for marketing.

Our Survey app brings digital reliability and consistency to the process, automatically sending feedback requests and gathering the responses, whatever the scale of your business. 

Choose which services you want to receive feedback on, how long after appointments requests should be sent, customise free text comments or star ratings and add your branding.

10. Tailor TIMIFY to your business needs

There are several different tiers of TIMIFY, aimed at meeting the needs of different business types. The free version is designed for start-ups and solo operators, Premium for small and medium businesses and Enterprise for large corporations and multinationals. 

As your business grows it may be that you now require a version of TIMIFY with more functionality and flexibility. Review the extra functionality related to different TIMIFY plans, or discuss it with our team. You can also add a huge variety of additional functions by bolting on apps from the marketplace.

TIMIFY

About the author

TIMIFY

TIMIFY is a global leader in scheduling and resource management software-as-a-service (Saas). It is known for its sophisticated, secure, and customisable enterprise-focused technology.