9 Industries that Need Appointment Reminders

These days, everyone gets appointment reminders from some business that they use—perhaps for an appointment with a doctor, dentist, or physical therapist. Such reminders are most often associated with healthcare practices. And this is for good reason: studies have shown that the U.S. healthcare industry loses some $150 billion annually due to patient no-shows.

So, healthcare practices stand to benefit from automated appointment reminders, which can reduce their no-show rate by as much as 90 percent. But what about businesses in other industries? In this post, we’ll look at nine industries—some obvious, others surprising—that can benefit from appointment reminder software.

1. Salons and spas

A hair salon is just like a doctor’s office in terms of its need to handle a large volume of clients on a daily basis and in a tightly timed manner. When your salon has a no-show, it costs money to both the business and the stylist, and even if it’s the client’s own fault, they may well be upset if they missed their appointment because they had the wrong date or time in mind.

It’s a similar situation for spas. The massage therapists, manicurists, or others at your spa work via scheduled appointments, and no-shows can have a huge effect on revenue. These types of workers don’t want to take time to send text messages or make phone calls to no-show clients to arrange for them to reschedule, and they may not bother to do so.

An effective reminder system for salons and spas allow for two-way communication with the client as needed. This reduces no-shows and handles questions, cancellations, and rescheduling with minimal time required from your staff.

2. Gyms

Many gyms offer paid classes that require registration, not to mention private services that run on scheduled appointments, such as personal training, coaching, or massages.

Reminderly’s group text messaging service can help class instructors not only send simple reminders about class time and location but also send motivational messages or updates about new classes or events. You can attract and retain talented service providers at your gym by taking the hassle of cancellations and rescheduling off their hands. Effective online scheduling and sms, phone, or email reminders will help your staff focus on the work of ensuring happy, healthy gym clients.

3. Handymen, plumbers, movers, and other household services

After my wife and I bought our first house, I arranged for a handyman to come over and re-staple loose carpet throughout the upstairs. On the day he was going to come over, our electricity went out, and I couldn’t figure out why. I didn’t remember to text him in the middle of scrambling to call the electric company. Thankfully, he didn’t mind waiting the hour or so that was needed to get the electricity back on. That said, if he had sent a simple appointment confirmation via text message that morning, it would have prompted me to text him back and let him know to wait to come over till the electricity was restored.

Because these workers travel to their clients rather than vice-versa, making it all the more important that cancellations be known in advance. To take another example—many moving services simply trust their clients to remember the correct date and time. This makes sense in terms of how important and rare moving is, but what if the client accidentally gave the wrong date or time when they booked the appointment? Real-time communication in the days leading up to the move would easily catch that mistake and prevent the movers from arriving when the client is not ready.

4. Cleaning services

A cleaning business often employs a number of cleaners working throughout a city or region, which requires a great deal of scheduling and coordination. An appointment reminder system can quickly and easily send text message reminders, emails, and/or phone calls to clients confirming the date and time of their upcoming appointment for cleaning. With Reminderly’s two-way texting option, clients can confirm, reschedule, or ask questions, all with a minimum of fuss for you.

And since they’ll be hearing from your business, they won’t have to go digging for your phone number if something comes up and they need to reschedule. This makes for happy clients who are likely to view your cleaning service as reliable and stick with it.

5. Tax or legal services

Compared to a healthcare practice, salon, or gym, most accounting firms and law firms deal with a smaller volume of daily appointments. That said, the high pricing of these professionals’ time, along with the important and sometimes urgent nature of the business, make it crucial to avoid no-shows. You can help yourself and your colleagues or employees to manage their workflow with as little interruption as possible by using automated messages to take care of appointment confirmations, cancellations, questions, and rescheduling.

6. Restaurant reservations

The restaurant industry is incredibly sensitive to efficient use of space and time. An effective reservation system helps ensure that your restaurant is filled with a steady flow of satisfied patrons. On the other hand, missed reservations mean an immediate loss of revenue to both the restaurant and the server.

Especially on busy times like holidays and weekends, people will book multiple reservations and neglect to cancel the ones they end up skipping. Rather than risk such losses or pay an employee to spend time making confirmation calls, a low-cost automated reminder system can prompt customers to confirm or cancel on their own with a simple text message. With Reminderly’s customizable templates, you can also glean additional helpful information from your customers, like if it’s a special occasion or if anyone has an allergy the server should know about. Reminderly’s software integrates seamlessly with your online booking system to help your staff focus on serving the guests in the restaurant rather than communicating with the ones who aren’t yet there.

7. Sales team calls or meetings

Sales team staff members typically deal with a large volume of calls and meetings, many of which are booked out days, weeks, or even months in advance. Rather than tasking these busy salespeople with their own scheduling, an automated appointment reminder system will follow-up with potential clients to confirm their appointment time and handle rescheduling if necessary. For example, automotive salespeople can be more efficient with their time and give their customers the feel of white-glove treatment by using business texting in a supportive, customized way.

Whether you run a big company or a small business, let Reminderly be the support team for your salespeople. Our multiple communication methods, custom appointment reminder templates, and easy calendar syncing with Google calendar (and most other major business calendar services) make it easy to handle scheduling and avoid last-minute cancellations.

8. Real estate showings

Realtors deal with a huge number of appointments, and any given property showing with a new client could result in a sale. But it can just as easily turn out to be a no-show. Appointment reminder software allows realty professionals to avoid the wasted preparation and driving time for property showings where the client doesn’t come.

Realtors also often need to communicate with clients urgently, for instance if there is a bidding war on a certain property. Reminderly’s two-way text capability is the perfect platform for you to establish an (automated) baseline of communication that can develop into more personalized messaging as soon as that’s needed.

9. Patient appointment reminders for healthcare practices

As noted in the intro to this blog post, the healthcare industry sees huge financial upside from the use of automated appointment reminders. Whether sms, voice reminders, emails, or a combination of the three, these types of patient communication not only reduce unexpected cancellations but also help your patients feel connected to your practice, thereby reducing their anxiety about receiving medical care from you—a common reason for no-shows. (Make sure your phone communications with patients are hipaa-compliant.)

It doesn’t matter if you’re managing a large doctor’s office or a small wellness business, nor whether you process insurance or are a direct primary care practice: all healthcare businesses benefit from reducing no-shows so that as many appointment slots as possible are filled.

Conclusion

The above nine industries all benefit from automated appointment reminders—but these are far from the only ones. Even if it’s not among the types of businesses listed above, your business might also see a revenue boost from Reminderly’s services. Contact us today and we’ll be happy to hear about your business’s needs and create a customized solution for you.