5 Benefits of Online Booking for Mobile Service Companies
- July 31, 2018
- By: Vonigo
In North America, smartphones are ubiquitous. Much of the population with buying power is now quite tech-savvy, and demand convenience in every aspect of their lives. For mobile service companies like movers and cleaners, offering online booking is becoming a must-have, as more consumers choose providers who offer convenient booking solutions.
Here are five benefits of offering online booking at your mobile service company. Whether you are a mover, a cleaning company, you do junk removal, or another mobile service, you can learn from these benefits and the accompanying tips.
1. Online Booking Saves Customers Time
Picture this scenario through the lens of one of your potential customers. They want to book a service like yours, so they start to do some comparison-shopping. Perhaps they start with a Google search and are presented with a SERP (search engine results page) showing paid placements and organic listings.
One of those paid ads or organic listings is offering the ability to get a self-serve instant quote or offer immediate online booking. Others are not (is this you?). The choice of which link to click first is made easier. Most times, comparison shoppers will visit more than one site. The more convenient it is for them to get the answers they seek (How much will it cost? When can the service happen?), the more likely they are to choose that vendor.
If your website offers the instant gratification of an immediate quote and easy online booking, you have an edge. Taking messages online or over the phone isn’t enough. While that customer is shopping around, the first to respond might be the first to get the booking. “It’s not enough to have a website and do online marketing through Yellow Pages anymore,” says ServiceMaster franchisee Scott Reid. “The traditional way of doing business is out. Convenience is key; some customers don’t even want to make a phone call. They just want to see service options online, get a quote and book it. We needed to give them what they wanted.”
2. You Save Time on Administration
When the customer has access to your pricing and availability in your online booking tool and they book for themselves, the work is already done. There’s a job on your schedule, and the only things left to do are confirm the appointment and perform the service. “We estimate that online booking has saved us nearly 90% of job booking costs, versus if we had to handle those same job bookings via our Customer Care team,” says Velofix Co-Founder Boris Martin.
If you compare this scenario to that of having a call center take calls and answer questions, the savings of time and expense can really add up. Should you abolish your call center entirely? No, but you can offer a large part of your customer base an option that they prefer, and save a lot on the cost of taking calls and quoting prices over the phone.
“It’s a lot more efficient with customers booking online,” says Reid. “It’s like the customers are creating the invoice for you. The service technician can just show up and focus on the job at hand while the customer really does all of the heavy lifting of administration through Vonigo’s easy-to-use system.”
3. Access a New Customer Base
If you’re not offering online booking, there’s a good chance you’re losing some business to a company who is. When you add online booking to your website, you open yourself up to the demographic that prefers the more immediate, web-based approach.
You may be surprised at the boost of new business that online booking can offer you. “We saw a huge increase in our online sales, which we hadn’t expected, really,” says Reid. “We’re tapping into a customer base that we didn’t have before.”
4. Earn More Profits
Accessing a new market of customers gives you a revenue boost, but that’s only the beginning. As the percentage of jobs booked online grows, so does the amount you’re saving on admin tasks.
New revenue minus costs saved on quoting, booking, and confirming appointments? That equals a lot more profit in your bottom line. Not to mention the money saved on paper or task switching among myriad software programs to keep your business organized.
“Less time is spent on the phones,” says Phantom Screens GM Tim Tischer. “The quality of leads generated from online is also significantly higher, as it weeds out ‘tire kickers’ and generally only those wishing to purchase will take the next step of action: booking an appointment. Our estimated annual increase in revenue of website bookings is 450%.”
5. Keep Better Records of Your Bookings and Conversion Rates
When more of your jobs are booked online, they become easier to track. How many bookings did you close this month compared with the money you spent on Google or Facebook ads? Or from organic web searches?
By having a straight line between a customer’s first visit to your website and when they book with you, you can use tracking tools and your service business management software to accurately measure your performance.
Have a promotion on that uses a promo code? Pull up a report that tells you how well it performed. Get a mention in a local newsletter or article that gave you a boost in bookings? Using tech can help you get a very accurate picture of how your investments in marketing and advertising have performed.
Learn More About Online Booking and Scheduling
Want to learn more about how software with online booking, scheduling, billing, and payments can help you grow your business? Book a free, private demo of Vonigo.