subject: Appointment-plus Announces Top 11 Reasons Why Institutes Need School Scheduling Software [print this page] Booking student appointments is a common and repetitive task for advisors, faculty, professors and administrative at campuses nationwide. Whether its booking an academic advising appointment, scheduling a meeting time with a professor or counselor, or booking a time at a testing center, the need for accurate and efficient scheduling is universal at colleges, university systems, community colleges and technical schools. The best solution for mastering the scheduling process is an online student scheduling program, which is why Appointment-Plus has just released its top 11 reasons why institutes of higher learning should adopt this technology.
The top 11 reasons why institutes of higher learning should implement an online scheduling program in 2012 are:
1. Your students want to book their appointments online.
2. Online scheduling software is automated. Booking over the phone is not.
3. Automated e-mail and text reminders help reduce the no-show rateand are appreciated by todays busy students.
4. Your office is not open 24 hours a day for students looking to book an appointment when its most convenient for them. It is with an online scheduling program.
5. Your professors, faculty and staff can access their appointment schedules from any Internet-connected device.
6. Your professors, faculty and staff will be instantly notified of any new, cancelled or rescheduled appointments.
7. Your staff can focus on more pressing tasks and responsibilities.
8. A paper appointment book or spreadsheet is not an efficient way to record and manage appointments. Neither are walk-ins.
9. You can let students book directly from an e-mail message or newsletter.
10. You dont have to worry about overbooking appointments.
11. Its easier to manage appointment schedules and future appointments than with a paper appointment book or e-calendar.
The burden of manually scheduling and managing student appointment and contact information may or may not be immediate apparent, but a quick look at all of the benefits of an online scheduling program like Appointment-Plus makes it an appealing alternative to the traditional phoned-in, e-mailed or in-person appointments.
An online scheduling program can have an immediate and positive impact in how you book your students appointments, says Bob La Loggia, CEO of Appointment-Plus. This results in more efficient operations, better use of staff time and resources, and happier students who can now book their appointments online.
A leader in online scheduling since 2001, Appointment-Plus offers larger colleges and university systems unique services not found in other online scheduling program providers. These services, geared specifically for large and medium-sized organizations, include:
A highly scalable system that allows college systems to easily accommodate increases in workload, users and growth.
Web services, including integrations with existing software systems.
The most configurable scheduling software system available.
24-hour support from its headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Dedicated support contacts.
Turnkey, existing solutions that are instantly ready to go live.
Custom graphic user interface (GUI) development.
Robust record-keeping and reporting capabilities that make it simply to access and compile appointment and student data.
University system and college administrators that take advantage of these services can quickly implement a scheduling program that instantly integrates into their existing processes. Administrators also appreciate the pre-set rules of the Appointment-Plus online scheduling programs, which prevents over-bookings or students from booking one service multiple times, such as at a testing center.
In addition to its world-class scheduling functionality, Appointment-Plus also provides clients with access to its Marketplace, the scheduling industrys most complete and growing collection of syncs, plug-ins and modules. Among those of interest to college and university professors, faculty and staff are syncs with popular e-marketing services such as Constant Contact, iContact, MailChimp and Vertical Response and the just-released Google Calendar Sync. Future releases include the Microsoft Outlook Calendar Sync and an enhanced mobile Web app.
Launched in 2001, Appointment-Plus was the industry pioneer in online scheduling software, utilizing the software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model since its inception. Today, Appointment-Plus is the worldwide leader in mobile and online appointment scheduling software with three million appointments booked every month and nearly a billion dollars in commerce conducted annually through its system. Its Scheduling Cloud API also enables larger organizations to build custom applications on the powerful Appointment-Plus engine, while its integrated Marketplace allows businesses to easily interface with Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Google Calendar, Constant Contact, QuickBooks and other popular business tools to help businesses and organizations manage their operations more effectively, productively and successfully.
