6 Features You Need in Your Online Booking App

No matter what business you have – restaurant, taxi, or clinic, you need to provide customers with an effortless way to book your services. Because if you don’t provide a hassle-free way to reach your business, customers are likely to turn towards competitors who offer them online booking with an intuitive, easy, and convenient-to-use app.

The other reason to go for online booking app development is customers prefer booking from their smartphones. 39% like it because it provides quick booking, 30% prefer the extra functionality that the app provides, while 79% opt for online booking apps due to price alert notifications.

In short, you need to bring in the features that would make booking easy but also relieve you and your team from painstaking tasks. Here’s the list of important features that you should include in your online booking app.

Real-Time Booking:

If you have a phone-based booking system, you need a staff to handle bookings. This may not be a problem with you but consider the man-hours you can eliminate by bringing in an online platform. Neither your staff has to work in shifts to handle bookings 24*7, nor do you have to limit the booking hours. With real-time booking, your customers can book at their leisure at any time and get immediate confirmation of their booking.

The online booking app would provide customers with available dates and slots so that they can book accordingly. It means no human errors. Moreover, it offers customers reliability, speed, and detailed information at the fingertips.

Adaptable Calendar:

If you go through the booking diary or the Excel sheet to view all the bookings and plan your schedule, the calendar would replace it efficiently. The calendar offers a detailed summary of the bookings, upcoming meetings/events, and more. Even if a customer made a booking a day prior or at midnight for the following day, everything would show up on the calendar.

It will allow you to edit the bookings or your schedule based on your requirements. You have a booking for the evening, but you can assign another slot to the customer if you have to attend an event. Also, the customer would be notified automatically. We will learn about it in the next feature.

Automated Notifications:

As we discussed above, you could reschedule customers’ bookings, both – you and clients must receive automated notifications. This should include appointment confirmation, cancellation, change in the appointment, appointment reminders, and more.

You can send notifications via emails or text messages. However, text messages are most preferable as they pop up on the screen. Customers notice it instantly, which may not be the same for emails. The notifications should consist of a live link for customers to change or cancel the appointment. It will avoid late shows and no-shows.

Social Media Integration:

Social media is the holy grail for businesses. It enables businesses to engage with their target audience and drive more sales. Along with posting about discounts, offers, and your services, add a “book now” button on your social networks. Also, integrate social media with your online booking app so that customers can redirect to your social handles directly from the app.

Allow customers to share their bookings on social media too. Directly or indirectly, they will market your services and increase your brand exposure. It may potentially generate new bookings too.

Payment Methods:

To capture more sales and revenue, make sure you provide multiple payment options. If your services include an advance deposit or cancellation fee, then this option would be necessary. However, it’s your responsibility to ensure that payment is safe and secure. And customers should have the privilege to pay using different modes. Don’t just stick to PayPal, credit card, and debit card. Add as many methods as possible. See what transactions customers prefer in that region.

For instance, if you go for an online booking app development for India, GPay, Paytm, and other wallet services would be a lucrative option. The refund should be quick and seamless too. Take care of that!

Multi-everything Support:

76%of customers prefer online services if the information is in their native language. Besides, multi-support is becoming a new trend, helping businesses expand overseas. Even if you decide to provide services in one region, your app should support multi-languages. Obviously, if customers can’t understand how to book, they will quit and book from your competitors.

Your online booking app should also have multi-currency support. From pesos to dollars and rupees, customers should have the choice to pay in their preferred currency.

Conclusion

Now that you have the list of must-include features for your online booking app look for an online booking app development team that will help you build a feature-rich and user-friendly app.

Check the company ratings, client testimonials, reviews before you partner with them. See the years of experience and technologies they are well-versed with. Case studies, social media handles would give you an idea of their business.

Summary

A feature-rich online booking app consists of real-time booking, calendar, notifications, social media integration, payment options, and more.

Author Bio

Maulik Shah is the CEO of Biztech, an Online Booking App Development from India. Maulik likes to explore beyond his comfort zone. When it comes to writing for the blog, his contribution is priceless. No one else on the team can bring the deep industry knowledge to articles that he has. However, his door is always open and he is generous with sharing that knowledge.