If you’re an organization looking to improve the customer experience in your stores or in a location where customers come to you to have their problems solved, the chances are that you will have considered some kind of customer experience software solution including appointment scheduling and / or event booking. This blog post covers all the typical elements of a tender or request for proposal (RFP) and provide tips to think about, as well as pitfalls to avoid when procuring an appointment scheduling software solution.
In order to serve customers more effectively some organizations choose to use online solutions, some want to improve the booking experience – online or offline – for meeting rooms or appointments, some choose phone options, and some simply need help scheduling appointments, managing customer workflows or with wayfinding.
Regardless of how you choose to improve the way you serve your customers, focusing on what really matters to your customers – now and in the future – is critical to buying the right solution. In our experience, those who are savvy about what their business really needs and take a more holistic approach to how they choose to serve their customers, both in the short and the long term using an omni-channel approach, are more successful in the long run. Because, let’s face it, today customers expect to be served wherever they are – not wherever you want them to be.
We’ve written this blog post in the format of a typical tender / RFP response, to provide a few things on things to think about when you’re looking at procuring a customer experience solution that includes appointment scheduling or event booking.
So much good stuff, so little time!
Please note: this is a long, thorough blog post with a lot of content. We recommend skimming through it to read the headings and get a general overview, then coming back to focus on specific areas of interest.
When thinking about your business case, it’s worth considering how you are going to track results from today into the future, to ensure you are getting the most value from your solution. Are you therefore primarily focused on improving experience, maximizing resource potential (staff optimization), gaining information about your customers, or all three?
What booking and serving channels do you want to use? When deciding on the channels of engagement think about how customers book appointments today, and how they might expect to be able to do this in the future and answer these questions:
Where you want to serve customers? (face-to-face, phone-based, video, at their business or at their home). People often forget to consider how, when and where they’re actually going to meet or connect with a customer in a way that addresses their concern or solves their problem.
It’s also important to consider how you want your users to interact with the system: including agents, managers and administrators. An IT support system should be a help, not a hindrance. When they work well they can help exceed customer expectations by having the right information available at the right time. Some systems, for example, can even pull advanced information about the customer from your CRM and present it when agents need it.
How do you want data to be managed? When considering this part of your tender or RFP for appointment scheduling software it’s important to remember that any software has to fit within your overarching IT strategy. Things to think about include
When you’re thinking about how credible the suppliers you’re considering are, it’s obviously necessary to check their track record. Are they trustworthy and reliable? And can they demonstrate that through appropriate case studies
Similarly, it’s also important to consider how they will cope with change during the project. Some suppliers can identify the process in advance. Inevitably, change happens, so it’s really important for your supplier to be able to demonstrate the clear, up-front, documented change management process they usually follow, so you all know where you stand.
Just like a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so does the ability to use a system seamlessly depend on its ability to integrate with other required systems.
Obviously, project planning is critical – but so is alignment. Your delivery methodologies need to line up with your suppliers’ method. For example, if you’re wanting true agile delivery, but the vendor you’re considering are not agile natives your
Don’t forget: your needs are the most important and your supplier should fit in with your way of working. But it’s also worth considering the future of this project, too: a forward-looking supplier can also help you evolve… After all, they’ve run projects like this many times before – the chances are that this is a relatively new experience for you. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and learn from their experience – both what has worked, and what has gone wrong, so you don’t make the same mistakes.
The more advice you can give your providers about pricing, the better. If you want the capabilities of a Ferrari but you can only afford a Ford Fiesta, it’s important to realize that you’ll get what you pay for. At ACF we’ve actually told organizations in the past that it’s not possible to deliver against their high expectations for the price they have in mind, without completely compromising on quality.
Considering price and aligning to budget is key, but try to not let it be the only deciding factor. It’s worth bearing in
Equally, changing your supplier is sometimes a daunting task, but one that can/should be done if you really feel it is hindering your progress. Even if you decide not to use a specific vendor it may be good to ask them in a tender how easy it is to move to them in future, should you choose to do so, and ask them to provide evidence of where they have helped other companies like yours do this in the past.
Lastly, consider what procurement or pricing model you wish to use. There are several options and looking at only one specific model may actually give you a skewed understanding of the true cost of ownership. Here are a few examples to compare.
Is the software actually going to work? Will it go live or, like so many inexpensive solutions that promise the earth for an implausibly low cost, will you find that it actually can’t deliver on its promises? These are risks that any organization buying appointment scheduling or event booking software has to consider, which is why asking for demos and evidence, such as case studies and reference calls with existing clients are so important.
How hard are they pushing you to do it all at once? At ACF we are focused on making sure solutions actually work for our customers and their users. That’s partly why we actively encourage our customers to do phased rollouts so that we can ensure they can progressively add more elements of the solution as and when required. It’s great to know that a solution can do everything, but you don’t have to have everything at once. And in project management terms it often makes a lot of sense not to!
As part of the procurement process here are some things to consider when gathering evidence:
Warning: your customers will get ‘hooked’ on your software
At the end of the day, we understand that organizations want to try to buy the cheapest solution possible. But what they often don’t realize is that solving customers’ problems can be a bit of a drug. Your customers get hooked. It’s not always possible to predict, in the tender / RFP phase, how core appointment booking can become to your business… You can transform the way your business operates – from non-scheduled to having revenue driven by appointments! So be aware, if you don’t pick the right supplier you may have to go cold-turkey halfway through and that isn’t just bad for your business: it’s bad for your customers, their experience of your company and, ultimately, your bottom line!
Find out more about appointment booking systems and full customer experience solutions of today, and of the future. You can get in touch by booking a demo or sending us an email acfinfo@acftechnologies.com. We’d love to help.