Most businesses are going online these days. Business processes have become faster, advanced, and automated. Booking appointments offline is not something your customers are expecting. With the rise of the internet, it is necessary to provide online solutions for booking appointments.  

Here is a list of problems with traditional pen and paper booking systems.

Traditional practices are unproductive 

Imagine how much time is being wasted on noting down the details while booking an appointment. Imagine the number of possible errors made while booking an appointment. Every time the customer needs to update or cancel an appointment they have to call you. Every time one person has to call the customer for reminders. Doesn’t it sound unproductive? This time can be spent on doing a lot of other productive things.  

Appointment books are losing customers 

Customers these days want everything instantly, they want services to be available at their convenience. Offline appointment booking doesn’t work that way, customers have to be available at a specific time to book an appointment and it doesn’t go well for all the customers. It results in the loss of a customer.   

Loss of documents 

Sometimes due to an unorganized workplace, important documents like appointment books are lost. Customer data also gets lost which can cost businesses. The company might have to face legal trouble if some very important documents are lost. Pen & Paper can get you into a lot of trouble, so it is better to digitize appointment booking. 

No Performance tracking 

Businesses need to make continuous changes in business processes to make the customer experience better. Most business decisions these days are data-driven and it is not possible with traditional appointment booking practices. It is not possible to analyze this data so there is no way to track performance and make data-driven decisions.  

Poor customer service 

Using pen and paper causes management problems and it eventually results in poor customer experience. For example, suppose it’s 11 at night and the customer wants to book an urgent appointment for tomorrow morning, he still has to wait for the office to open, he cannot book it instantly. 

Less competitive 

We live in a digital era and using pen and paper for business processes shows a lack of management which gives your competition an upper hand to outrun you. Most people these days want to book an appointment online to save time and effort, so if you’re still using pen and paper, you’re already out of the league. 

No integration with CRM 

Offline appointment books cannot be integrated with the CRM software as everything is handwritten. It eventually results in a loss of revenue as you cannot understand the customer requirements.  

No Proper feedback channel 

Getting feedbacks on pen and paper is of no meaning is most of them go unread. Feedbacks are important for any organization and making changes according to them is a must. But on paper feedbacks are useless because there are no ways to properly analyze the issue which is backed by the data.

Appointments are unsafe

Due to the spread of Covid-19, there are chances of spread of infection while booking offline appointments. Going paperless is the only way out to be safe and secure. 

Pen & Paper processes are not environment friendly 

A lot of papers are wasted every year to book appointments. It is for one-time use only. A single SMS can do the same job more efficiently. The process is not environment-friendly. 

Do you still think using pen and paper for appointment booking will help you survive in this competitive world? If you do, you should rethink the idea of it. 

For the time being, interacting with virtual humans is a way to go as it helps people feel less isolated in their own houses.