Boost your revenues with online booking software

By Maëlys De Santis

Published: November 12, 2024

When you hear the word " online reservation", you immediately think of booking your next vacation or flight to sunnier climes. But have you ever thought of implementing booking software for your business? This service can be used in all business sectors: transport, hotels and rentals are the best-known, but so are convenience stores and catering outlets (restaurants, hairdressing salons, leisure activities, etc.).

Many tools are available to help you manage your bookings and fill your diary, such as SimplyBook.me, Planyo, Myrezapp or Bookeo. This type of service is mainly used in the BtoC sector, but also applies to BtoB.

We'd like to shed some light on the challenges of online reservations, and give you 10 reasons why you should implement a reservation software solution in your company.

CONTENTS

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Online booking: the current situation and some insights

The advent of the Internet and smartphones has drastically changed consumer behavior. Online booking is no exception. This service offers numerous advantages to you and your customers. We'll take a closer look below.

A few figures to illustrate this trend:

In 2017, online restaurant reservations increased by 30% in France.

La Fourchette

Online restaurant reservations in 2017:

Source: Food Service Vision

Turning to the hospitality sector in particular, here are some results from a study conducted by Google:

Mobile use in online booking increased by 18% in 2017.

Google predicts that online bookings will grow by 9% in 2018.

The strong growth in the hotel and restaurant sector augurs similar results in other industries.

Do I need online reservation software?

While offering hotel guests a booking calendar is becoming increasingly commonplace (not to say indispensable), online booking services are not restricted to the hotel industry or e-tourism in general.

Any local shop or business that takes bookings has an interest in adopting online booking: restaurants, cinemas, sports classes, beauty salons, medical or paramedical practices, theaters, leisure activities, hairdressing salons, and so on.

10 reasons to use online reservation software

Why implement such software? Still not sure? Here are 10 reasons why you should take the plunge and implement an online booking program in your business.

Reason no. 1: immeasurable time savings

It's an undeniable fact that making appointments over the phone is time-consuming. When you're busy making an appointment over the phone with a customer, you're not busy styling, serving, informing and collecting from another customer.

Given that our customers can book independently, at any time of day, we've gone from 95% of calls to 30%!

Béatrice Auvray, Sky Circus CEO and user of the MyRezApp solution.
MyRezApp is a 100% mobile, turnkey reservation solution. Manage services, availability, reservations, payment, etc.: MyRezApp simplifies and multiplies your appointments.

Online booking software frees you from time spent on the phone, allowing you to focus on your customers.

Reason no. 2: increased visibility

By setting up an online reservation solution, you'll have visibility at all times on availability, bookings, the most popular services and the most sought-after slots. This gives you greater control over your schedule and enables you to organize your business more efficiently.

Your business benefits directly. You get data that can have a direct impact on your sales. For example: why not run a promotional offer at off-peak times to attract more customers and broaden your customer base?

What's more, your entire team has access to reservations. The collaborative aspect of reservation tools optimizes your team management and organization.

Reason no. 3: No more missed appointments

Missed appointments are not only a waste of time (booking, appointment preparation, etc.), but also a net loss of income for your company.

Online booking software sends an appointment confirmation by SMS and/or email to your customers, as well as automatic reminders as the due date approaches.

Another advantage: flexibility. If you can't make it, your customers can cancel a booking quickly and easily online, in a matter of seconds. You'll be notified in good time, so you can adapt your business and accept new bookings.

Reason no. 4: accessibility at all times

Are you unavailable by phone? Are you away on vacation? Your opening hours don't match your customers' availability? That's no longer a problem when it comes to filling your reservation calendar.

A customer who can't reach you by phone is lost.

Reservations can be made at any time, even outside your opening hours. That's the beauty of this solution. Being able to book an appointment thanks to a 24/7 service is the number 1 criterion for 51% of French people (source).

Reason no. 5: mobility

Booking is not only accessible at any time, but also from anywhere. Increasingly, Internet users are booking appointments via their cell phones.

According to a study conducted by Google, mobile use to make reservations increased by 18% between January and June 2017. A service available anytime and simply from their smartphone: here's the key to boosting your booking rate.

Reason no. 6: your website is personalized

You're meeting a need of your customers by offering them the freedom to make reservations via your website. To complete the process and offer them a complete experience that reflects your image, here are a few elements to personalize so that you and your customers can find your way around perfectly:

hours of operation - you don't have the same ones as your competitors,
the language(s) of your site - don't forget some of your customers,
the accessibility of your site - so that no one is deprived of your services,
the text of reservation confirmations and SMS and email reminders, etc.

The SimplyBook.me solution, for example, offers a wide range of functionalities, including in its free version, to set up a simple online reservation system that is accessible to all, personalized and no less effective.

Take this case study: you run a hairdressing salon, and you enter the available resources according to the days of the week and the opening hours of your salon. This way, your customers can not only book an appointment at a time that suits them, but also find out whether their regular hairdresser is available. You offer a 100% personalized customer experience even before the appointment has begun.

Reason no. 7: fewer tools, greater efficiency

Are you reluctant to install, learn and use yet another piece of software on a daily basis? Rest assured, all online reservation solutions feature API connectors for direct integration with your existing tools. Everything happens on your website, and customers don't need to leave it to make their reservation.

For example, Planyo integrates seamlessly with all CMS (Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.). It also offers the option of synchronizing appointments, once booked, with your Google calendar or iCal, for example. Planyo offers a wide range of integrations: contact management, accounting, CRM, marketing tools, etc.

Reason no. 8: better management of your schedule

You'll have a clear calendar at your fingertips, so you can quickly see which hours of the day, or which days of the week or month, are your busiest. Thanks to this information, you can organize yourself better and manage your schedule more efficiently. For example, you now know when to give priority to deliveries. You can plan your additional tasks for off-peak hours, and are no longer interrupted.

Reason no. 9: transparency

Your customers don't have your schedule in front of them when they call. When they book online, they choose the time that suits them from all those available. Even so, personalizing your schedule in advance leaves you in control of your time: you alone decide on opening times, exceptional closures, etc.

Transparency also comes into play when it comes to prices: your rates are displayed online. Your customers know what to expect, and there are no nasty surprises.

Reason no. 10: online deposits and payment

The final advantage of booking software is that your customers can pay online. This can be for the full amount, or your customer can pay you a deposit. Again, this saves you time at the appointment, as you no longer have to cash in your customer.

What's more, online payments are secure, which reassures both customers and companies. Payment by credit card with 3 D Secure or via PayPal are two options that facilitate transactions.