Keep Your Bays Full by Pre-Scheduling Service Appointments

The value of pre-scheduling routine appointments

When you go to the dentist, the last thing you do before leaving the office is to schedule your next cleaning. Dentists figured out years ago that most people are not going to initiate the scheduling of their yearly teeth cleaning, so they pre-schedule the next appointment before the patients even leave the office. Why not do the same for your customers’ routine auto maintenance?

We often hear from shop owners that one of the biggest challenges they face is getting a steady, predictable schedule of appointments. Large increases or decreases in appointment volume can dramatically affect both the morale and profitability of a shop. So why haven’t many auto shops taken to pre-scheduling the next oil change or service for their customers?  Most of the time, the software used for scheduling appointments doesn’t support pre-scheduling appointments that well, if at all.

The biggest problems with pre-scheduling appointments are getting your customers to remember that they scheduled a future appointment with you in the first place, and then making sure they show up on time. That’s where Shopmonkey comes in! We built our entire shop management software around the idea that auto shops should be able to better predict their workflow by smoothing out the ebbs and flows in appointment volume.

Scheduling appointments and automated reminders in advance

When you create an appointment in Shopmonkey, the customer communication management for repair shops functionality of the software allows you to set automated confirmations and reminders to be sent to your customers via email and/or text message before they even leave your shop. You can also set when a customer will be automatically reminded of an appointment. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it will help keep your bays full.

If a customer gets close to the pre-scheduled appointment and realizes the scheduled time won’t work anymore, moving the appointment to a different date or time is just a few clicks away.

Pre-scheduling is a win for your customer and your business

Succeeding at getting your customers to pre-schedule their service appointments is rooted in how well you present it to them. Many customers are geared around convenience, so if you offer to pre-schedule their appointments to save them the headache of remembering when their vehicle is due for service, and let them know you’ll remind them a few days in advance, most customers will love it.

Want to know more about how Shopmonkey can help you set and retain future appointments? Schedule a demo with our product expert team today!