Your website should provide your potential clients with a way to book with you without the need to call you. There are two solutions that offer just that - a booking calendar and a contact form. Both have their pros and cons, as well as some best practices to keep in mind.
Read on to see how to make your calendar/contact form effective and useful to your clients.
Booking systems for therapists: What to choose
In general, it's a matter of your personal preference. Both booking systems for therapists can work really well and be very effective at getting new leads to your therapy/coaching business.
Read how to design a website for SEO vs. for Google Ads
For example, here at Fully Booked Pros, we use a calendar to offer free initial consultations:
But many of our clients use a more straightforward contact form:
Both tools can be equally effective, but you should make an informed decision on which tool to use, as there are some differences between them. Let's talk about the booking calendar first.
A booking calendar for your private practice
The main idea behind the booking calendar is to enable your potential clients to book consultations/appointments directly via your website, without the need to reach out to you and set up a specific time and date.
However, there are two important things to consider here:
You need to ensure your booking calendar is updated at all times. If something comes up, you need to go to your calendar and block the specific time or even the whole day. If you don't, you're facing a risk that you can have two different things at the same time. For some therapists, this may be an unnecessary hassle, just saying.
You need to have a reasonable number of days and hours open. Imagine a booking calendar that allows your clients to book with you only on Friday at 10 am. This wouldn't really work, would it? The vast majority of your prospective clients would leave your website and go to a different one, assuming your availability is very limited. That's why, if you go with the calendar, try to open as many days and hours as possible, especially if you're just starting your business.
What about third-party tools (such as Calendly or JaneApp)?
That's another important thing to consider. You probably don't want to keep two different calendars going, right? If so, the best way to do this is simply to integrate your third-party calendar into your website.
Most such booking platforms offer such a feature, and it usually just requires a short and relatively simple coding work. Take a look at this example. We implemented the AcuityScheduling feature on our client's website. The end result looks great and is very user-friendly:
Once you implement such a widget, place at least one test booking (on both desktop and mobile) to ensure your third-party integration works as expected.
A contact form for your business
Contact forms are a little more flexible, but they also require more work. You see, with a contact form, your prospective client can ask you what are your available dates or they can propose a specific time and date. But you need to reply to confirm or reschedule, which creates an additional step in the process.
On the other hand, with a contact form, your availability is never an issue, because your prospect cannot see your available times and dates at the moment of sending such a message. In most cases, that's a good thing, giving you a little more flexibility.
When it comes to contact forms, it's important to keep them as straightforward as possible. You don't want to ask your clients to provide 10 different details about themselves. Take a look at the example above; a good contact form can contain just three fields:
Name
Email address
Message
And that's it! Every additional field discourages your prospects from reaching out to you.
Do contact forms work?
Yes, they certainly do. We run marketing campaigns for a number of therapists, both those using a contact form and a booking calendar. Both tools work, and clients use them more willingly vs. calls or standard emails.
Where should I place a contact form/booking calendar?
There are a few places where you should have a booking/contact feature. Of course, you need one on our "Contact" subpage. Many therapists add a contact form at the end of the main page or even in the footer.
However, especially when you're running Google Ads and you have several landing pages, all of them should have a contact form or a booking calendar at the bottom. This way, you can navigate your clients down the sales funnel from initial interest to booking therapy/coaching with you.
Wrapping up: Make the most of your calendar/form
Regardless of whether you choose a contact form or a booking calendar, keep in mind two things:
Keep your calendar updated at all times
Respond to messages/bookings you receive as quickly as possible.
Even if you offer a self-service calendar, and your clients can book on their own, it's still a good idea to reach out to them, thank for the booking, ask if they have any questions before the appointment, and tell them what to do if they encounter any problems with getting into the meeting.
Thanks to such an approach, you can kill two birds with one stone:
You build a positive image in the eyes of potential clients (a good domain name will help you do the same)
You minimize the number of no-shows. Of course, you will not eliminate them altogether, but you certainly can minimize them.
If you're thinking about how to get your PP or coaching business off the ground, feel free to reach out and book a free consultation with us :)
We look forward to talking to you!
Monika & Mike