PROBLEM: You have limited, often fragmented time to meet clients and contacts. You might have a free spot for two hours this afternoon, time between finishing one project and starting the next, and it’d be great to generate some new business in that slot — if only people knew you were free to talk.
While there are ways of telling your clients what you are up to (I know quite a few Twitterers who update their status with messages like “I’m going to be free in London for the next 3 hours, who’s around?” but that is mainly useful for social connections rather than business meetings or, more importantly, billable time.
If you use an online calendar (e.g. Google Calendar) then it’s easy to show your Free/Busy time to the world, you can embed your Google calendar into your site and the result is fairly professional — as you can see here on this site from a certain podcaster we all know and love!
But still… you are relying on clients to look at your calendar and then email to arrange an appointment, suggesting dates and times, which you can then confirm.
Setster is a new service that seems to have taken all this on board and are now offering the next generation of appointment setting services.
Setster adds an “Appointment” Tab on the right-hand side of your website. Users are then are presented with a pop-up booking form (right on your page) and they can choose the service they’d like, e.g. ‘Call me back’, ‘Let’s have a meeting’, ‘Free Consultation’ or ‘Support Call’, whatever you decide. They can be free or paid for services and the client is then presented with a calendar showing when you are free to do business.
You probably get the idea by now so pop on over to Setster to see if you think it might be a useful option for your business.
The great thing about Setster is that it keeps your buyers on your page, no need emails back and forth and adding to your calendar — when the urge to connect strikes users can immediately see when you are free, what you are offering and then grab a time with you… perfect for consultants or anyone with a busy diary.
The free version allows you to work from a single location and allows the client to book for multiple services (e.g. ‘Quick catchup’, ‘Support Call’, ‘Planning Meeting’, etc. etc.). They can book right there and everyone gets an email notification and confirmation of the event.
More advanced features, at a price, includes being able to sync appointments with your personal calendar (ical/.ics), SMS notifications (possibly USA only), automatic reminders and the ability to send promo mails to your client base.
A lovely, intelligent solution to the “how can I allow clients to book my time” problem.
