As we approach the end of an eventual 2015 in the Software as a Service world, some of the most in-demand productivity applications are built around online appointment scheduling. Streamlining the appointment process and offering clients additional control, flexibility, and convenience is something businesses of any size can benefit from and, while web is saturated with online appointment scheduling solutions, the majority remain focused on the same market: small service-based businesses with simple needs. If a barbershop, salon, mechanic, or life coach wants online appointment scheduling and automated appointment reminders, they likely have dozens of viable options in this crowded space. Square, GroupOn, and Intuit are just some of the companies who have recently acquired online appointment scheduling startups geared toward small businesses and new services seem to be popping up almost weekly.
While quality varies widely across the field and no single service is perched atop the market share throne, one thing is obvious after spending less than 5 minutes evaluating each of the top options: SnapAppointments is the online appointment scheduling application built for enterprise use. Not only is SnapAppointments the only company focused on this rapidly emerging market segment, it is downright slick in every way. The speed, reliability, and user interface are so far into another class above the others it is unlikely they will be challenged for years. In 2014, SnapAppointments was a finalist to develop the US Veterans Affairs Department online scheduling system. Although Epic, a Lockheed subsidiary, was ultimately awarded a $624M contract to develop the new VA patient scheduling system, the decision obviously had more to do with profit, favors, and politics than it did producing the best online appointment scheduling platform – SnapAppointments can do it all (and do it today) and has been production tested for nearly 5 years. With performance and security built for the enterprise, you would expect SnapAppointments to be the most expensive option out there; the reality is that it is one of the most competitive even for small businesses. With unlimited locations, users, permissions, password policies, clients, services, and calendars and the ability to sync with Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple iCal, even these basic features of SnapAppointments are exotic elsewhere. The state of Alaska has been using SnapAppointments to book thousands of appointments daily since the start of 2015 but, at the same time, more solo business prefer SnapAppointments – this is the one case where a one-size-fits-all system is the best choice from top to bottom. If you or your business is in the market for an online appointment scheduling service, do yourself a favor and start with a 30-day free trial of SnapAppointments – it will save you a lot of time and frustration.
