The SaaS market, and more specifically the appointment scheduling market, remains extremely competitive in 2022 after two years of favorable conditions and a natural positive trend. The global online booking software market is expected to exceed USD 487 million by 2025, up from USD 196 million in 2019.
As a reminder, appointment scheduling software solutions (or online booking software) are tools that allow professionals and businesses to better manage appointment scheduling and bookings.
Reasons for strong growth
Increasing acceleration of digital transformation
The main reason for this strong growth outlook is the increasing digitization of practices around the world. The increase in the number of smartphones and the growing number of internet users are the major factors driving the expansion of the appointment scheduling software market.
Companies are aware of the need to be connected to the younger generation and adopt online platforms such as appointment scheduling software and scheduling software. Industries are increasingly adopting these management solutions because they make it easier to manage customers and time spent on scheduling. They shorten response times and enable productivity gains. Technological advances, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, are expected to provide significant growth opportunities for this sector, which is expected to expand at an annual growth rate of nearly 10% from 2020 to 2030.
Two software models still coexist
The market is divided into three categories: web, mobile app and other. The Web represents the largest market share today. Web-based software allows companies to manage appointments, record and track sales, manage employees, strengthen customer relationships and better understand business performance.
Desktop Applications
Desktop applications represent the traditional form in which software has long been developed. They are typically on a license-based model and installed on end-user managed hardware.
Advantages…
– Robustness
– Richness of functionality
– Customization
…but also disadvantages:
– Lack of an online portal for staff or customer access
– Maintenance and support costs
– Continuous upgrading to be done by the end user
Web based
SaaS applications are gradually replacing desktop applications.
Web-based applications provided by a third-party service provider offer appointment scheduling tools and functionalities as a hosted software solution, typically delivered via a web browser.
Numerous benefits
Cloud-based appointment scheduling softwares have become popular and for good reasons:
- Better accessibility
- Quick and easy appointment scheduling
- Significant time and cost savings
- Automation of many manual processes
- Elimination of errors due to human intervention
Some disadvantages
- Offered as a subscription service, the customer remains dependent on the service provider
- Costs can be higher than the desktop solutions
Advantages of online solutions for the end user
The associated productivity gains
The demand for appointment management software is increasing. Small and medium-sized companies are using them more and more. They have realized that beyond the convenience of online booking, online appointment scheduling solves the problems of inefficient appointment scheduling processes.
Online booking tools help businesses increase both customer loyalty and operational efficiency.
Accessibility
As with all other cloud-deployed solutions, most online appointment scheduling platforms are accessible anywhere, anytime. Users can easily use these systems from the comfort of their mobile devices, allowing them to respond to critical appointment messages in real time.
No more missed appointments
No-shows can be a real headache for many businesses, as they mean disappointing results and lost revenue.
Appointment scheduling software easily solves this problem. It sets automated reminders via SMS or email.
Reduce errors
Manual appointment scheduling is notoriously prone to errors that can lead to cancellations, double bookings and lost revenue. Using traditional methods such as paper calendars, text messages and phone calls can lead to such complications.
By having all relevant appointment information at your fingertips, appointment scheduling software can reduce them.
Reporting capabilities
Many appointment scheduling tools have reporting capabilities that subscribers use to detect the most important customers. The information provided by these reports can help you make a better decision based on the information gathered.
Bringing innovative features
Appointment scheduling software is a business solution that allows experts and businesses to make appointments and bookings more efficiently. An appointment scheduling software is also known to perform key functions such as customer appointment scheduling, staff scheduling, automatic reminders or calendar management, and has a real-time automated engine. Using a good appointment scheduling software not only eliminates the problems that arise in manual processes, but also ensures a rewarding customer experience.
Online appointment scheduling software also caters to the growing adoption of mobile consultation on mobile devices like smartphones or tablets. It allows customers to make reservations from anywhere on the Internet, and also to receive immediate confirmations and reservations.
Leading sectors
The advantages of appointment scheduling software apply to all business sectors. However, the upward trend is supported by the healthcare and education industries. Increasing adoption of mobile health apps is one of the major factors contributing to the growth of the appointment scheduling software market in the healthcare industry. The growing importance of mobile apps in the healthcare industry is improving the efficiency of the system.
Appointment scheduling software market: which players?
Key players
There are many possibilities available in the appointment scheduling software market today.
The major players in this market (Acuity Scheduling, Simplybook.me, Appointy, SetMore, MyTime, TimeTrade, Pulse 24/7, Calendly, Bobclass, Shortcuts Software, Veribook, Reservio, BookingRun, Cirrus Insight, CozyCal, and Square) are opting for a strategy of constant innovation and service acquisition to gain market share. These acquisitions aim to strengthen the tools by complementing the feature set and ultimately to bring additional benefits to their customers worldwide. This strategy is similar to Equity Partners’ 2019 acquisition of Mindbody (which notably helped accelerate its growth and better serve its customers and partners than before).
Popular players and features offered
Some publishers offer subscriptions to get your own professional booking website or, if the website already exists, to integrate a widget into it. Others offer pricing without subscription. The payment is made per appointments booked. Finally, free solutions exist within the limit of a certain number of appointments booked per month.
In this saturated landscape,  Lodago stands out for its ease of use ands its ability to optimize the appointment booking process for each user or client. Indeed, Lodago offers an original and unique functionality on the market by proposing to eliminate the steps of clicks and redirections to a web page found in other market players. The customer does not need a web browser to validate his appointments. This novelty represents a significant contribution in fluidity and time saving.
Indeed, players such as Timify, Doodle, Prendreunrendez-vous.fr or Voxiplan allow you to make reservations 24/7, send reminders before an appointment or manage the organization of the appointment from A to Z. For intuitive and direct online appointment scheduling, users turn to Square, which has an interactive calendar, embeddable widgets, and you can track your appointment history. Acuity Scheduling is appreciated for its flexibility and time-zone aware reminder system. Users who want an integrated calendar for easier teamwork or a complete and customizable environment to offer online appointments turn to Calendly or CalenDoc. Finally, to manage online reservations and obtain a follow-up or a waiting list, Team-up or Checkfront can be used.
All of these tools, however, require browsing through many pages and clicking on many links before they can confirm or cancel an appointment. With the growing need for efficient, intuitive and fast solutions, Lodago combines the existing possibilities while providing a unprecedented competitive advantage not available in the market: an appointment booking process available in a click without ever leaving the email. By making the latest emailing technologies available while optimizing the features that already exist on the market, Lodago supports its users and their customers throughout the appointment setting process.
Key indicators
The popularity of online management systems is reflected in the 1,547,239 appointments booked through the Bookedin platform alone in 2019. They help minimize no-shows, which are known to be a major source of lost revenue. The following statistics give a general idea of how online appointment booking is evolving: 82 % of clients use mobile devices to book appointments, while 16 % and 2 % are booked from desktops and tablets respectively:
41% of booking services are found via social networks, 29% are direct, 25% via referral websites and 4,4% via organic search:
Conclusion
The market is attracting more and more new players, especially following the breakthrough of Doodle.
The supply is strong but so is the demand, given the advantages that online appointment scheduling solutions bring. According to reportsnreports.com, the estimated value of savings resulting from the use of online appointment scheduling is nearly 2.8 billion euros.
Finally, since more than 60% of Generation Z prefers to receive customer service online rather than over the phone, the adoption of online appointment scheduling by businesses is vital to retain a younger customer base, ensuring the sustainability of their business in the future.
This is why Lodago offers you a unique and intuitive solution to optimize your appointment scheduling process. You will be able to concentrate on the essential, i.e. the development of your business!
