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The Fallacy of Appointment Request Forms
Thursday, February 10, 2005 Posted: 19:57 PM (EST)
I suppose the telephone was the first electronic appointment device. It brought us together
and permitted instantaneous planning and scheduling. As a business tool it still reigns supreme today by acting as the primary
communication link between businesses and their clients. But the internet opened new communication possibilities and as a
budding newcomer it was pressed into action. Businesses
eagerly began setting up web sites and inserting their e-mail addresses with the intention of providing a convenience.
We all know that this failed miserably.
Then the really ambitious began including appointment forms into their web designs in the hope of attracting new clients and
providing an enhanced online service. These too, although the skeletal remains are still visible on the web today, have
also failed horribly. The open e-mail addresses ended up in the traks of e-mail harvesters and spam bots. The appointment
forms were open to anyone who happened across their web site. Many of these forms, which I know for certain, were
surreptitiously used to send spam, even back to that very same business.
Owners still insert these scripts into their sites - but
at what cost?
The script for these types of forms can be copied and pasted from any one of thousands of free script sites on the internet. You
simply set it up with all of your required fields. Hotscripts
is a good place to begin looking for free web forms. If you choose this route you will receive an e-mail with their name and address and phone number and all of the necessary information
to make an entry in your appointment book.
But wait ! Your task isn't complete.
Now you have to confirm the appointment because the client doesn't know whether their requested time slot is open or not. So you
try calling that person, but they aren't answering or their message box is full. Oh well, she's probably
at work , so you try later on in the day. Still no answer and you're ready to close early because Monday is your
slow day. So you decide to call the client from home, after dinner, because you have to take the kids to soccer practice.
All of a sudden what was free isn't so free after all.
You spend valuable time searching for a spam-proof cut-n-paste form, you insert it into your html, you check it 6 times to
make sure it's working properly and then you give it a prominent spot on your homepage. Voila! Now you are ready to receive
online appointment requests, regardless of whether or not the request is from a legitimate
user and regardless of the time you spend tracking them down to confirm the appointment. This is the nature of free appointment
request forms. By posting a form you are saying to your clients that their time is more
valuable than yours and that you will contact them to confirm the appointment.
Issuing secret client logins will not work.
Even if you do provide clients with a username and password to a members only area you cannot confirm that appointment
with simple forms. Once again, by making it available you are accepting the responsibility for taking the time out of
your day to confirm their appointment. Your client could have just called instead.
A complete online appointment system makes sense.
The internet has become a powerful tool. Using it to receive confirmed appointments
makes economic sense and would be a huge benefit to any business. Just look at
the airline industry. But the only way to provide efficient online scheduling
is by presenting clients with all of the information they will need to make their
own unassisted decisions through a complete online
appointment application.
Ron Poole is the managing editor of Hair Say Headlines and Hair Say Newsroom.
Copyright 2005 Beauty By Us Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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