In July, Microsoft introduced a new tool in Office 365, making it easier for businesses - especially those with limited resources - to manage appointments with their customers. Microsoft said at the time that its Bookings service was designed "to make appointment scheduling simpler and more efficient for you, your staff and your customers", and now it's adding further functionality to boost its usefulness.
Microsoft Bookings is an automated cloud service with a web-based interface that allows customers to book an appointment even outside of business hours, or during the busy working day when there's no-one available to take phone calls. Users can schedule their appointments, and easily add them to their calendars, and they can even get automated reminders as the date approaches. They can reschedule, cancel or make additional bookings too, while the business itself gets a dedicated dashboard showing a complete overview of upcoming appointments, including a customer contact directory.
Microsoft is now hoping to make it even easier for customers to schedule appointments by allowing businesses to integrate their Facebook Page with the Bookings service.
Facebook Pages are often used by business to keep their customers up to date on new products and services, and special offers and promotions. With Microsoft Bookings integration, businesses will now be able to add a 'Book Now' button to their Facebook Page, which will allow customers to quickly schedule an appointment with their contact information already filled in for them.
By including this call to action on the social media site, Microsoft is hoping to remove one more barrier that might otherwise prevent customers from taking the important 'next step' of actually making a booking once they've found out about a company's products or services.
Microsoft Bookings is currently available for Office 365 Business Premium users in the US and Canada, but it will begin rolling out worldwide next month.
Source: Microsoft
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