WordPress plugin for college tours, events and other appointments 2019
The internet is one of the most notable innovations of all time. It has helped to make communication and transaction easy and fast. It has also made it possible for other spectacular changes to take place in the administrative world. With an internet connection, businesses and organizations around the world can use the online booking system to boost productivity. Top on the list of those who benefit from using the software is colleges and universities. They do a lot of administrative work and this can be time-consuming. The online booking system is designed to make appointment scheduling and college event booking quick and simple for staff, lecturers and students. At the end of the day, everyone benefits from the booking system when it is installed on the website with college information. Here’s how.
1. Allows for Efficient Scheduling of Assessment Exams
An online booking system can be of great help when scheduling assessment examinations for students. With it, students can quickly get updates on the colleges’ information website about the time, day and location of exams. Students will be informed when changes are made to the time, date or venue of an exam. Without a booking system, there may be confusion among students. They may stick to the old time table if they do not get the information on time. Additionally, exam proctors will be able to tell how many people are attending a particular exam. This will help them prepare what they need to ensure a hitch-free exam.
2. Helps School Counselors To Manage Appointments Efficiently
Colleges that do not use booking plugins will have to stick to the old way of scheduling appointments and booking college tours. Since it is often on a first come first serve basis, students who can not be at the counselor’s office on time may not be attended to on the day that is convenient for them.
With an effective college booking service, a student can book an appointment with the counselor before coming. This way they are certain of the date and time that they will see the counselor. The booking system helps college counselors when they need to schedule and oversee counseling sessions with students. It also makes the process of booking tours easy and fast.
3. Allows Administrators to Set and Manage Appointments with Large Groups
Coordinating meetings between large groups of people can sometimes be overwhelming. The first challenge you may encounter is scheduling the meeting and sending information to participants. An online booking system is a useful tool for coordinating and managing schedules for large events. It allows the administrator to easily communicate time, date and venue of the event. If the participants need to pay any fees to attend the event, the amount will be seen on the colleges’ information website. Coordinating and scheduling events becomes a piece of cake with the online scheduling system.
4. 24/7 Availability
Colleges that book appointments manually cannot boast of 24/7 availability. This means that students and other people who want to schedule an appointment can only do so during office hours. If the receptionist or secretary is not on sit, no one will be able to book an appointment. This can be frustrating, especially for students who were busy during the day and forgot to schedule an important appointment or make reservations for an event. With the online booking system, students can book appointments and make reservations at a time that is convenient for them.
5. Better Room Management
College students who come in every year need a place to stay. The online booking system makes rooms more accessible to students. With the software installed on the school’s website, students can book rooms when the session opens. The booking system ensures fair access as students do not have to travel down to get a room reservation or even get a room based on who they know in the school.
It also ensures that students get the right room for their needs as there will be relevant information on the website with college information to guide the choices of the students.
6. Improved Asset Usage and Reporting
With an online booking system, students will be able to optimize the use of the school’s equipment. The booking system allows the school to track resources and how well students are using them. The online booking system also helps the school to make inventory decisions. The authorities will be able to identify those items that are in high demand as well as those resources that can be freed up for other important purposes.
7. Sends Confirmations and Reminders
It’s easy to forget that you have an appointment when you book days in advance and have a lot on your mind. The online booking system sends a confirmation message after booking to inform you that your appointment scheduling was successful. A day or two before the scheduled date, the booking system will also send you a reminder message to notify you of your upcoming appointment.
These reminder messages help to reduce late cancellations and no-shows. Both the student who booked the appointment and the college staff they want to meet with will get a reminder message. This way counselors can know the particular student they are meeting with and lecturers can know who their teaching. If there’s a need to go through the student’s file, the counselor or lecturer would have done so before the student arrives.
8. Allows Students to Make Payments Online
With an online booking system, students can pay for events, tours, and accommodation online. Most booking plugins integrate with popular payment gateways, allowing clients to pay for services online. Colleges can make the process of making payment easy for students with a booking plugin. Students will no longer have to wait in long queues to make payments or even wait until the day of an event to register and pay. All of these can be done from anywhere and at any time of the day.
9. Allows Students to Move and Cancel Appointments
When students book appointments sometimes they may get tied down with class activities and this can stop them from showing up for the appointment. Instead of keeping the lecturer or counselor waiting, the students can cancel the appointment or move it to a more convenient time. Cancellation of appointment, however, cannot be done a few hours or minutes to the meeting time. It must be done within the period that is specified on the website. When students cancel on time or move their appointment, the slot becomes available on the calendar. This way another student can quickly take up the slot.
10. Online Calendar
The online calendar shows a lecturer or an administrator’s availability. With it, students will know the right time to book an appointment with you. In the absence of an online calendar, students may book appointments on the day that you will be too busy to attend to them or unavailable. If the students have postponed other activities just to meet with you, they may be disappointed if
they do not find you in your office. This can discourage them from booking another appointment with you. Lecturers can also choose how they want to show their booking availability. Additionally, the online booking system is a great way to prevent overbooking. Those who want to book an appointment can only book free slots on the calendar.
11. Eliminates Mistakes Caused By Human Error
Humans make mistakes, especially when they are in a rush to accomplish a task. Sometimes, the employee taking down the student’s booking request may forget to go through the list of those who have scheduled an appointment with the lecturer. This may eventually lead to the problem of overbooking, causing the lecturer to either spend more time in the office attending to these students or ask that the remaining students go back to book an appointment for another day.
Thanks to the booking calendar, students can see when a lecturer will be available and if he already has an appointment slated for that time. You can only choose a time when the lecturer is free.
12. Allows Lecturers To Access Student Personal Information at Anytime
The online booking system allows lecturers to quickly find out the necessary information about a student that has booked an appointment. On the booking form, students may be required to fill in certain personal information and it will be stored in the system. The lecturer can always access this information when it is time to meet with the student. This eliminates the need to request for the student’s file to obtain some basic information about them.
13. Saves Time
The online booking system helps to save everyone’s time as it does not require phone calls. When some students call to book an appointment or make reservations, they may forget to make some important inquiries or they may be confused about a piece of information. This will mean calling again to get clarification. It could also be that the staff member responsible for taking appointments over the phone needs to call a student whose appointment request was wrongly written to reschedule. All of these take time. With a booking system, students do not need to call a lecturer’s office to make inquiries before booking an appointment. Students can find all the relevant information they need to schedule an appointment by themselves. The college staff will also not need to take down any appointment requests. And when bookings are done online there will be no calling of students to reschedule an appointment because of a mistake or an oversight on the part of the employee.
14. Reduces Stress in the Workplace
The result of overworking your employees is stress and frustration. The college administrative team will become stressed in no time when they have too much work to do. The online booking system reduces the stress of employees by eliminating or at least decreasing phone calls from students who want to book appointments with lecturers. Employees do not have to abandon the task they have at hand to answer phone calls or respond to emails of students. Those who want to make inquiries and book appointments can go to the college information website to do so without contacting the administrative department. This way, the administrative team can concentrate on other important duties and deliver on time.
15. Encourages More Students to Schedule Appointments
Manual booking can be very inconvenient and this can, in fact, discourage students from scheduling appointments and booking classes. College websites with booking plugins have more students booking appointments with lecturers and booking college tours. This is because these days more and more people prefer to do things on the internet. Students are encouraged to meet with counselors, lecturers, and instructors when the school makes it easy to see these people. The reminder messages also make it easy to remember that they have an appointment. Additionally, a college library website with a booking plugin allows more students to make use of the library facility.
16. It’s Simple to Use and Available To Every Student
Booking a college appointment in 2019 is a no-brainer with a booking plugin in place. With a mobile device and the internet, students can book appointments on the college website. It is easy to use and does not require any technical skills. The booking plugin allows students to find information about their exams, tours, and lectures whenever they need to. All students can use the scheduling system to book appointments and book classes from wherever they are and at any time.
Conclusion
Every college needs an effective college booking service. However, not all booking plugins are suitable for colleges. It is pertinent to look for the right booking plugin that caters to the needs of the organization. The right booking plugin should allow lecturers to manage all their bookings from the online calendar with ease. It should also be easy to install with responsive templates.
With the online booking system, college staff will have a calm and stress-free environment to work in. Not only will booking college tours be easy for students, but the online scheduling software will also make it possible for students to fully utilize the college library website as well as the college book website.