4 Ways To Measure the ROI of Appointment Software

4 Ways To Measure the ROI of Appointment Software

It’s no mystery that everyone wants to get their money’s worth—whether they’re headed on an all-inclusive resort vacation or considering new banking software. 

In the case of digital appointments and queuing solutions, you’re sure to run into questions about how to measure its success. If it feels overwhelming to understand ROI, tracking, and reporting, we’re here to help. 

In this article, we’ll define the four areas you’ll see measurable appointment and queuing software ROI at your bank or credit union—like increased revenue, recovered revenue, staff efficiency, and client satisfaction. We’ll also explain the metrics you should be tracking and share some of the savings and gains financial institutions who use appointment software see.

1. New Revenue From More High-Quality Appointments

Without self-serve appointment and queuing software, most financial institutions are missing out on opportunities to get in front of new and existing customers or members who are looking for high-value services (like financial planning advice or loans). Contacting your call center or speaking to staff in-branch are the only ways to book these high-value appointments—unless you offer 24/7 self-serve appointment booking across channels. These tools make it easier for clients to connect with staff, which will increase the number of high-quality bookings you’ll get.

With appointments and queuing software, the ROI on those crucial customer interactions can be measured in increased appointments, higher average revenue per appointment, and higher close rates.   

How Should You Measure Your ROI?  

  • Increased Appointments 

When members can book and attend meetings in just a few clicks, they will. Take a baseline of how many appointments you were having before having a scheduling solution and compare it to how many you have now. It may be tough to measure, so make sure to survey your staff before launching, or go back through a few of your staff’s calendars to get an idea of their baseline. 

Coconut Software, a leading online appointment scheduling tool for banks and credit unions, typically sees an average increase of 13% in booked appointments among its customers. More appointments lead to more opportunities to connect with clients, solve their financial woes, and sell your products and services. 

  • Higher Average Revenue Per Appointment

Look at how much revenue appointments generated before, on average, and after. If you don’t have pre-implementation data, take the average loan or mortgage value and divide that by total number of appointments per service to determine your benchmark for your average revenue per appointment.

Appointment tools allow staff to know when, why, and how meetings are happening—which helps them better prepare to meet individual member’s needs, prepare paperwork beforehand, and identify upsell opportunities. Similarly, the software offers tools like co-browsing during virtual appointments so you can collect signatures and close services faster. Many banks and credit unions see 150% more revenue after implementing appointment and queuing software. 

  • Higher Close Rates 

If members are more likely to reach the right person to meet their needs, show up with the right documentation, and complete their appointment on time, your financial institution is probably completing more high-quality meetings than ever before. What percentage of your members interested in a service or product actually end up purchasing it? 

Have your advisors and frontline staff track how often a customer engagement ends in a purchase—especially note which meeting methods are generating more revenue than others. You could see up to a 300% increase in your close rate based solely on improving the quality and speed of your appointment process.

The Bottom Line: Increased Revenue From More (and Better) Appointments

Appointments will help your institution drive more revenue than before with better, faster, 1:1 consultations with your customers and members. The industry average for credit unions and community banks is 200 appointments per month and a 70% close rate for most banks and credit unions before appointment software. If you aren’t already, start measuring the metrics above. When you’re ready to implement appointment and queuing software, you’ll have your own benchmarks to understand how the solution is affecting revenue.

2. Increased Staff Efficiency Leading to Time and Money Savings

Recent staffing shortages and unpredictable in-branch traffic means that team members aren’t always available to serve all client needs. Operations also can’t easily anticipate customer or member needs when scheduling staff since they don’t have a centralized tracking system to understand trends or bookings. Or, they take days to follow up on appointment requests while waiting for confirmation from the specialist or advisor in question.  

But the ROI of appointment scheduling software leads to a reduction in appointment-related admin tasks for everyone. To understand how, you’ll need to track your reduction in appointment duration, number of appointments to complete a service, and staff time spent to book an appointment. 

How Should You Measure Your ROI? 

  • Reduction in Appointment Duration

Appointment reminders lead to more effective meetings. Both client and staff are prepared (thanks to pre-meeting questions and notes on what to bring), meetings are on time (thanks to reminders and queuing solutions), and require less administrative burden from staff. Imagine shifting what used to be a 60-minute meeting (the typical length for a general banking appointment) to an efficient 15-minute conversation. An easy way to understand the ROI of your appointment software is to compare how much time appointments used to take compared to after implementation. 

Shorter appointments means your staff can book and close more of them, leading to more opportunity for revenue. Banks and credit unions typically see a 75% reduction in appointment duration because their meetings are more efficient with digital scheduling solutions.

  • Fewer Appointments Needed to Complete a Service

As meetings grow in quality, you need fewer of them to meet a client’s needs. Track how many appointments it takes to complete each service to determine how appointment scheduling software is increasing appointment efficiency over time. The software also maps out the steps needed to complete each service workflow—how many appointments to schedule, what paperwork they need, and everything they need along the way. This also reduces guesswork and time spent. 

Your staff’s time is precious, and appointment and queuing software gives them back more of it. Institutions can see a 33% reduction in the number of appointments it takes to close a transaction. So, if it used to take three appointments to complete an appointment, it should now take only two (or one less). 

  • Reduction in Staff Time Spent to Book an Appointment

An easy way to get a benchmark on how much time staff spend managing appointments is to ask them about their experience. Is it annoying to find the right person internally, figure out their availability, and then get back to the client? How long does that process usually take via email or phone? How much faster is it with appointment software? You can glean a lot from chatting with staff about their experience prior to implementation. 

Banks and credit unions that use appointment and queuing software tend to see a 90% reduction in staff time needed to book appointments. 

The Bottom Line: Time and Money Saved Through More Efficiency

To calculate the ROI of appointment and queuing software, compare your estimated staff time dedicated to completing appointments to revenue generated from appointments. If appointment duration and time spent managing the tool is decreasing but revenue generation and close rates are keeping steady or rising, you’re doing something right. 

3. Recovered Revenue From Missed Client Connections

In 2022, 68% of people abandoned the digital onboarding process for a banking product, up from 63% in 2020. And after a “bad” onboarding experience, more than half of clients won’t try again. Plus, long lines in-branch, call center hold times, and incorrect transfers can all result in lost conversations and—as a result—lost revenue. 

Digital appointment and queuing platforms help you recapture opportunities to connect with your clients. To track this ROI, measure your reduction in no-shows and cancellations, reduction in missed call transfers, and an increase in appointments booked outside business hours.

How Should You Measure Your ROI? 

  • Reduced No-Shows and Cancellations Per Month

Many missed connections are avoidable, especially when it comes to meetings that may have gone forward if members had the option to change the meeting type, location, or time. Banks and credit unions experience an average of 20% no-shows for appointments. It’s okay if you don’t have the data on why a member canceled or didn’t show up for an appointment—compare the number of no-shows before appointment software and after it was implemented. 

Luckily, the software automatically sends notifications to encourage customers to rebook their appointments or move from an in-person to a virtual meeting, which often recaptures 40% of potential cancellations. Financial institutions often find up to a 23% reduction in no-shows after using appointment and queuing software.

  • Increased Successful Handoffs by Reducing Missed Transfers

When a member calls your contact center, staff can easily book an appointment with the exact advisor a client needs—an accessible centralized calendar system has replaced redirecting their call to someone’s voicemail. No more back and forth or missed calls. 

To calculate the ROI, compare your current number of missed call transfers (try 20% of your total monthly call volume, if you don’t have that data) to the number of gained appointments since and the increased revenue attributed to those formerly lapsed connections. Users of appointment and queuing software see up to a 100% reduction in the number of missed call transfers. 

  • Increased Booking Flexibility for High-Value Appointments

If the lines are too long in-person, customers may just leave and not come back. By using queuing and appointment software, they can convert their spot in line to a pre-scheduled appointment at the location and time that’s most convenient for them. 

Similarly, because the booking link is available anytime, clients can use the software 24/7 to schedule time to speak with staff during business hours. To understand the ROI of flexible self-serve tools, track the percentage of appointments booked during and outside business hours, as well as the number of clients who convert their in-person appointments to virtual ones while waiting in-branch. 

Forty percent of appointments booked through appointment software are booked outside of business hours. The flexibility of self-serve tools allows your bank or credit union to capture new and current clients whenever they’re ready to speak with you. 

The Bottom Line: Recovered Revenue From No-Longer-Missed Connections

If you’re not already, measure no-shows and cancellations, missed call transfers, and conversion from your in-person queue to virtual appointments. Set a baseline for where your members might be falling off your customer journey. Appointments and queuing software will help them stay on it. 

4. Improved Member Experience Leading To Increased Retention 

Clients face long lines, lack of choice, and unknown wait times before appointment scheduling software. If they want to change the location or time of their meeting, they have to contact the branch or a call center—or, they just don’t show up. This poor experience leads to lapsed memberships and customers, as well as missed revenue opportunities. 

After appointment and queuing software, the ROI in member experience can be tracked by improvements in your NPS and CSAT scores and overall increase in customer lifetime value.  

How Should You Measure Your ROI? 

  • Increase in NPS and/or CSAT Scores

All the information the client needs—date, time, location, documentation, rescheduling options—is at their fingertips. They also have the choices they’ve come to expect from service providers—if they can book their salon appointments online, why shouldn’t they be able to book their financial advisor? Track your client’s satisfaction at regular intervals to understand your potential ROI. 

Because of the seamless member journey, users of appointment and queuing software often see an average of 21-point increase in their NPS score post-appointment software. 

  • Increase in Customer Lifetime Value

According to Forrester Analytics Customer Experience Index online survey, the revenue impact of a one (1) point improvement in a customer experience index score leads to $8.19 of annual incremental revenue per customer for multi-channel banks and $9.82 per customer for direct banks. And giving clients more choice, channels, and autonomy can go a long way to improving it.

Your improved customer experience leads to renewed memberships, increased products sold per engagement, and your customers choosing you as their primary institution. To measure this, multiply your NPS increase by the total incremental revenue, per customer. Banks and credit unions that use appointment and queuing software see up to an $170 increase per customer in their customers’ lifetime value.

The Bottom Line: Seamless Customer Experience Leads to Retention

How does appointment queuing software affect customer experience? Use a benchmark of each of the above metrics—NPS, CSAT, and customer lifetime value—and compare quarterly, yearly, and over the lifetime of the software. If you haven’t tracked these before, there’s no time like the present. 

We also suggest surveying your customers on how they’re reacting to the appointment and queuing software and where they’d like to see their experience improve. (The right solution will help track it for you.) 

What’s the Total ROI of Appointment and Queuing Software?

Understanding the ROI of appointment and queuing software shouldn’t be a mystery to solve. To calculate the ROI of your software investment, take the estimated yearly savings and gains metrics above and compare it to your yearly investment in the software. You may also opt to include the estimated number of years or months the software takes to pay itself back—the estimated gains (and the real gains) are substantial. The average payback period for digital appointment scheduling is only a few months. 

After implementing this software, you’ll see measurable ROI through increased revenue, time and efficiency savings, and overall improvement of your customer experience. Now, it’s time to start tracking those metrics and sharing results internally so other teams see the value in improving the client experience. 

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