Your website can take the booking at 9pm.
Where a site can take the booking, about half of them arrive after close (chart 1). It is 9pm and a patient wants a slot. The site shows a phone number, and the office opens at 8. On Zocdoc, 48 in 100 primary-care bookings land between 5pm and 9am. On Square, 46 in 100 salon clients book outside 9 to 5. At Mayo Clinic, 3 in 10.
A phone number puts the customer in a queue for office hours. A booking on the page takes the appointment when they want it. The open slots are there. They pick one, leave a name and a phone, done. Holiday, peak hour, 9pm, the same. It lands in your calendar, so nothing is booked twice. One salon owner sends every caller to her site. Some book in the middle of the night (exhibit 2).
A salon owner, interviewed by Bookedin in June 2020. The minute that carries it is 7:47 to 8:41. Clients booked from home, some in the middle of the night.
“A phone number on the site is a request to try again tomorrow. At 9pm, that is a no.”
A website should take the booking, not hand out a number. A number sends the customer back to the phone, in your hours. And a whole generation would rather not call (exhibit 3). Ronic sites take the booking on the page, into your calendar. The Appointments plugin is $5 a month.
Gen Z will drink one medium caramel latte, not eat a single thing till 4 pm, verbally abuse a racist, crack a joke about their mental health and pick up a tear gas canister with their bare hands, but get nervous when they have to call to make a doctors appointment.