Wondering how to book appointments on Facebook? Appointments on Facebook is a great tool for business owners, especially for service-based professionals. It’s one of the new Facebook features so you’re probably wondering how do some pages have the book now button and why.
Benefits of Facebook Appointments
✔️It’s free: All businesses have access to Appointments on Facebook tools at no charge.
✔️Save time: Appointments on Facebook removes the need for businesses to spend excess time managing their calendar. You can now accept appointments from new and returning customers with less back-and-forth communication.
✔️Re-engage existing customers: Remind returning customers to book a follow-up appointment or refer their friends.
✔️Find new customers: Attract new customers with the ease and convenience of Appointments on Facebook so they don’t have to call or text to book. Learn more about how you can grow your audience on Facebook.
Key Features of Appointments on Facebook
✔️Initiate an appointment through Messenger: When you’re already communicating with customers in Messenger, Facebook will prompt you to schedule an appointment with that customer. When the customer accepts, that appointment will automatically be added to your list of appointments, and the customer will get a reminder before the appointment time. When you respond quickly to your messages, you can earn a Very Responsive badge.
✔️Manage appointments from the Appointments tab on your Page: Rather than manage your appointments in a separate spreadsheet, system or space, you’ll have the ability to view and manage every appointment from your Page where they’re initially booked.
✔️Manage appointments from a third party site: If you use software other than Facebook to manage your calendar, you can add a Book Now call-to-action button on your Facebook Page and send customers to another site to complete their booking process.
✔️Sync your appointments with Google Calendar: It should be easy and convenient to access your booking calendar at any time. Appointments on Facebook is integrated with Google Calendar so you can find your bookings without logging into Facebook.
Appointments Will Increase Your Engagement Rate
Facebook business pages are reporting a very low engagement rate so I’m not surprised if your business page is suffering the same problem.
If you’re experiencing low engagement, appointments on Facebook button will help, along with other steps you can take to improve your Facebook Page’s visibility, such as:
✔️Edit your Facebook page using a new page template.
✔️If you have job openings, Facebook loves when you use their platform. So, post jobs on Facebook.
✔️Change your cover photo.
✔️Re-arrange the menu and tabs to make your Facebook fans more interested in what you have to offer. You can add a video playlist on your Facebook page, for example.
✔️Feature your services. Make sure you have amazing content and amazing visuals for your services, along with an enticing description that makes people wanting to reach out to you.
How It Works
Once you’ve set up your Book Now button you can create a post to promote the new feature and invite your fans to book in some time.
You can also run some ads to this post (just pull the post ID) – so, for example, if you wanted to retarget people in your funnel with the post you could.
Once someone clicks on Book Now it triggers a Messenger appointment request. They advise you on their free time and once they send this off, you will receive a message or the request. You then need to confirm the appointment (and you can add in phone numbers in the confirmation text box here).
Syncing Your Calendar
You can view all your Appointments by clicking on the top tab “Appointments”. Facebook will sync all your calendars with your hours of operations.
The Confirmation Process
Once the user requests an appointment using the selected service, you will have to confirm in order to get this appointment on the calendar. This is exactly how virtual calendars work so it’s very self-explanatory.
The benefit here is that you don’t need to have the contact’s phone or email, because they are using messenger to have direct communication with you. This makes your prospecting activities very easy!
Appointment Settings
Facebook makes it very simple by dedicating a dashboard to set up your appointment settings. You’re probably wondering, but what if I’m not available at the time of the appointment? Do not worry about this! You have the choice to set up appointments in a way that you will have to confirm before scheduling. Just like a regular online scheduler.
BONUS! Remarket To Those Who Showed Interest In Your Appointments
You can post your invitation to book an appointment and pay to get more visibility. Facebook allows you to create an audience based on those people who engaged with an ad so you will create this audience and remarket to them. This is a great way to boost your conversions by marketing to people who are genuinely interested in buying from you.
