For many small business owners, scheduling appointments for customers and clients can be some of the most time-consuming and frustrating work of their day. Just taking phone calls, answering emails and texts, and trying to fit everyone in can take up a lot of time and resources. This is why knowing the best scheduling apps for car detailing businesses is so important.
A good scheduling app doesn’t just make it easier for you to schedule time with your customers, it actually does the work for you so that you can get to the important stuff – like making sure that the customers are satisfied and eager to return. To help with this, we’ve come up with the top 5 scheduling apps for car detailers and included a bit about each one to help you choose.
1 – Managemart – Free Trial
Management brings you an entire smorgasbord to help run a successful automobile detailing business. Their goal is to help you focus more on the business and less on the tedious tasks that are necessary to keep it going. Management
They have software that can save business owners time, increase the productivity of you and your employees, decrease your expenses, and improve the experience for your customers. Managemart gives you a 7-day trial with no credit card needed, and the first 15 days of their scheduling software absolutely free.
Not only do they provide a calendar and scheduling software with events creation and notifications, but Managemart also features the ability to check the schedule and adjust accordingly, no matter where you are. Imagine, no more post-it notes, checking emails and texts, or calling the office to try and remember what’s on today’s agenda.
They even let you set recurring tasks in the app so that you don’t have to remember repeat customers every week or month. And that’s just their scheduling software, the complete package offers much more!
2 – GigaBook – 24/7 Auto Appointment Setting
GigeBook can manage all of your appointments, as well as handle reminders for you, automatically, so you don’t have to think about it. Their platform is fully customizable and works with any tablet, computer, or mobile device. You can choose to have reminders and notifications sent by email or text…or both!
This time management tool for car detailers is also great because it allows you to sync third-party apps such as Outlook or Google Calendar. By letting GigiBook handle your scheduling, you can help ensure that you and your employees never miss an appointment. You can also opt for customers to receive appointment reminders.
GigaBooks works with your website to accept appointments for you and also accepts payments the same way. It works for you 24/7, so it can even book appointments, etc. while you sleep!
3 – OctopusPro – Great for Customers
OctopusPro is an awesome scheduling choice for car detailers, especially mobile car detailing services. That’s because they not only handle job notifications and allow you to accept or reject bookings, but they have GPS support as well to help you find any client’s address!
When you are not on a job site, you can use their GPS support, receive notifications for new jobs, and choose whether to accept or deny those new clients. When you are on the job site, you can use the app to check in, give live updates if needed, and even upload photos.
Customers may like this scheduling app as well, since they can also use it to manage their bookings, track their vehicles, and rate your work. If you have a few employees, you can also use OctopusPro to handle invoicing and payments for you.
OctopusPro allows you to manage several calendars at once for different employees, sends daily, weekly, and monthly views on the calendar to make it easy to keep up with your time, and automatically sends emails and text reminders for any job that is scheduled, rescheduled, or canceled altogether. No more time wasted by getting a cancellation call while you’re working that goes straight to voicemail.
4 – Zoho Bookings – Free for One, Price Efficient
Zoho made our list because it is simple and cheap. It is a free platform that only costs $6 each for employees and sends email reminders and round robin-type allocation for appointments. You can even schedule recurring events with the paid version.
If you choose to bill annually, their premium plan also allows Zoho to sync with Outlook, Google, ZoHo meeting, and Microsoft 365. There is a sign-in portal for customers, and you can have a booking page that is hosted in a domain of your own. The premium costs $9 per employee on the annual plan, or $12 per employee on the monthly plan.
With its two-way calendar syncing ability, qualification for appointments, and hands-off approach to booking, Zoho is an excellent app for the price.
5 – Square Appointments – Great for Square Users
Square Appointment is an excellent, free scheduling app that works especially great for those who use Square payment processing. This allows you to have your appointments paid for at the time they are made via Square. It even allows you to set up and charge fees for cancellations and no-shows.
You can allow your customers to book appointments with you online, while you are busy with other clients, eating lunch, or even while you sleep. It will send reminders to both you and the customer as well. It works well with either Android or iOS and will book your appointments directly to the calendar of your choice.
Square Appointments also integrates well with Instagram and Google, so you can advertise for more clients on Instagram, and have their appointments synced into your Google calendar. It even allows your customers to make payments with Afterpay, if you so choose.
There are three payment plans for Square Appointments. Their free works well for car detailing businesses that have only one location. All of the basic features of Square are included in this plan, including automatic email and text reminders, recurring appointments and payments, and the choice to customize your availability. Other options are available for car detailers whose businesses have grown to more than one location.
