Efficient appointment management is a common goal for any business, regardless of size or industry. Today’s AI scheduling and appointment reminder tools provide a major upgrade over the old “Will any of these dates/times work for you?” system, serving as both a time-saver and a friendly reminder to clients not to sleep on their upcoming meetings.
The Importance of Appointment Reminder Tools
Even the most organized prospects are susceptible to momentary distractions. AI reminder tools are an elegant solution to improving overall appointment attendance and saving time when rescheduling is necessary.
By integrating appointment reminder tools with employee calendars and other useful apps (like CRMs, email marketing apps, and payment processors), businesses can:
Effectively Reduce No-Shows and Cancellations
The difference between a no-show and a successful meeting can be as simple as a text 15 minutes before an appointment. Reminder apps aid this process through automations, templates, and even AI-generated responses.
Improve Scheduling Efficiency and Time Management
Reminder tools are designed to encourage more customers to keep their appointments more of the time. To account for this boost in attendance, these apps specialize in scheduling meetings at optimal times to maximize a sales agent’s availability.
Enhance the Overall Customer Experience
Customers don’t like to be left waiting on answers to their pressing questions or appointment confirmations. By simplifying communications and providing always-on support, reminder apps effectively serve as both time-savers and lead-nurturing tools for businesses.
Top 10 Appointment Reminder Tools for Businesses
The need for a simplified appointment confirmation and reminder system has inspired dozens of AI-based email and text reminder tools. Below, we’ve listed 10 of the best reminder apps and tools designed to keep prospects and customers informed and save employees time when scheduling and confirming appointments.
1. Podium AI Employee
What it does: Podium’s all-in-one AI Employee aims to improve customer interactions and engagement through automated messaging. The conversational AI employee is custom-built to manage leads, automate text, email, and web chat responses, and even encourage online reviews from prospective clients.
Key features: Automated client communications, optimized lead conversion, AI-enhanced customer support
Integrations: Podium’s full list of integrations, including CRMs, payment systems, calendars, and messaging services, can be found here.
What does it cost? Available as an add-on to all Podium plans
2. Acuity Scheduling
What it does: Appointment-booking software built to sync with your calendar, manage appointments, automate meeting reminders, and allow you the option to accept or decline bookings.
Key features: Automated email and text reminders, custom scheduling, payment processing
Integrations: Google Calendar, Zoom, PayPal, Stripe, Quickbooks
What does it cost? Paid plans start at $15/month
3. GReminders
What it does: Affords a wide range of automated client communication options to minimize no-shows and keep customers engaged with humanized messaging.
Key features: Custom reminder templates, automated SMS and email reminders, client self-scheduling
Integrations: Google Calendar, Outlook, Office 365, Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, Stripe, Square, Zapier.
What does it cost? Basic plans start at $20/month
4. Boomerang for Gmail
What it does: Boosts email productivity by letting users schedule custom email reminders, track read receipts and responses, and even place individual messages on pause. With simple integration into the broader Google ecosystem, Boomerang keeps messages that are still in need of a response from getting buried in a user’s inbox.
Key features: Email scheduling, click tracking, AI prompts for quick responses
Integrations: Gmail, Google Workspace
What does it cost? Business plans start at $14.99/month
5. YouCanBookMe
What it does: Facilitates online scheduling by giving customers and clients a more transparent look into your availability. Allowing clients to book appointments through a YouCanBookMe link avoids the classic “When are you available?” back-and-forth that often leads to lapses in email communication.
Key features: Customizable booking pages, email and SMS reminders, time zone detection, automated follow-ups
Integrations: Google Calendar, Outlook, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Stripe, Zapier
What does it cost? Plans start at $12/month
6. Reclaim
What it does: This smart calendar is used to plan out daily meetings, appointments, and breaks, as well as block out time dedicated to other tasks or out-of-office periods.
Key features:
Task and meeting scheduling, smart one-on-ones, time blocking
Integrations: Google Calendar, Slack
What does it cost? Paid plans start at $8/month
7. Clockwise
What it does: A highly customizable calendar management tool specific to Google Workspace, Clockwise helps sync team calendars and automate the appointment scheduling process.
Key features: Calendar optimization, automatic meeting scheduling, focus time creation, team availability insights
Integrations: Google Calendar, Slack
What does it cost? Plans start at $6.75/month per user
8. Motion
What it does: Motion serves as an all-in-one with a project management tool, calendar management system, and fully customizable appointment scheduling software. As users book appointments, Motion’s AI will reshuffle your daily schedule to properly balance meetings with other priority tasks.
Key features: Task scheduling and prioritization, meeting management, project planning
Integrations: Google Calendar, Microsoft Office 365
What does it cost? Plans start at $19/month
9. Clara
What it does: An AI assistant built to manage the back-and-forth often required to settle on a meeting time that works for all parties involved. Asking Clara (which can be renamed to disguise the use of a bot) to set up a call or a meeting prompts the AI to engage with customers and book appointments in conjunction with your calendar.
Key features: Automated appointment scheduling, calendar management, personalized responses and email follow-ups
Integrations: Google Calendar, Microsoft Office 365
What does it cost? $99/month per user, depending on plan
10. DoctorConnect
What it does: As the name suggests, DoctorConnect is uniquely designed for engaging with and reminding patients about their medical appointments.
Key features: Automated appointment reminders, patient feedback and surveys, recall messaging, no-show management
Integrations: Google Calendar, Outlook, EHR/EMR systems
What does it cost? Flat fee based on number of locations and practitioners; requires contact for details.
How AI Can Help With Appointment Reminders
AI automation streamlines the work involved with appointment reminders, allowing your business to change its focus from administrative tasks to more critical operations.
How it helps:
Ways to Remind People of Their Appointments
As long as they remain HIPAA compliant, AI can send text or email reminders at set times leading up to an appointment. These reminders help to minimize no-shows and give customers having an especially hectic afternoon the opportunity to reschedule should they find themselves running behind.
Benefits of Having an Automated Appointment Reminder Software
AI won’t lose track of time or space on a morning meeting, won’t accidentally misspell a customer’s name, and won’t forget an appointment’s purpose; for both employees and customers, automated systems get the details right for more consistently positive interactions.
How to Choose the Right Tool for Your Business
With the numerous appointment management options available today, selecting the right tool for your business can be difficult. Here are a few key variables to keep an eye on.
Considerations for Selecting an Appointment Reminder Tool
It’s important to clarify your distinct business goals before evaluating which AI tools are the best fit for your team. Make sure whichever platform you use can help you reach your objectives. And consider any tools you’re already using and if you plan to integrate them.
Factors Such as Pricing, Scalability, Integrations, and User-friendliness
Some software is designed with complex enterprise clients in mind, while others are more attuned to small businesses or even personal use and might even offer free versions that suit your current needs. Determine which features are important to you as opposed to wants before shopping around.
Don’t forget to factor in the AI tool’s scalability. It wouldn’t make much sense to invest time and energy into onboarding a new tool just for your business to quickly outgrow it.
As noted in the list of common AI calendaring and reminder tools above, some are built to plug in near-universally to every conceivable integration. Others might be programmed specifically to the Microsoft or Google ecosystem; don’t make the mistake of falling in love with an appointment reminder app that won’t play well with your company’s current ecosystem.
Finally, evaluate the tool for user-friendliness. Teams tend to get the most out of AI tools as they grow more comfortable with their various uses. If the learning curve is too steep, any motivation to incorporate the tool into a daily workflow can quickly fizzle.
Tips for Evaluating and Comparing Different Tools
Identifying your employees’ present needs and anticipating those most likely to crop up in the future will help prioritize your AI preferences and select a tool with features apt to scale with the company as it expands.
If your business subscribes to an AI tool built specifically to send text messages as a friendly reminder to customers with upcoming appointments, be sure the interface is easy to navigate and teams are trained on how best to leverage that capability.
Podium’s AI Employee is able to integrate with a wide range of appointment tools. By integrating with your current setup, the AI Employee provides human-like assistance for companies looking to scale their ability to book appointments, send reminder texts, and so much more to make life easier for businesses, prospects, and customers.
Get a demo today and see how.
