Why You Need an Online Booking for Your Service Business

You have an early morning flight to catch at 4am and you are running late. Waiting anxiously for that cab to arrive with your bags packed, your eyes are glued to the watch and the time keeps on adding up. You wish for a service where the cab pops up in front of your eyes when you require it. That is the principle behind on demand scheduling service. What Uber, Lyft and other cab hailing app offers, is on-demand service, where you will have to wait for that cab to arrive after pushing that "book a cab" button. What Uber is rolling out is an online scheduling app, where you can schedule your cab for that important meeting or interview months, days, hours or even minutes in advance.

Welcome to the era of on demand scheduling and booking service

On demand software service in cab rides, beauty and massage services, laundry etc. deals with requesting that service at that moment and then patiently waiting for it to arrive depending on the traffic and demand prevalent at that time. On demand scheduling lets us schedule our service in advance and eliminate our waiting time. The service appears according to the time, date and location which we had scheduled beforehand.

Business Appointment Scheduling

On demand schedule service on Uber

Let us discuss the case study about how this on demand schedule service works in Uber. The on demand schedule service was not tested for the first time by Uber, but by its rival Lyft. However, at the testing phase Lyft had the problem of charging passengers as they were dealing with the dilemma regarding surge pricing.

After Lyft announced about their testing of scheduled rides, Uber announced the roll out of this fully fledged service to its customers, which was first introduced in Seattle.

According to Uber, customers can schedule a ride from 30 days to 15 minutes in advance. Surge price applies to this service depending on the time of ride and not on the time of request of service. After tapping on your preferred vehicle view- Uberx or Ubergo, users will get the option of scheduling the ride from 15 min to 30 days in advance. They will have to set the pickup time, date, location and destination and confirm the upcoming trip. At the time of scheduling, users will only see the base fare of the ride. Uber will send reminders, 24 hrs and 30 minutes in advance about the upcoming journey. Passengers will be able to alter the details up until 30 minutes prior to the scheduled pickup time. They can also cancel the service if the cab is not already on the way and won't be charged a penalty. Surge pricing depends on real time calculations.

When the cab is on its way, passengers will get a notification whether surge pricing applies depending on the demand at that time. After getting to know whether surge pricing applies, users can choose to cancel the ride within a time frame of 5 minutes. After the duration of 5 minutes, users will be charged normal cancellation fees if they cancel it.

From the driver's end, on demand schedule service remains a normal trip. Uber sends the ride request to the nearest driver in the vicinity of your location, who is heading your way, and also takes into consideration traffic and the estimated time of arrival. The driver's likelihood of accepting the ride request is also taken into consideration.

Why should companies move away from traditional scheduling services?

Organizations spend myriad amount of dollars for setting up a customer base and tapers it in a moment with poor after sale maintenance. The dominant universal brands are successful as they give priority to customer satisfaction by delivering a transparent service and giving them the chance of expressing their view. The service industry is undergoing a metamorphosis where enterprises are looking out for ways to maximize its profit, reduce operative cost and assurance of quality to customers. The roving field industry such as cab services, food delivery services, massage services are integrating all-inclusive management and scheduling facility with their labour pool in the field and real time scheduling availability to end customers. There is online makeup booking app software, hairstylist booking software, carpenter booking software etc. Most small and medium companies were not able to take up this innovation earlier due to limitation in planning, strategy and engineering. Now they have incorporated these offerings successfully with the help of third party companies who looks after their technological advancement and customer satisfaction. The on demand scheduling service works as a loop which begins when the customer registers for a service and ends with successful completion of this request and customer satisfaction.

In this technology, customers can track their self service request and consignment on any mobile application, public gateway and websites. In traditional scheduling service it is not the waiting time for arrival that damages the company reputation, but the anxiety arising from the incognito nature about its arrival.

Customers want the freedom to choose the arrival time, service giver, knowledge about their waiting time and location of the service giver. The transparency and real time availability of these services at the palm of our hands has made us lazy and impatient, and any organization not shifting towards this new standard makes them outdated.

Online Booking Software

Moving to this new technological paradigm will also save money on behalf of the organization. In traditional scheduling services, customers had to book for a service via call and wait for it in a 4 hour time frame. There was restlessness and ambivalence regarding its arrival. In on demand scheduling service, companies will save the currency that they had to spend on call centers for booking appointments. The success of this aid can be verified from the fact that Dispatch has made $3.1 million in the first year of its service. This enterprise provides on demand scheduling services for its clients who offers plumbing services, massage services, electronic technicians etc. to its customers. Also, the companies can monitor efficiency of its field workers through the arrival time- whether it's late or early arrival, customer review on dispatch of services and the length of the assistance.

 

  

By Reaz Hoque

 

 

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A Meticulous Trade Show Booth Design Is the Road to Success

In the exhibition world, shining out in hues is often considered to be a mammoth task. Exhibitors are seen employing best of the marketing tactics to win this rat race. From the pre-show marketing campaigns to giveaways during the show, an exhibitor leaves no stone unturned. But despite spending huge sums of money and time, exhibitors often fail miserably due to less than expected footfalls.

So what does it take to stand out in the crowd, have more than anticipated number of footsteps and leave an indelible imprint on the minds of people?

The answer to this most commonly asked question is Booth Designing.

Wondering, why does the design of a booth hold so much of importance in attracting people?

Well, imagine yourself in a party. Often at the party place, we are attracted to individuals who are dressed beautifully than those who are clothed in a rugged manner.

Attendees in the world of exhibition follow the same suit. A trade show stand is just like a suit, the way we concoct it creates an image in the minds of people.

The very first impression of your booth stimulates the visual stimuli of the attendees and within those few seconds, a participant decides whether to stop by or keep moving.

To give your booth that wow factor it is important to choose the right stand and a right exhibit house.

Right Stand

The modernization in technology has facilitated the exhibitors with an opportunity to make a choice between custom-built stands and modular stands. While custom-built stands can be built-in any shape, height, and size as per the needs of your business, modular stands tend to be more rigid. Exhibitors these days often invest in modular built stands due to the re-usability factor attached to it. But will a modular stand justify the essence of your brand and beat your competition? To save some cost, exhibitors often leave this critical question unanswered.

An exhibitor must choose a booth which conveys the message of the product being offered. A custom-built stand facilitates a stand designer to weave the concept of the booth design around the story of your product or service. The scope of comfort tends to be greater in custom-built stands, and these stands can be made more visually attractive using more of futuristic technology.

Before making a decision in haste, an exhibitor must always plan the required visibility, needs and importance of the brand. A right stand serves you with higher returns on investment.

Right Exhibit House

Thinking how does an exhibit house influence the success of a trade show?

An exhibit house is a service provider who gives tangibility to your booth stand. From designing a trade show stand to constructing it and executing it, an exhibit house does everything. An exhibit house thus plays an indispensable part to help you steal the show. The concept woven by the designing team of show house must speak silently on your behalf.

Booth designing is an art which only an artist with mastery in aesthetics is aware of. The right exhibit house comprehends the theme of your product; entail it in the design, constructs it in detail and installs it in an impeccable manner well on time.

So next time you plan to exhibit, do not forget to put the booth designing and service provider at the top of your list as First impression is the last impression.

I have an experience of working in the exhibition industry for past seven years. At present, I am working with the leaders of the European Exhibition industry, Booth Constructions. For more insights, you can visit the website http://www.boothconstructions.com.

  

 

By Jason Guerrettaz

 

 

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Customers Process Photos 60,000x Faster Than Text

Catalogs are a visual medium. This fact has not changed - even in a world where everything else seems to have evolved.

This is good news for the catalog industry! According to recent science, the brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than it takes the brain to decode text. Why is this? We understand visuals faster because they affect us both cognitively and emotionally. They increase comprehension, recollection, retention and have the ability to affect our imagination, emotions and attitudes.

Catalog design, when sent to the right person with the right merchandise assortment, should be like eye-candy to the beholder.
Should be.

Unfortunately, too many marketers ignore the science and go for the easy route of throwing up a lot of product images on a page with little thought to how the viewer might actually process a spread. Yes, I said marketers because let's admit it; designers are driven by budgets, deadlines, density and an ethos of where catalogs fits into the marketing eco-system.

The landscape of visuals presented in your catalog design should create an efficient and effective piece of advertising IF you consider the following:

People buy things because of the way it LOOKS, what it DOES or how it makes them FEEL. When choosing a photograph to best represent a product, gravitate towards the one that best answers this question. For instance, if a products true value is in what it does, be sure to show it doing that unique thing. This often requires a second photograph and that's perfectly fine.

As I'm sure you've heard, 90% of our purchase decisions are based on an emotional need. For those products that deliver an emotional need, choose imagery that demonstrates that value.

For many brands that deliver on either an emotional or aspirational need, including a dash of lifestyle imagery will give credit to the rest of the product shots on the page. Use these wisely!

1. Use imagery to create uniqueness. We know that catalog shoppers are looking for something new, unique or better yet, something exclusive. Photography or graphics that demonstrate this will not only grab attention but most likely increase response. What imagery can you add to your products or catalog that will give the sense of uniqueness?
2. Copy can be visual! That's right. The placement and size of a few highly emotive words can become imagery that quickly conveys a mood or sentiment. Short headlines are underrated and can be a powerful selling tool when created as a visual element.
3. Avoid visual cramming. You know what that means... cramming as many visuals as possible on a spread. Nothing grabs attention and nothing is processed by the eye. While there is a time and place for high density spreads (as a way to add pacing) too many will literally cause eye strain.

Catalogs provide an incredibly unique opportunity that many other forms of advertising do not. When carefully designed with human behavior in mind, you have the opportunity to tell a more complete story for both your brand and your products.

Need help creating a more dynamic catalog that disrupts, delights and drives activity? Email me at loisb@jschmid.com, or learn more about us at jschmid.com.
Lois Brayfield, CEO / J.Schmid & Associates

  

 

By Lois Brayfield

 

 

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Stress, The Nemesis of Organisational Performance

Stress is becoming better known as a performance dampener for individuals. However, there is still little understanding about how all pervading the stress problem is in the workplace, its impact on organisational performance and what is really causing the stress in the first place.

The unwelcome fact is that stress is endemic in our organisational life. Wherever we see disengagement among employees, a high level of mistakes, chronic levels of customer service, low productivity, extensive waste, poor decision-making at management level and uninspiring leadership, you can be sure that stress is the underlying causal factor. Ultimately stressed behaviour and stressed thinking is the fundamental reason why so many organisations don't work nearly as well as they could and why far too many of them fail.

What we need to take into account in management is that personal qualities such as enthusiasm, enterprise, exhilaration, curiosity, group loyalty, creative problem solving, teamwork, quiet focus and intuitive thinking are innate to everyone we employ. BUT, only when they are in their natural "brain state".

These priceless human attributes comprise basic survival mechanisms that are inherent to all of us. But the crucial fact is that these superb qualities are generally only available to us when we are in a low state of stress. This means that the more stress there is in the working environment the less these invaluable qualities are available to benefit the organisation.

In essence, the potential and desire for highly creative and productive work is already inherent in almost every employee on your pay roll. As such all managers really have to do to dramatically improve productivity, is to release the organisational brakes that hold people back from actually contributing these innate qualities to the general purpose. Remove the stress and you establish a focussed, energetic and enterprising work culture.

In essence, we don't need to motivate people, we just have to stop demotivating them.

Stress anywhere in a system will have an impact on the whole system

Stress is also important from a systems perspective. Organisations are living systems whose core components are the human beings within it.

But a system isn't just a collection of fragmented events or independent components. These people's relationships, daily transactions, individual aspirations and motives form the necessary drive, dynamic interaction and interconnectivity that make the system work. The system functions as a whole, with the component parts subtly interdependent on each other for its overall effectiveness.

A system's complex and dynamic flow of constant interactivity means any new idea, action, reaction, change in function or change in structure that is introduced into one part of the system will have some sort of impact elsewhere in the system. Changes ripple through and across a system just like ripples in a pond. These ripples impact areas that may not otherwise be apparently connected.

Just like any other change factor mentioned above, if someone somewhere in the organisation experiences a stress response, then it will provoke a ripple affect across the whole system.

The stress response doesn't just adversely influence an individual's decision-making, ideas, feelings, behaviour and productive activity; through the medium of an organisation's dynamic interactivity and interdependence, this influence then permeates the system as a whole and impacts overall performance.

This is why stress levels in any organisation can cause the whole system to under perform. Just like grit in the machine, if the stress is bad enough it can make the whole system seize up and fail altogether. It is this insight that provides us with a valuable clue as to how to improve organisational performance.

Identify and remove the stressors that impact individual thinking and performance, and you remove major constraints and obstacles to the performance of the system as a whole.

Why can we be so sure of this?

Brain research is transforming the potential for organisational performance

Amazingly, modern science has taught us more about the human brain in the last forty years than in all the previous three hundred years combined. Crucially from a business point of view, research into the brain (neuroscience and neurobiology), systems theory, and so on is rendering many traditional ideas about stress and psychology obsolete.

This new understanding is in turn forcing us to change many cherished beliefs about leadership, management control, organisational design, and motivation.

Excitingly, this knowledge provides us with a much clearer view as to why so many problems arise in organisations. This emerging view of the fundamental reasons why so many things currently go wrong is opening up an almost limitless potential for improvements to organisational performance.

Removing stress factors improves individual performance by 20% - 50%

This is important news for leaders and managers everywhere. Remove certain key stressors that habitually infest our organisations and you improve individual performance by a factor of 20% - 50% and potentially a lot more than that.

In effect, new knowledge about the impact of stress on the brain and the pervasive influence of an individual's stress on the whole system gives us a plain choice. Depending on the type of leadership you adopt you can choose to stress your people into dull, conformist, compliance. Or you can choose to empower higher levels of enthusiasm, commitment, creativity and intelligent action.

Organisational stress creates an inhospitable working environment

Generally managers still greatly underestimate the real cost of stress. The received wisdom is that the costs are limited to absenteeism, sickness and the risk of compensation claims, although these factors are bad enough. But work done in hundreds of organisations with stress audits show that the real costs go way beyond this restricted view of things.

Most importantly, ignorance about stress drives us unwittingly to create structures, procedures, processes and controls that create an inhospitable working environment for ourselves, our employees and other stakeholders.

In the average organisation, stress constrains or undermines intelligent or productive activity at every level of an organisation and across every function. For instance:

• At strategic level stress contributes to poor judgement, incompetent or rash decision-making and unethical behaviour.

• At the management level stress drives rushed and inadequate operational planning, corrosive image management, defective analysis, flawed problem solving, faulty decision-making, weak relationship building and de-motivating leadership.

• At operational level stress provokes inauthentic working relationships, personal conflicts, accidents, costly mistakes and rework, flawed problem solving, lethargy, insensitivity to colleagues' and customers' needs, low creativity, waste, resistance to change and incoherent teamwork.

Organisational stress is of strategic importance

If, as a leader, you are contributing to making a stressful working environment, then you are wrecking the chances of your group being productive.

The profound implication of this is that the impact of organisational stress on performance has become of strategic importance. The understanding of stress is therefore an intrinsic part of any manager or leader's tool kit. Stress management is no longer a peripheral matter best left to the HR department or some outsourced employee assistance programme (EAP).

A key skill-set for any leader from CEO down to supervisor level is to know the following:

• The impact of stress on their own decision-making

• The impact the stress response has on work behaviour

• What costs arise in the system when stress kicks in and how best to identify and measure these costs

• Why and how the individual stress response debilitates mental and emotional functioning at work.

• How an understanding of emotional needs avoids triggering a stress response

• The innate individual resources that, are available wherever individuals enjoy a low-stressed positive brain state.

The really good news is that you don't have to be a super hero, star, or have charisma, driving ambition, or even a powerful personality to be an effective leader. Far from it, in reality these traits may actually get in the way of bringing out the full potential of your group as they can inhibit your ability to enable effective and spontaneous group collaboration.

Top down command and control triggers a stress response

Everything science now tells us about the human physiology, psychology, stress and communication shows that top down command and control management is very often counter productive. The reason is that top down command and control is always liable to trigger a debilitating stress response. On the other hand, enabling collaboration or teamwork is a more natural way to run an organisation, as it avoids triggering this stress response and so enables the optimum functioning of the human brain and emotional faculties.

The primary reasons that top down command and control induce stress are both the fear factor and the institutional disregard shown for other people's emotional and psychological needs. Once the stress response is triggered it automatically diminishes many employees' ability and even desire to function effectively in a whole variety of different ways.

On the other hand, a collaborative style of working helps people meet a range of their fundamental biological needs. Meeting these needs removes a number of different stress triggers and this enables the unleashing of the latent talents and creative power of everyone involved.

Top down command and control is not the only cause of stress of course. Leaders need to be aware of what else is lurking within the typical organisational environment that triggers the debilitating stress response and so damages their organisation's performance.

Removing the grit from the machine

Utilise this knowledge and it is like removing the grit from the machine. You will revive a flagging work culture and unleash the true potential lying dormant within your organisation or work group. Your organisation will surge forward.

A more collaborative approach to leadership helps you:

• Liven up the enthusiasm and support of your work group

• Improve employee engagement

• Create a healthier, happier working environment

• Ignite spontaneous creative problem solving at every level of your operation

• Speed up the flow of useful information between departments and individuals

• Improve your planning outcomes

• Improve productive working generally

• Enhance your own and other people's decision-making

• Radically improve customer focus

• Significantly lighten the load of stress on your own shoulders

Jeremy Old is author of "Reinventing management thinking - using science to liberate the human spirit" now available from Amazon: http://amzn.to/2bVAlDr in the UK and http://amzn.to/2dJeyQR in the USA email Jeremy Old: jeremy@teambusinessdevelopment.co.uk

 

 

By Jeremy Old

 

 

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