Facebook announced a feature – Facebook Appointments that allows leads and prospects to request appointments using the native Messenger platform – Facebook appointments 2 years ago, there are new things of it that works to optimize your Facebook lead gen in 2020. 

Currently, there are some limitations to the feature – such as the inability for the customer do just directly book in and confirm appointments, but one of the big drawcards (and a reason why this feature, once fleshed out a bit more, will be HUGE in the lead gen space) is the push notification reminders sent to customers from Facebook by using Facebook Appointments.

So let’s have a look at how to set Facebook Appointments all up:

STEP #1: Go to your Facebook Page

Click on the button bottom right on your cover photo and select ‘Edit”.

STEP #2: Click “Book With You” and then select “Book Now” – click “Next”

STEP #3: Select “Appointments on Facebook”

Note: you can actually choose to have your button redirect straight to your third party booking page (such as ScheduleOnce) by punching in the URL.  You can also choose to use integrated third-party tools (like MyTime) – the drawback here is that these won’t have the native push notification reminders due to the limit of Facebook Appointments.

STEP #4: Create a Service

You can add in the price of the service although payment won’t be able to be made at this stage via Facebook. Click “Finish” once you’ve added in the services.

IDEA:  Working with realtors?  Why not show all their active listings as separate services, that way when someone books in they can choose the listing they’d like to view.

 

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 through Facebook Appointments 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”

If you go under your Page settings, you will also see “Calendar” on the left had column.  You can sync your Google calendar here so that when appointments are made they go straight into your calendar.

 

Want more?

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