Acuity Helps Businesses Connect and Schedule with Customers

The back-and-forth of scheduling times and places can be hectic and it's often useful to have an app that will serve as the middleman and collect new time suggestions and help you work it all out. Acuity, a new scheduling application that helps businesses schedule their time with their customers, has a solution that's Web-based and simple for customers to use and businesses to set up.

Wouldn't it be nice if your doctor's office let you schedule your own appointment online instead of forcing you to haggle with a receptionist over which dates and times were available? Perhaps you'd like it if your customers were able to schedule your banquet hall or conference center freely, and you could accept or reject the proposal and contact them accordingly. Acuity makes it possible for your business to empower your customers to book your locations and schedule your time without hassle.

Acuity hosts its own software and provides it to businesses on a tiered pricing model that's based on the businesses estimated usage of the product. You can sign up for a free account, but free Acuity accounts only allow you a single location, no personalized site, and no ability to bill clients that book through the service. Acuity's "professional" and "premium" accounts allow you to set up an eCommerce shop so clients can book time and resources and pay for them accordingly. Additionally, both account types allow you to securely accept credit cards when clients book, lets you configure automatic reminder e-mails that the service will send when the appointment draws near, and allows you to book unlimited appointments for unlimited clients.

The "professional" account allows you to only schedule one location or resource, while the "premium" account allows you to schedule as many as you like. Acuity presents its scheduling software as a service, meaning you log in to Acuity's servers, host your data there, and the service manages your account for you. As long as you keep up with your payments, you'll have access to your account. The free account is really only for small businesses or single-office organizations. The "professional" account is $10/month, and the "premium" account is $18/month. You can upgrade or downgrade plans at any time.

The real benefit to Acuity as an application to manage client booking and resource management from a business perspective is that it's easy to set up, simple to manage, easy for your customers to use, and you don't have to support it. The app will alert you when appointments are made or suggested so you can bill appropriately or contact the scheduler, and allows you to manage your schedule on the go. Acuity even offers an iPhone-compatible version of the service. The app integrates into your business's Website, and Acuity will even work with you to customize their widgets and provide you the code required to make it work.

If your business doesn't have a ton of money to spend and is looking for a fairly complete way to allow your customers to schedule your time or book your resources and people, Acuity is worth a look. Offloading a service like this may not work for big businesses looking to bring their scheduling applications in-house, but for small to medium sized businesses, Acuity's price and the features look just right.