What Are the 8 Different Types of Appointment Scheduling?

The modern business landscape is hectic, and thus, a well-coordinated way of scheduling appointments is indispensable to any business, particularly in healthcare, beauty, wellness, consulting and customer service sectors. As a clinic manager or salon owner or office administrator, getting familiar with the various types of appointment scheduling can make operations easier, cut wait times and satisfy clients.

Here’s a detailed look at the 8 different types of appointment scheduling, how they work, and when to use them.

Time-Slot Scheduling

What It Is:

The most prevalent time-slot scheduling is applied by the doctors, dentists, and service providers. Under this model, booking of appointments is done at particular pre-decided times, 9:00 AM, 9:30 AM, 10:00 AM, and so on.

Pros:

• Minimizes wait of patients/clients.
• Enables the better management of time.
• Perfect in companies whose appointment duration is predictable.

Cons:

• May cause wasted time in the event of a customer being a no-show.
• Needs time keeping on both sides.

Best For:

Physicians, hairdressers, lawyers, and places of service where an appointment lasts a set number of minutes.

Wave Scheduling

What It Is:

Wave scheduling is, in this case, the scheduling of many patients or clients at the start of every hour with the assumption that not all will appear on time or even need the entire booking time.

As an example, three clients can be booked in 9:00 AM and then they are attended to in a sequence of arrival.

Pros:

• Helps deal with no-show and lateness.
• Lessens the time spent by practitioners.

Cons:

• May result in long queues by certain clients.
• Less individualized experience.

Best For:

Full of patient’s clinics, urgent care facilities, or service providers who seek flexibility and do not want to have gaps in their schedules.

Modified Wave Scheduling

What It Is:

A different type of wave scheduling, modified wave scheduling distributes the appointments more uniformly over the hour. e.g. two clients in 9:00 AM, one in 9:20 AM, another in 9:40 AM.

Pros:

• Further directed movement of clients.
• Minimizes rush hour traffic.
• Balances provider workload

Cons:

• Still may result in waiting
• Requires careful planning.

Best For:

In the medical practice or wellness center, which must have an adequate number of clients flowing in.

Double Booking Scheduling

What It Is:

When two or more clients are requested to be attended to by the same provider at the same time, this is considered as double booking. It is generally applied in cases where the provider is able to attend to more than one activity at a time or where consultations can be made very fast.

Pros:

• Optimizes the productivity of the providers.
• Helps reimburse against cancellations or no-shows.

Cons:

• May cause time wastage and frustration when the two clients take longer than anticipated.
• Possibility of a drop in the quality of the service.

Best For:

Dental offices (e.g. hygienist + dentist working concurrently), mental health practices or clinics with support staff that can help.

Open Booking (Walk-In or Open Access Scheduling)

What It Is:

Open booking implies that the clients do not require an appointment. They come in a period of time and are observed on first come, first serve basis.

Pros:

• Highly flexible for clients
• Reduces no-shows

Cons:

• Last minute staff workload.
• Possible long wait times

Best For:

Urgent care, community health clinics, barbershops or walk-in labs.

Cluster Scheduling

What It Is:

Cluster scheduling entails bringing similar kind of appointments together. An example is where a doctor could plan all physicals in the morning and follow ups in the afternoon.

Pros:

• Streamlines workflow
• Less strain on staff to prepare to do similar procedures.
• Improves efficiency

Cons:

• Reduced flexibility of the clients.
• Possible overload at some point of the day.

Best For:

Medical staff, experts, or service sectors of various types of appointments with certain resources or preparation required.

Wave and Walk-In Combination

What It Is:

This approach is a combination of walk-in flexibility and wave scheduling. Booking of a set number of appointments in advance are made, but walk-ins are accepted and observed in between.

Pros:

• Balances are an arrangement of structure and flexibility.
• Grows customer satisfaction.

Cons:

• Needs good time management.
• Possible wait time increase.

Best For:

Clinics, auto repair shops, or businesses where there are always cases of urgency but a structure is still required.

Stream Scheduling

What It Is:

Stream scheduling allocates appointments at set periods of time during the day, e.g. every 15, 20, or 30 minutes. It is the oldest and straight forward type of scheduling.

Pros:

• Easy to implement and manage
• Consistent flow of clients
• Less confusing and redundant.

Cons:

• Unbending to walk-ins/emergencies.
• Lacunae in case clients make last minute cancellations.

Best For:

Offices where there are predictable, equal, length of appointments such as therapy, massage, or coaching sessions.

Choosing the Right Scheduling Method

The same type of scheduling will not be suitable in every business. In order to select the most appropriate approach,

It is necessary to take into account the following:

Nature of the Service

• Are they long or short appointments?
• Can they be predicted to last?

Volume of Clients

Are there a lot of people that you see every day or are there few?

Staffing and Resources

Are you adequately staffed to accommodate walk-in or doubles?

Client Expectations

Are your clients more structure or flexible oriented?