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Abundant Practice Podcast
Episode #694: Should You Have Online Scheduling In Your Private Practice
00:07:55
In this Ask Allison, we’re digging into online scheduling—whether it helps or hurts your practice, and how to make it work for you, not against you. We’ll talk about the hidden perks, the potential pitfalls (especially if your calendar’s wide...
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Foreign welcome to Ask Allison. Y' all ask the questions about having a fun and thriving practice and I answer them. We have a worksheet for you today so you can bring this answer into your life. You can Access that@AbundancePracticeBuilding.com links where you'll also be able to ask any questions you have for Ask Allison. If you want more support, we've got some free trainings in there too. If you can't get enough Ask Allison, check out our YouTube channel for our entire Ask Allison library. Hi all. Welcome back to Ask Allison. Here's today's question. It's one that evokes some strong opinions. Should I offer online Scheduling? Before I answer that, though, I would like to thank TherapyNotes for sponsoring Ask Allison. I've talked about them for years. I know their features by heart, but what truly sets them apart is how genuinely they care about your experience. It's not just about troubleshooting. They actively implement user suggested features like clinical outcome tracking, real time insurance checks, a smooth super bill process, and their AI feature, therapy fuel. Everyone at TherapyNotes believes in the product and wants you to love it too. Plus, they're independently owned, which means no venture capital and no pressure to prioritize investors over customers. This independence allows them to keep their prices fair, to focus on innovation, and to prioritize customer experience. With over 100,000 therapists already on board, they've proven you don't have to compromise success for quality. If you're ready to see for yourself, you can get two free months with the code abundant@therapynotes.com okay, so to the question, should I offer online scheduling? My answer is yes with an asterisk. So let's start with the good stuff, because there's a lot of it. Online scheduling can be a really huge win for you and your clients. It saves you from all that unnecessary back and forth. No more Are you free at Wednesday at 3? Followed by a response two days later saying no. What about Thursday at 10? Followed by another delay and then somebody forgets to reply and the thread disappears into the inbox abyss. You know how this goes. When clients can go online and grab a time, that works for them, it's just easier. So like for everybody involved, there's no phone tag, no mental load of remembering to follow up, no half written drafts waiting in your inbox. It's like done, scheduled, you move on with your day. But let's talk about the asterisks because while online scheduling can be amazing, I don't recommend it across the board if your calendar is pretty empty, like fewer than 50% of your slots are filled, I would hold off. And here's why. When somebody clicks on your online scheduler and sees that you've got wide open availability all day, every day, it can raise some questions. Not because you're not excellent, you are. But because we're wired. As humans, we associate scarcity with value. And when there's too much availability, especially for a therapist, it can accidentally signal. Huh. Well, maybe they're not that in demand, which may or may not be true, but that perception piece is really real. So if you're just starting out or you're rebuilding your caseload, I'd wait until you're at least halfway full. Or if you want to ease in, limit what shows up. Some platforms let you only display select times or require requests instead of automatic booking, which also can give you more control. And that brings me to something I really like. Platforms like TherapyNotes allow clients to request a time rather than book it outright. And that's a really beautiful middle ground. And that matters because sometimes you know things about your clients that your calendar doesn't like. Maybe you're an in person therapist and you've got two clients who absolutely cannot see each other. Maybe two co workers who don't know they're both in therapy with you. Or two teenagers from the same math class. If they bump into each other in the waiting room, things could get awkward fast. Having a say in who goes where in your calendar helps you prevent those moments. So with the request based scheduling, you still have veto power. Another example, this one's more about you. Let's say you have your two most emotionally draining clients. Try to book back to back. If you know that that second session is going to suffer because your brain's toast after the first, you can step in, reschedule and preserve your energy. You're a human, not a machine, and your calendar could respect that. Please and thank you. Let's talk about new clients. This really depends on if you require consult calls prior to scheduling. We talk a lot in the Abundance party about getting good fit clients that fit often just it gets figured out in a quick phone consult or email exchange. It's where you hear the nuance in what they're looking for and you get to ask, is this somebody I can truly help? And if you want to do phone consults for all potential clients, you can have the online scheduler set up exclusively for those. If someone self schedules the first session without any interaction, you lose the chance to pre screen. They show up and maybe you realize they need a type of therapy you don't offer. That's okay too. You can refer out after that initial session. You aren't obligated to continue seeing them if it's not in their or your best interest. And that's one reason I call it an initial appointment instead of an intake. I hear from my students that there's a high rate of no shows for consult calls that are scheduled in my practice. I encourage potential clients to call or email rather than to schedule a consult. So I can usually tell from an email, to be honest with you, or if I answer the phone, I can tell within five minutes. So my recommendation yes to online scheduling for current clients? Yes. Once your caseload is more than half full. Yes if you're using a platform that gives you control like time request approvals or limited visibility. Consider what types of scheduling new clients can access. Just consult calls versus full sessions. And remember, it's not a forever decision. You can turn online scheduling off and on. You can adjust who sees what you get to experiment. Decide what works for you at this stage in your practice. Let's talk systems for a second. You know I love a system. Online scheduling, when it's done right, is really efficient. It frees you up to focus on clinical work instead of logistics. It reduces missed appointments. It helps your clients take ownership of their schedules. And when you pair it with good calendar hygiene, it's perfect. Speaking of which, this week's free worksheet is all about scheduling. It walks you through how to set up your ideal week, what to include in your availability, a few sneaky things people often forget, like admin time, actual lunch breaks, those transition buffers we all need. If you want that worksheet, you can DM me the word sheets on Social and I'll send you that one and a link to all the previous worksheets from the Ask Allison series. If you're listening on the podcast, you can just find that link on the Show Notes. If you're feeling like your systems are a mess or you're struggling to get those first clients through the door, come on and join us in the Abundance party. We've got all the templates, scripts, trainings, coaching you need to make your practice actually work for you and your life. All right, thanks for hanging out. I will see you next week on Ask Allison. If you're ready for a much easier practice, Therapy Notes is the way to go. Go to therapynotes.com and use the promo code abundant for two months free. I hope that helped. If you have questions for Ask Allison or you want to get your hands on the worksheet for this episode, go to abundancepracticebuilding.com Links if you're listening, you probably need some support building your pract. If you're a super newbie, grab our free checklist using the link in the show Notes. I'd love for you to follow rate and review, but I really want you to share this episode with a therapist friend. Let's help all our colleagues build what they want.