Monday, March 30, 2015

Confirm An Appointment

In the daze of clients, meetings, emails, HR work, deadlines, applications, lunch, and more meetings an appointment can get pushed to the margin. Good organization will prevent this--confirming appointments saves time and gets you a better professional reputation. Here's how.


Instructions


1. Record the appointment in your own records first. Use a pocket agenda that you can carry with you all the time. Write down the time and the names involved. You'll have this for your records when you want to confirm the date later.


2. Make use of software. Microsoft Outlook is what many companies use to confirm meetings and other appointments in-house. They plug the information into their Outlook file, which sends it out to everybody. With Outlook, as long as you put in the right information, the appointment is confirmed in advance.


3. Send out emails before the date. There's no guarantee someone looks at their email on a given day. Rather, send out an email several business days before the date, and you may get a response confirming when and where.


4. Keep phone numbers handy. Calling a client or colleague hours before the appointment is a great way to confirm. It's the "hands-on" approach and stands a good chance of getting a response.


5. Be prepared to play catch-up. If for some reason the appointment doesn't go off as planned, leave a polite message asking to reschedule.