Pretend you’re planning a weekend in the
woods, a camping trip for your family. After you finished scheduling your time off, you’ll need to make arrangements for transportation; maybe a rental car or plane tickets. You go online and book the travel, make a reservation for an SUV, and you’re all set. Then there’s just the simple matter offinding a place to sleep.
Most campgrounds or state parks have their own reservation system to keep track of the people sleeping under the stars. You’ll drive up, find a ranger or a park attendant, and figure out a place to set up the tent. It’s how it’s been done for decades.
North Carolina recently decided this wasn’t the best scheduling system they could use: what if your family was delayed on the road and couldn’t get to the campground before nightfall? They wanted a better reservation system for their state parks, and so implemented a new online reservation system a year ago.
The numbers are in: campgrounds in North Carolina have increased in use by 20% since the new reservation system started. Scheduling reservations — either online or by phone — has changed a large part of the camping experience. If a campground is full, the website lets you search for nearby parks, which has helped spread visitors between parks and let North Carolina accommodate more people on holidays and busy weekends.
North Carolina increased the use of its state parks merely by using a scheduling and reservation system. Imagine the ramifications if business followed suit. The best scheduling works unobtrusively, quickly, and comprehensively. To plan a meeting you need a reservation system that works for all parties involved and doesn’t take any time to learn. Reservations helped ease congestion while increasing patronage of campgrounds, and it can be used virtually the same way for offices with limited rooms or meeting spaces. Scheduling to plan a meeting is tough, but if you can change the room and update details on the fly then the difficulties are minimized.
Camping is the antithesis of business in most ways, but the best scheduling methods are wide-ranging in their application. When you plan a meeting or a weekend off the beaten trail, a reservation system to help with scheduling is essential.
Image courtesy codymcarlson
