TOPIC: Booking Your Inspection Online?

I posted this on the Nachi boards. I also wanted to get your opinions too.

I am trying to get opinions about online booking services. I currently have the ISN (Inspection Support Network) on my site. The idea of the program is great, the communication that is afforded is great. There are a few guys that use it here and I know that they like it and the ISN as a company.

Where I am going as a topic is, is it worth it? All of the things the ISN does can be done by the inspector. The ISN has auto-responders, will send out your agreements, keeps statistics, and many other tasks. The problem is, if clients don't log on to use it, what good is it? You would also have to post a price list for it to work. Who is going to log on and book an inspection, if they don't know what they are getting into price-wise. This also removes some of the salesmanship from the deal, but that's what an auto-scheduler does.

Do you guys see any value to the inspector with a program like this? I must admit, I don't really put much effort into marketing the ISN. The one thing is that I am the only guy in the area using something like this, so there is an angle if I need it. There may be a reason why I am the only guy though.

Thoughts?

At the very least I would think its good for internal tracking. You can enter in your information and use it for auto notifications and stats.

I really think of the scheduling feature as just one feature of many the ISN has. Quite a few guys I've talked to don't use that because they want to field calls like you've said. It's all the other items that make it worthwhile.