We highly recommend using an app that allows others to book a time in your calendar.
At first glance, this may seem like others have control of your time.
Quite the opposite!
Use an app such as Calendly; you can decide when people can book into your calendar.
Also, these apps integrate with your existing calendars (such as Google Calendars).
So if you book a time in your Calendar, Calendly won’t double book you.
Here are some of the benefits of using an app (such as Calendly) to provide a link that others can use to schedule time in your calendar:
- First, it avoids the Calendar shuffle!
- I propose a time that doesn’t work for you
- You suggest an alternative that doesn’t work for me
- How long does this go on, and if done by messaging, how long is the delay before you actually get to Zoom?
- People commit to a specific time and duration
- When people commit to a time, it automatically goes into their calendar, and they are much more likely to show up
- You receive an email when they book in
- This tells you who has taken your request to meet seriously
- You can ask for their phone number for an automatic SMS reminder
- It’s good to get their phone number
- You can add questions for your attendees to answer when they book in (however, use this carefully – you don’t want to sound like you are setting the meeting as a way of selling something.
As more and more people use Zoom (or equivalent), using a booking system is becoming respectful etiquette (you are grateful when others make it easy for you and send you a link to book into their calendar)
Tips:
- Don’t procrastinate!
- We all have “a million things” on our plates to deal with, and it’s easy to push off setting up a booking system till later
- It’s important! It will save you time and stress immediately!
- Don’t put it off too long, or it will become urgent!
- Don’t make your appointment times too long
- People will feel free to take the entire time – and sometimes you don’t want to spend too much time with some people
- Many meetings can have a 15-minute time slot because you can set up an automatic “buffer” (of say 15 minutes on either side of the meeting)
- For example, you can set up a 15-minute event type that blocks out 15 minutes before and after the event. In other words, 45 minutes