The process of working in a company is changing. People are now focussing on using innovative methods or tools to become more productive and efficient. One of those tools that are being used worldwide for this purpose is “Calendly.”
The days in companies, especially in startups are occupied with numerous calls and meetings, rescheduling appointments, and replying to necessary emails. All these day-to-day tasks make work tedious and provide room for errors too. Calendly is a tool that provides solutions for all of these complications.
It aims to make your work easier and error-free by scheduling meetings/appointments and sending reminders to make you ready on time.
Read this tutorial till the end to know more about Calendly, its pros, and how to use it hassle-free.
The Reason Behind Developing Calendly
According to Wikipedia, Calendly is a software company that develops a business communication platform used for teams to schedule, prepare and follow up on external meetings. It was founded in the year 2013 by Nigerian-born entrepreneur Tope Awotona.
Awotona was a salesperson in a company and was always frustrated by scheduling various sales calls. He admitted that this hectic process decreases his morale and affected his work. At that time, he wished there would be any software that can handle this part of his work then he could focus more on the meetings.
Finally, he turned his idea into a company with savings and loans. He hired a company “Railsware” to develop the software and launched his company in Atlanta, Georgia.
Their motto is,
“Spend less time on bookings and more time with your clients”.
What is Calendly and How Does it Work?
Calendly is an automated scheduling software that is designed to schedule meetings, and events by connecting your calendar directly to this software. It is a cloud-based system that takes time management to the next level.
One can stop using email chains or phone tags and can directly connect with your intended team by linking your calendar app. You can create events and those who are interested in a meeting can book an appointment. It presents the days and time slots on which you are available.
Your intended member can see your available slots in your schedule and can book any meeting as per their availability, via a link. It also sends reminders to prepare you beforehand and never be late for your meetings.
You can create different kinds of meetings of different duration without getting confused or lost in the process. One more unique feature of Calendly is that your clients or colleagues won’t see your details of other meetings as they don’t have access to your calendar. It takes care of your privacy.
Pricing Details:
Calendly is a freemium tool i.e., anyone can use its basic plan for free (no credit card is required). A free 14 -days trial is also available for teams to explore all the customization options. For advanced features, you have to take a paid subscription.
Let’s have a look at its different plans to choose the best suited for you.
Calendly Basic
- One can link only one calendar and a single type of event for your clients.
- Receive automatic event notifications so you don’t have to reschedule or cancel it manually.
- You can brand your booking page and customize your booking link.
Calendly Essentials (Premium)
- It is $8 per month and you can create unlimited types of events.
- You can get access to a few more features and a higher level of customization.
Calendly Professional (Pro)
- It allows using multiple calendars and it is $12 per month and the most popular plan.
- It permits six calendars per person and access to all the customization and features.
Others:
- Calendly offers a “Team Package” for managing the entire team. It will cost you $16 per month. Salesforce integration is one of its best features.
- “Calendly Enterprize” is for managing the whole company and it offers strict security. You have to contact Calendly directly to avail of this plan.
Note: Calendly teams and the enterprise plan offers live chat support to users.
Who Can Use Calendly?
Almost everyone today needs this platform to schedule appointments and manage tasks. Teachers or trainers can utilize this for creating group events for their classes or sessions.
Consultants can book their appointments and get reminders also. They can reschedule or cancel their appointments and Calendly will inform them through emails or texts.
Human Resource teams can use it for scheduling interviews with their candidates. This software is extremely useful for business professionals who are working online (remote or WFH) at ease. With its various features, no colleagues will miss their group or individual meetings.
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Advantages of Using Calendly
It has many great features that make it exceptionally useful in speeding up your sales cycle, closing more deals, and generating high revenue.
Calendly helps in eliminating time zone confusion and the time wasted in waiting to reply about who is available and when. It keeps your calendar organized and offers services like payments service integration, sales integration, and meeting software integration.
Other major advantages of using Calendly are:
- Connects to one calendar account for free and up to six with the subscription.
- It can check conflicts automatically and add new events to your calendars.
- It has a zoom integration feature that can automatically create a zoom call according to the scheduled meetings.
- It stops last-minute scheduling with its “Last Minute Scheduling Notice.”
- It automatically sends email reminders and confirmation to keep you on time.
- Its features support the needs of the academic and higher education environments also.
Note: It is a platform that can only be used on desktops and laptops, no mobile apps for iOS or Android are available.
Now, let’s move on to the step-by-step guide using Calendly.
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How to Use Calendly: a Step-by-Step Tutorial
This complete tutorial is divided into four major parts:
- Setting your account
- Complete the profile
- Connect your calendar
- Create an event
Let’s get started!
1. How to set up your account?
A new webpage will appear. You have to enter your email id, full name, and password and click on “Sign up”. You can also directly log in with your Google or Microsoft account.
After that, you have to verify your email address by clicking on the link sent by Calendly to your email account.
Once it’s done, you can log in to your account and start setting it up.
It will ask about your time zone, available hours, and role at work, create a custom URL, and link the calendar of your choice. You can do that right now or click on “Set up later” and finish the sign-up process.
2. Complete the profile
To make your account look authentic and professional, you have to update your profile.
Open your home page and go to “Account”, given on the right side at the top. From there click on the “Account settings” option (dropdown menu).
Now complete your profile by uploading your profile photo and other information asked.
Click on the “Branding” button given under the profile tab. You can update your business logo if you want.
Now you can change your URL under the “My link” tab, and your contact number under the “Phone numbers” tab, and your profile will be complete.
Note: If you change your Calendly URL, all of your copied links will no longer work and you have to update it.
3. Connect your calendar
Calendly is used to link your calendar whether it’s Google, Microsoft, or Apple calendars. Once it is done, you don’t have to add your available hours every time you want to add or remove something from it. Your appointments will automatically appear in your calendar that is made through Calendly.
Go to the homepage, click on the “Account” tab and select the “Calendar connections” option.
Now choose the calendar you want to link. You can add one calendar in the basic version, two in the essential, but up to six calendars in the professional, teams, and enterprise subscriptions.
You can add any of these above-shown calendars to your account. However, if you want to connect your Outlook calendar, you have to install one plug-in, and then the linking will be complete.
4. Create your event
Go to your homepage again, and click on the “+ new event type” tab.
Now you can choose any type of meeting from One-on-One to a group meeting but in the basic version, you can add only the One-on-One event type.
After clicking on the event type, fill in all the information about your events such as event name, location, and description, and click “Next”.
On the next page, you have to customize the duration and available slots of your meeting. You can change your booking range also by selecting the data range.
You can change your available slots or days for each day separately and also remove them by pressing the button “I am unavailable” on your calendar. Under the advanced tab, you can choose the number of meetings taking place in one day and other details as well.
Your event is now available for your intended members to start booking through your custom link. You can also copy your Calendly link and send it to others to book the appointments.
Other Important Features:
- One new webpage will open with the tab “Additional Option” while you will save your meeting. In that, you can add your invitee questions along with their emails.
- You can automate your workflows as per your requirements and change settings for notifications (email reminders) and cancellation policies.
- You can collect payment too by setting up your payment method. Once it’s all done, click on the “Save and close” button.
- Using Zoom integration– This feature is extremely useful as it automatically creates the zoom meeting links and pastes them on your calendar.
For this, you have to go to the “Integration tab” on the home page and select the Zoom option. Now click on “Connect to Zoom” and sign in with your email. Authorize Calendly to Zoom and you are good to go!
Take-aways
Calendly is valued at $3 billion, thus making it a tech unicorn. It is highly useful for those who are managing a team of 30+ members or working remotely.
It takes time management on a different level by eliminating the confusion that occurs when one juggles between different meetings and appointments.
Calendly has various customization options to organize your calendar and is also constantly introducing new features.
Therefore, start using Calendly to increase productivity and built a trustworthy relationship between your clients, customers, and employees.
