Embrace Tools to Stop Sharing Times via Email
Over the past few years, appointment scheduling with people outside your organization has become significantly easier to do as collaboration platforms created functionality that was previously requiring a paid add-on.
Does this drive you nuts?
Monday 9am to 12pm open, except 11-11:15
Tuesday 11-11:30, 1-2, 3-5
Friday unavailable
What about when you receive two or 10 of those and need to figure out which times overlap?
Let’s make a pact that we’ll stop sharing times like that via email.
If you’re using collaboration suites like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, there are built-in features that are likely included with your subscription at no additional cost:
Google Appointment Scheduling: marketing page, start here to setup this feature
Microsoft Bookings: marketing page, start here to setup this feature
Each of those hits a limit in terms of its features and integrations, so you might need to consider a solution outside of your collaboration suite that is an additional cost or bundled into a tool that you already have.
Standalone products like Calendly are feature-rich and can scale to handle many different use cases. If you’re dipping your toe into the water but have a wide opportunity space, it’s probably worth going down this path. Here are links to their marketing page and how to get started.
Video meeting platforms like Zoom and CRM platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot have bundled this feature into certain tiers of their products.
Zoom Scheduler: marketing page, start here to setup this feature
Salesforce: marketing pages for their Gmail and Outlook integrations and Scheduleradd-on, starting points to setup the inbox integrations and Scheduler
My Experience
Calendly is the easiest to work with on both sides (i.e. a person sharing availability and booking a meeting). Prior to Calendly, I used Google Appointment Scheduling, and decided to move away from it based on issues with certain IT environments and browser extensions blocking embedded pages on my website.
TLDR: Start using a tool to share times you can meet. Stop sharing times via email.
