Let’s face it, the back-and-forth of booking a meeting with a prospective client can get frustrating. Stop the “does this date/time” work for you dance and allow prospective or current clients to book a meeting with you for exactly when you’re both available with Calendly. Our partners love being able to schedule a call with our team at their convenience and we love seeing our calendar filled with appointments. When you’re ready to get started with Calendly, this guide has some tips and tricks to help you fill your calendar.
The best part? You can access some of Calendly’s best features for free! If you need more booking power, the paid version unlocks even more functionality. For this guide, we are going to focus on the basics included with a free account. Get ready to save some serious time setting appointments. Calendly reports their users to save an average of 4 hours each week!
The Basics
When you get started with Calendly, you are supplied with event templates that you can share right out of the gate. But we recommend you first update a few settings to make the most of Calendly’s scheduling features.
- Connecting your calendar. When you create an account, you will link this up to your calendar (Google, Microsoft, etc.) so Calendly can share your availability with your customers. Don’t worry, they won’t see the details of the times that are blocked off, only where there are openings to make an appointment. With the free version, you can only connect to one calendar but if you upgrade you can connect more.
- Creating appointments. With a free version of Calendly you can have one appointment type, so be sure to create a description that works for new and existing clients. Use the Invitee Questions to determine what type of call this will be (new client, existing client, etc.). Don’t forget to build in buffer times between appointments in case you run over the allotted time or to take care of personal needs. Try to avoid asking too many questions up front since this might discourage people from signing up. Only ask the most important questions that will help you prepare for the call. With upgraded versions of Calendly you can customize reminder notifications, cancellation policies, and more.
- Connect to Zoom. Are you already a Zoom user? If not, learn how to go from a Zoom Zero to Hero. In the integrations tab, search for Zoom. Follow the simple on-screen instructions to connect your accounts, then set the location in your appointment to Zoom to automatically schedule future Zoom events!
- Start sharing links! With these settings in place you’re ready to start sharing your link and scheduling appointments. Say good-bye to double booking and forgetting to send calendar invites. Eliminate the “when is convenient for you” back-and-forth by empowering your clients to schedule their own time that works for you. When you’re ready to schedule a call with someone, use text like the below to let them know what this link is for:
- Here’s my scheduling link so we can avoid the back and forth of finding a time to meet.
- I’m available to meet with you. Schedule here.
Let the meetings come to you!
Add links or embed your appointments on your website to turn visitors into prospective clients seamlessly. Simply add a link to the text on your website and send visitors to your Calendly appointment page. Are you a little savvier with your website? Calendly offers three options to embed your appointments directly on your website.
- Inline embed. Just copy a bit of code into your site to have your Calendly appointment appear in your page. No need for your visitors to go to even leave your site.
- Pop-up widget. Just like on WBI’s About page, a little big of code creates a button in the corner of your site that opens a Calendly pop-up window when clicked.
- Pop-up text. If you’ve seen our Schedule a Meeting page in our Advisor Resource Center, you can code text in your page that opens your Calendly in a pop-up window when clicked.
Ready to get started with Calendly? Create your account and start booking meetings today.
