Tech Talk: Calendar and Scheduling Options
What does it look like to have an online calendar and scheduling system?
I know, some of you are cringing right now because you love your paper planner. You're not a digital planner, you don't have an online calendar, and you're just not ready to give it up.
I understand — there's something that happens in the brain when we're writing something down, especially checking off a list, looking at the calendar, and some of you are so wired to that. What I would encourage you to think about is how much easier your client-facing calendar and scheduling could be if it was online.
Just imagine the elimination of the back and forth to book an appointment, or forgetting your planner in your car. Think about how much easier it could be when the info is in the cloud- where you can access it from a lot of places, and also how much easier it would be for everyone to schedule a meeting with you.
A lot of my clients say, “But I don't want to share all my private appointments!” And that’s fair. People don't need to know that you took the day off, whether it’s a well-deserved spa day or just to be with your family.
The quick answer is: People won’t know why you’re booked, just that you’re unavailable. The options I recommend simply show what is available to them and what they can access or book from you. You can block off whatever you want — they're just seeing what is open to them.
If you want to know more about time blocking or blocking off your calendar for certain activities, please check out our time blocking workbook. It's also available for free to all of our Hustle to CEO members!
Acuity and Calendly are probably the most used freestanding or third-party apps for calendaring.
Acuity has a lot of great features beyond what Calendly has. They’re both very user-friendly and cost-effective. Acuity is now part of Squarespace, so if you use them for your website, that's another option that can bring it all into one dashboard if you will.
You can again control your availability, so people can only book certain times and days that are open, like 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. And if you're booked out for the week, they go to the next week.
From the back end, you can see how user-friendly it is and what you can set up for them so it’s easy to book, cancel, reschedule, postpone, etc.
Personally, I use a calendar through my customer relationship management program. If you have a CRM like Dubsado or HoneyBook (my personal fav), it probably has a scheduling option, too! It’s so easy to roll everything into one easy dashboard this way.
For all of these, you integrate the calendar app with whatever your personal calendar is, like Apple Calendar or Google Calendar. If you just use the CRM calendar, that's great too. And you can create specific session types or meeting types, with multiple options.
Tips and Tricks
I highly recommend blocking off the time. Having this available, so you have certain standard blocks of time will help not only with the setup of your scheduling, but it will also really, really help with your internal day-to-day work habits.
For example, if you know that Tuesdays and Thursdays afternoons are your open time for consults or you prefer to have sales conversations in the mornings, block that time off every week in your calendar automatically. If you have it blocked off, then you can get used to the flow of your day.
I highly recommend placing qualifying questions in your form, too. There are the standard things you need to know in order for them to book: their name, their email, and I also recommend getting their phone number in case you can’t get a hold of them through email. I also always have a spot to share something ahead of our meeting, like what they’re looking for, what questions they may already have, or just a tidbit of info to get to know a new client.
This helps you both go into the meeting, knowing what to expect, and having those questions already answered so you're diving into whatever's most important.
With any of these options, you've got an event link to share with anyone trying to book time with you. I highly recommend putting it in your email signature. That way, when you’re emailing someone, you can simply say, “Set up a time with me at the link below!” instead of digging around for it.
This is also a great option for texting, too!
Whether you choose Acuity, Calendly, or a CRM-based scheduler, they’re all so user-friendly and will save you so much time checking your calendar just to find out your client is totally booked when you’re not. Both Acuity and Calendly can be integrated with Google and Apple Calendars.
If you’re new to time blocking, have more questions about setting up a new scheduling system for your online business, or have a calendar app you love, let me know!