How do you normally schedule meetings with clients and business partners? By exchanging emails? By calling their secretaries?
Every day, we use many tools to increase our productivity, plan tasks, automate work, and analyze our data. It's all about optimizing as many parts of our workflow as possible, getting more done in a shorter period of time.
If you need to reschedule a meeting for any reason, Microsoft Outlook makes it easy to adjust a meeting or event you created, suggest a new time, and automatically notify all attendees. By far the best way to arrange common meeting time over email is to use a scheduling app like Doodle: easy scheduling. You simply propose a number of slots that are convenient for you then send a link to all the other people asking which slots are convenient for them. Looking at the result you can identify which slot is the best for everyone. Due to a meeting room problem, the time of the project kick-off meeting has to be changed from Tuesday, August 21st at 2 pm in room A3 to Thursday, August 23rd at 16:00 in room 324. Sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Best regards, Miranda. Please grant us a meeting time on the coming Monday. Waiting for your email reply asap. Regards, Yasmeen Amir Jafri. Short Meeting Request Letter after Phone Call/SMS. Ayesha, Further to our conversation on phone today I would like to request an appointment after Eid, I hope you will be able to get back with time and date asap.
But when scheduling meetings with potential clients, partners, and the team, we still use email as a primary communication channel. We bet you also belong to the email-club.
Every day, millions of people bounce emails back and forth to find a suitable time for meeting another person.
So how about halting the time wasted in our inboxes?
READ MORE: 5 Scientific Studies That Will Change Your Productivity Habits Forever.
Scheduling tools to save 3 hours/week
We bet many of you haven't heard of these amazing scheduling software that find mutually suitable meeting time without a ten-emails conversation.
The best scheduling tools do all the work for us, forwarding meeting proposals to all participants, helping to find a suitable time and place. Methods vary depending on the tool, but saving time is guaranteed when using each of them.
How scheduling tools (usually) work:
- You select multiple date and time options and let the system forward it to other participants
- Others receive an invitation email with clickable time options or a link to your event's page
- Participants select the proposed time option(s) that suit the best for them
- If a mutually suitable meeting time is found, everyone receives a confirmation email
- Some scheduling tools are integrated with popular calendar apps, meaning that you can add the event to your calendar in a few clicks.
If this sounded like something you'd like to try, take a look at these next-generation scheduling tools and decide for yourself which one of these will save you the most time.
1. Scoro calendar invites
Calendar invites are only one of Scoro's large set of features. The benefit of using Scoro for scheduling a meeting is the possibility to link your meetings with customer profiles or projects. Meaning that you can save your meeting data and see the reports on your time spent later on.
You can send calendar invites to other participants by creating a meeting event with multiple dates and automatically forward the invitation by email. The receiver can choose the suitable time without leaving their inbox. As a time available for everyone is found, all the participants get a confirmation email and the event automatically appears in their calendar apps.
Scoro's calendar tool is not currently available as an individual product but all the customers who have tried it, keep using it over and over again.
READ MORE: If you're managing your meeting history on a spreadsheet, you should read why you need an Excel Alternative.
2. HubSpot Meetings
Give prospects an easy way to book meetings without the back and forth. Your calendar stays full, and you stay productive.
Meetings syncs with your Google or Office 365 calendar, so prospects can always see your most up-to-date availability. When you let prospects automatically book meetings on your calendar, you'll save hours of time spent on unnecessary emails.
No designated sales rep? Set up a round-robin meeting link so prospects can book a meeting with the sales rep whose availability works best for their schedule.
HubSpot Meetings is a free Hubspot product that can be connected to HubSpot CRM.
3. Rally
The coolest thing about Rally is the fact that it's open source. Meaning that many great ideas have been applied thanks to meaningful collaboration.
With Rally, you create an event page and share it with other participants. On the page, everyone can pick the most suitable time options. This scheduling tool has a really nice feature – you can write down the meeting notes on the event page to file an agenda and later remember everything discussed.
If you like what you've read this far, check out Rally here.
4. Doodle
Doodle's free basic account is a great way to manage a small team's meetings. Create polls and email the link to your teammates so that everyone can pick the options that suit them. Later, you can decide on the meeting time by checking which proposed time was selected by the most people.
This scheduling tool also comes with a Premium package, offering automatic reminders and integration with a calendar app.
Interested? You can find out more about Doodle here.
READ MORE: 12 cool (and free) browser extensions for increased productivity.
5. NeedToMeet
David perkins poker games. When scheduling a meeting with NeedToMeet, you first need to fill in a form with all the meeting details, including the duration, place and optional dates you'd like to propose.
Next, you can either email the link to the event's NeetToMeet page to all participants or automatically forward the invite via the too so that the time can be chosen without leaving the inbox. After everyone's picked their available times, you can see the results in a table and find the most suitable time.
NeedToMeet is a free tool, you only need the Premium account for priority support and calendar integrations. Get it here.
6. Assistant.to
What makes Assistant.to interesting is the fact that it's not a standalone online tool but an extension for inbox. If you previously composed emails with optional meeting times and forwarded them to other participants, you might want to try this scheduling extension.
After other parties have selected the suitable time, Assistant.to automatically schedules the meeting and send invites. If you like to keep all the interaction in email, this could be your go-to tool.
There are some shortcomings though. The extension doesn't support scheduling with over 2 people and has no integrations with calendar apps. So that you have to manually enter the scheduled meeting time to your calendar.
If you'd like to give Assistant.to a try, click here.
7. Timebridge
The basic features offered in Timebridge resemble some of the previous tools – you pick multiple dates and send invitations by email. After others have confirmed a date, you both receive notifications. It synchronizes with Outlook and Gmail calendar, meaning that you can select optional time slots while seeing your other scheduled events.
A nice little feature in Timebridge is the option to answer Yes/No/Best. This is handy when trying to schedule a meeting with a large team, allowing everyone to select multiple times when they're available.
To check it out, click here.
8. Calendly
Calendly is a widely popular scheduling tool among project teams and people who frequently attend business meetings, organize tours or schedule webinars.
This easy-to-use and well-designed tool enables sending a calendar invite to everyone you want to schedule with. The invitees receive an email with optional meeting times proposed by the sender. Next, they can pick the time that suits them.
Or when scheduling with a large team, you can forward to others an invite to visit your Calendly page and choose all their available meeting times, ensuring that you find the time suitable for everyone.
Whenever you've agreed on a meeting time, you can add it to your favourite calendar platform in one click. To make the process even smoother, there's no need for the invitees to sign up for Calendly in order to choose between available meeting times.
If this sounded like a perfect scheduling tool, you can get Calendly here.
Need to convince your team to use the new tool? Learn how to make new software implementation effortless and quick.
9. Pick
Pick is both a desktop and mobile scheduling tool that helps to determine time periods when everyone is available. It synchronizes with all popular calendar apps and compares everyone's calendars, proposing optional meeting times.
After you've found a time that suits everyone and scheduled the meeting, Pick notifies all participants and automatically schedules the event to everybody's calendar apps.
A cool feature in Pick is sharing your available times with others so that they know in advance when it's the best time for you.
Sounds pretty cool, right? Check it out (and get it for free) here.
Working in sales? How about some business hacks to communicate more efficiently.
10. Clara
Clara is basically your virtual assistant when it comes to scheduling meetings. Backed by human support, Clara can understand your questions and helping to conduct your email conversation with other participants, it finds the suitable time for you all.
Suggest Time Slot For Meeting Email Format
For example, type in 'Clara, can you find a time for us to meet for lunch next week?' and the virtual assistant sends emails to your invitees and determines a time, date, location and participants.
Compared to other scheduling tools, Clara may seem relatively expensive. But if you think about the human involvement, it's what you'd expect.
Sounds interesting? Learn more about Clara here.
If after reading this article, you still feel like email is the best tool for scheduling a meeting, we respect your decision.
Suggest Time Slot For Meeting Emails
But if you're into innovation and would like to bring productivity to your workflow, integrate a meeting scheduling to your workflow. Your team members will be forever grateful!
Almost everyone has meetings, sometimes despite their wishes. The lucky few only have an occasional call or in-person, but the rest of us often spend all day on the phone with customers. If you're like me and run a back-to-back schedule, you want to minimize your meeting snafus and focus on having as many productive conversations as possible.
Every no-show, reschedule, delay, bad call connection, or other meeting hiccup can create anything from a minor annoyance to a scheduling disaster, throwing off the rest of your day. It drives me crazy when I spend fifteen minutes of a half hour call just trying to get a screenshare working, not to mention the potential lost revenue from a cancel or no-show.
I've spent years developing a process that helps my calendar run like clockwork. It's saved me countless hours, and I'd love for you to give it a try and see what you think.
1. Propose a Time
All right, let's do this. It's time to schedule a meeting, so first thing's first, we need to pick a time. This is the hardest part, so I've broken it down into subsections with an example.
Rule #1: Usually the first person who offers times gets the better schedule, so be proactive and offer some timeslots. Don't wait! Your first email should include specific time slot offers, instead of unhelpful invitations such as 'my whole Tuesday is open'.
Rule #2: Offer half hour blocks. All meetings should default to 30 minutes unless you know for certain they will be longer (like an onboarding call). In that case, offer hour blocks, and be explicit that this meeting will take an hour.
Rule #3: Propose two slots per attendee. If you're meeting with one person, offer two times. If you're meeting with two people, offer four. Every attendee increases the complexity of scheduling, so save yourself an email thread from hell by offering lots of time.
Rule #5: This also goes both ways: When somebody proposes a time with a timezone, pay attention. I've had meetings get rescheduled because somebody claims they thought the time was in Eastern instead of Pacific, even though I specified the timezone clearly in the email and invite. Always be aware of the proposed timezone, and if they don't propose a timezone and you're not 110% certain of their location, ask before accepting.
Rule #6: At the end of your time proposal, specify explicitly that 'I will send an invite'. Invites are they key to meeting success, and this clears up an entire round trip regarding how you will actually contact each other.
Here's an example, putting this all in action:
Third party: 'Matt, I'd like to introduce you to Sally, our head of product. She's interested in what you're working on and would like to learn more.'
Matt: 'Sally, pleasure virtually meeting you. (Moving to BCC)* I'd love to find a time to chat. How is 9 or 9:30AM PT on Tuesday the 22nd? Let me know and I'll send an invite.'
Sally: '9AM on the 22nd works great. Looking forward to chatting more.'
* In addition to proposing a time, move all non-scheduling-dependent parties to BCC. They'll thank you later.
Sweet, we've proposed a time. Let's get the details locked down
2. Block Off Time Proposals In Your Calendar
In my example above, I got lucky and Sally responded accepting my proposal immediately. This basically never happens, so to avoid double booking, put two calendar events in your calendar called 'TBD Sally' for 9AM and 9:30AM. That way you know you have an outstanding proposal, and don't accidentally offer it to somebody else.
3. Always Be Inviting
Calendar invites are the crux of business communication. The only invention greater than invites is the telephone itself. To remember when to use them, check out this helpful guide.
When should I send a calendar invite?
A) Always
B) Every Time
C) Upon Scheduling Each Meeting
D) All of the Above
It is crucial that you send an invite to every attendee of the meeting. This automatically blocks off the time in their calendar so they don't forget, as well as provides all requisite information on how to actually have the meeting. For more information about what actually goes in this invite, read on.
4. Invite Details are King
The details you provide in the calendar invite are the ultimate source of truth regarding where, when, and how to meet. It is important that you fill them out accurately.
#1 Subject: This is ironically one of the less important pieces in the invite. A subject covering the basics is sufficient: 'Bitmatica / Chinchilla.ly Intro Call' is fine, just remember to include both parties' names in the subject. If everybody sent me an invite called 'Bitmatica Intro Call', I'd have five hours of Bitmatica intro calls.
#2 Time: Pretty straightforward, just remember to add accurate start and end times in the invite, including the correct timezone. Their calendar will automatically translate your local times into their local times. Always make sure the length is correct: 30 minute meetings should be scheduled for 30 minutes, not the often default time of an hour. Nice feature: Most calendaring software lets you set your default meeting length to 30 minutes.
#3 Location: This is the most important field in the invitation! This is the part where you specify how you'll actually meet. Provide a dial-in with a phone number and access code, or a link to GoToMeeting, or a physical address with floor number. Whatever it is, just make sure it's clear and complete.
Good locations:
Conference Bridge: (415) 555-5555, Access Code: 12345
535 Mission St, 17th Floor, San Francisco
Join.me Link: http://join.me/bitmatica
Matt to Call Sally: (212) 555-5555
Bad locations:
Conference Line (what is it?)
Coffee (where?)
(415) 555-5555 (who is supposed to call this number? both of us? one of us?)
Our Office (where is your office?)
Empty (please don't leave this field empty!)
Pro Tip: After years and years of failed meetings, I have a mountain of anecdotal evidence that telephone is far and away the best communication mechanism. Many people request to meet over Google Hangouts, Skype, and other pure-VoIP solutions. I cannot count the number of times I've had to install plugins, failed to hear people over bad Internet connections, had their computer crash, or countless other glitches.
Telephone is still hands down the most reliable communication channel, so always offer a POTS-based dial-in first and foremost. If you plan on screensharing, it's often better to offer a screenshare link after everybody has joined the telephone line, that way you can troubleshoot in real time when inevitably somebody's computer can't see your screen. I often just read a Join.me link over the phone -- it works nearly 100% of the time.
#4 Description: This is where any details go, such as the agenda. It's very helpful to provide an agenda if you can, and for larger meetings with >4 attendees, I'd almost require it just to be respectful of everybody's time. You can also add semi-important details such as 'Check in at reception on the 14th floor when you get here'. Anything that can't be figured out three minutes before the meeting, however, should be part of the Location Field (such as 'access code 12345'). Some peoples' calendars don't show Description as prominent as they should.
#5 Attendees: And of course, remember to actually add everybody to the meeting. Mark their participation as optional if they aren't required to be there. Nice feature: If you use Google Calendar and want to invite a Google Group to an invite, you can just add that group name, and all email addresses will populate automatically.
5. Accept the Invite
When you receive an invite from somebody, make sure to click 'Yes'. That way the organizer knows you received the invite, confirmed the time, and are actually coming.
If your attendee doesn't accept the meeting and subsequently doesn't show up, half of the time they'll probably claim they never received an invite. Nine out of ten times that's probably not true and they just forgot, but if they accept the invite, at least you know they got it. And if they don't accept the invite..
6. Send a Reminder
For everyone, however, it's useful to set a reminder in your calendaring software between 3-10 minutes beforehand. That way you never forget.
7. T-Minus 5 Minutes Until Meeting Time. Man Your Email!
Here's one that drives me crazy. You're three minutes into a half-hour meeting and can't connect to the provided conference line. You email the attendees asking for or providing an alternate. Three more minutes go by. Silence.
When you're about to hop on the phone with somebody, watch your email like a hawk. Inevitably somebody will be running late, or their phone will die, or your WebEx link will break. When this happens, it's critical that you get the details squared away over email as if you were on instant message. Every minute you wait for somebody to respond is cutting into a thirty minute block that took you four months to schedule.
8. Meeting Time! Dial Whatever is in the Location Field of the Invite.
As I said before, calendar invites are king. The Location Field should specify exactly what you need to do or where you need to go to close this deal. Don't call their signature, don't call their cell, don't email them with your Skype handle, don't send them a request for a Google Hangout. Click the link or dial the phone number in the Location. If it's not there, somebody didn't follow Step 3.
In the (unfortunately common) case where the Location is empty or wrong, email them asking for their preferred dial-in information.
In the (still unfortunately common) case where they didn't follow Step 7 and don't respond to your email, do then try to call a number in their signature or whatever contact information you can find. A late meeting is better than no meeting.
- You select multiple date and time options and let the system forward it to other participants
- Others receive an invitation email with clickable time options or a link to your event's page
- Participants select the proposed time option(s) that suit the best for them
- If a mutually suitable meeting time is found, everyone receives a confirmation email
- Some scheduling tools are integrated with popular calendar apps, meaning that you can add the event to your calendar in a few clicks.
If this sounded like something you'd like to try, take a look at these next-generation scheduling tools and decide for yourself which one of these will save you the most time.
1. Scoro calendar invites
Calendar invites are only one of Scoro's large set of features. The benefit of using Scoro for scheduling a meeting is the possibility to link your meetings with customer profiles or projects. Meaning that you can save your meeting data and see the reports on your time spent later on.
You can send calendar invites to other participants by creating a meeting event with multiple dates and automatically forward the invitation by email. The receiver can choose the suitable time without leaving their inbox. As a time available for everyone is found, all the participants get a confirmation email and the event automatically appears in their calendar apps.
Scoro's calendar tool is not currently available as an individual product but all the customers who have tried it, keep using it over and over again.
READ MORE: If you're managing your meeting history on a spreadsheet, you should read why you need an Excel Alternative.
2. HubSpot Meetings
Give prospects an easy way to book meetings without the back and forth. Your calendar stays full, and you stay productive.
Meetings syncs with your Google or Office 365 calendar, so prospects can always see your most up-to-date availability. When you let prospects automatically book meetings on your calendar, you'll save hours of time spent on unnecessary emails.
No designated sales rep? Set up a round-robin meeting link so prospects can book a meeting with the sales rep whose availability works best for their schedule.
HubSpot Meetings is a free Hubspot product that can be connected to HubSpot CRM.
3. Rally
The coolest thing about Rally is the fact that it's open source. Meaning that many great ideas have been applied thanks to meaningful collaboration.
With Rally, you create an event page and share it with other participants. On the page, everyone can pick the most suitable time options. This scheduling tool has a really nice feature – you can write down the meeting notes on the event page to file an agenda and later remember everything discussed.
If you like what you've read this far, check out Rally here.
4. Doodle
Doodle's free basic account is a great way to manage a small team's meetings. Create polls and email the link to your teammates so that everyone can pick the options that suit them. Later, you can decide on the meeting time by checking which proposed time was selected by the most people.
This scheduling tool also comes with a Premium package, offering automatic reminders and integration with a calendar app.
Interested? You can find out more about Doodle here.
READ MORE: 12 cool (and free) browser extensions for increased productivity.
5. NeedToMeet
David perkins poker games. When scheduling a meeting with NeedToMeet, you first need to fill in a form with all the meeting details, including the duration, place and optional dates you'd like to propose.
Next, you can either email the link to the event's NeetToMeet page to all participants or automatically forward the invite via the too so that the time can be chosen without leaving the inbox. After everyone's picked their available times, you can see the results in a table and find the most suitable time.
NeedToMeet is a free tool, you only need the Premium account for priority support and calendar integrations. Get it here.
6. Assistant.to
What makes Assistant.to interesting is the fact that it's not a standalone online tool but an extension for inbox. If you previously composed emails with optional meeting times and forwarded them to other participants, you might want to try this scheduling extension.
After other parties have selected the suitable time, Assistant.to automatically schedules the meeting and send invites. If you like to keep all the interaction in email, this could be your go-to tool.
There are some shortcomings though. The extension doesn't support scheduling with over 2 people and has no integrations with calendar apps. So that you have to manually enter the scheduled meeting time to your calendar.
If you'd like to give Assistant.to a try, click here.
7. Timebridge
The basic features offered in Timebridge resemble some of the previous tools – you pick multiple dates and send invitations by email. After others have confirmed a date, you both receive notifications. It synchronizes with Outlook and Gmail calendar, meaning that you can select optional time slots while seeing your other scheduled events.
A nice little feature in Timebridge is the option to answer Yes/No/Best. This is handy when trying to schedule a meeting with a large team, allowing everyone to select multiple times when they're available.
To check it out, click here.
8. Calendly
Calendly is a widely popular scheduling tool among project teams and people who frequently attend business meetings, organize tours or schedule webinars.
This easy-to-use and well-designed tool enables sending a calendar invite to everyone you want to schedule with. The invitees receive an email with optional meeting times proposed by the sender. Next, they can pick the time that suits them.
Or when scheduling with a large team, you can forward to others an invite to visit your Calendly page and choose all their available meeting times, ensuring that you find the time suitable for everyone.
Whenever you've agreed on a meeting time, you can add it to your favourite calendar platform in one click. To make the process even smoother, there's no need for the invitees to sign up for Calendly in order to choose between available meeting times.
If this sounded like a perfect scheduling tool, you can get Calendly here.
Need to convince your team to use the new tool? Learn how to make new software implementation effortless and quick.
9. Pick
Pick is both a desktop and mobile scheduling tool that helps to determine time periods when everyone is available. It synchronizes with all popular calendar apps and compares everyone's calendars, proposing optional meeting times.
After you've found a time that suits everyone and scheduled the meeting, Pick notifies all participants and automatically schedules the event to everybody's calendar apps.
A cool feature in Pick is sharing your available times with others so that they know in advance when it's the best time for you.
Sounds pretty cool, right? Check it out (and get it for free) here.
Working in sales? How about some business hacks to communicate more efficiently.
10. Clara
Clara is basically your virtual assistant when it comes to scheduling meetings. Backed by human support, Clara can understand your questions and helping to conduct your email conversation with other participants, it finds the suitable time for you all.
Suggest Time Slot For Meeting Email Format
For example, type in 'Clara, can you find a time for us to meet for lunch next week?' and the virtual assistant sends emails to your invitees and determines a time, date, location and participants.
Compared to other scheduling tools, Clara may seem relatively expensive. But if you think about the human involvement, it's what you'd expect.
Sounds interesting? Learn more about Clara here.
If after reading this article, you still feel like email is the best tool for scheduling a meeting, we respect your decision.
Suggest Time Slot For Meeting Emails
But if you're into innovation and would like to bring productivity to your workflow, integrate a meeting scheduling to your workflow. Your team members will be forever grateful!
Almost everyone has meetings, sometimes despite their wishes. The lucky few only have an occasional call or in-person, but the rest of us often spend all day on the phone with customers. If you're like me and run a back-to-back schedule, you want to minimize your meeting snafus and focus on having as many productive conversations as possible.
Every no-show, reschedule, delay, bad call connection, or other meeting hiccup can create anything from a minor annoyance to a scheduling disaster, throwing off the rest of your day. It drives me crazy when I spend fifteen minutes of a half hour call just trying to get a screenshare working, not to mention the potential lost revenue from a cancel or no-show.
I've spent years developing a process that helps my calendar run like clockwork. It's saved me countless hours, and I'd love for you to give it a try and see what you think.
1. Propose a Time
All right, let's do this. It's time to schedule a meeting, so first thing's first, we need to pick a time. This is the hardest part, so I've broken it down into subsections with an example.
Rule #1: Usually the first person who offers times gets the better schedule, so be proactive and offer some timeslots. Don't wait! Your first email should include specific time slot offers, instead of unhelpful invitations such as 'my whole Tuesday is open'.
Rule #2: Offer half hour blocks. All meetings should default to 30 minutes unless you know for certain they will be longer (like an onboarding call). In that case, offer hour blocks, and be explicit that this meeting will take an hour.
Rule #3: Propose two slots per attendee. If you're meeting with one person, offer two times. If you're meeting with two people, offer four. Every attendee increases the complexity of scheduling, so save yourself an email thread from hell by offering lots of time.
Rule #5: This also goes both ways: When somebody proposes a time with a timezone, pay attention. I've had meetings get rescheduled because somebody claims they thought the time was in Eastern instead of Pacific, even though I specified the timezone clearly in the email and invite. Always be aware of the proposed timezone, and if they don't propose a timezone and you're not 110% certain of their location, ask before accepting.
Rule #6: At the end of your time proposal, specify explicitly that 'I will send an invite'. Invites are they key to meeting success, and this clears up an entire round trip regarding how you will actually contact each other.
Here's an example, putting this all in action:
Third party: 'Matt, I'd like to introduce you to Sally, our head of product. She's interested in what you're working on and would like to learn more.'
Matt: 'Sally, pleasure virtually meeting you. (Moving to BCC)* I'd love to find a time to chat. How is 9 or 9:30AM PT on Tuesday the 22nd? Let me know and I'll send an invite.'
Sally: '9AM on the 22nd works great. Looking forward to chatting more.'
* In addition to proposing a time, move all non-scheduling-dependent parties to BCC. They'll thank you later.
Sweet, we've proposed a time. Let's get the details locked down
2. Block Off Time Proposals In Your Calendar
In my example above, I got lucky and Sally responded accepting my proposal immediately. This basically never happens, so to avoid double booking, put two calendar events in your calendar called 'TBD Sally' for 9AM and 9:30AM. That way you know you have an outstanding proposal, and don't accidentally offer it to somebody else.
3. Always Be Inviting
Calendar invites are the crux of business communication. The only invention greater than invites is the telephone itself. To remember when to use them, check out this helpful guide.
When should I send a calendar invite?
A) Always
B) Every Time
C) Upon Scheduling Each Meeting
D) All of the Above
It is crucial that you send an invite to every attendee of the meeting. This automatically blocks off the time in their calendar so they don't forget, as well as provides all requisite information on how to actually have the meeting. For more information about what actually goes in this invite, read on.
4. Invite Details are King
The details you provide in the calendar invite are the ultimate source of truth regarding where, when, and how to meet. It is important that you fill them out accurately.
#1 Subject: This is ironically one of the less important pieces in the invite. A subject covering the basics is sufficient: 'Bitmatica / Chinchilla.ly Intro Call' is fine, just remember to include both parties' names in the subject. If everybody sent me an invite called 'Bitmatica Intro Call', I'd have five hours of Bitmatica intro calls.
#2 Time: Pretty straightforward, just remember to add accurate start and end times in the invite, including the correct timezone. Their calendar will automatically translate your local times into their local times. Always make sure the length is correct: 30 minute meetings should be scheduled for 30 minutes, not the often default time of an hour. Nice feature: Most calendaring software lets you set your default meeting length to 30 minutes.
#3 Location: This is the most important field in the invitation! This is the part where you specify how you'll actually meet. Provide a dial-in with a phone number and access code, or a link to GoToMeeting, or a physical address with floor number. Whatever it is, just make sure it's clear and complete.
Good locations:
Conference Bridge: (415) 555-5555, Access Code: 12345
535 Mission St, 17th Floor, San Francisco
Join.me Link: http://join.me/bitmatica
Matt to Call Sally: (212) 555-5555
Bad locations:
Conference Line (what is it?)
Coffee (where?)
(415) 555-5555 (who is supposed to call this number? both of us? one of us?)
Our Office (where is your office?)
Empty (please don't leave this field empty!)
Pro Tip: After years and years of failed meetings, I have a mountain of anecdotal evidence that telephone is far and away the best communication mechanism. Many people request to meet over Google Hangouts, Skype, and other pure-VoIP solutions. I cannot count the number of times I've had to install plugins, failed to hear people over bad Internet connections, had their computer crash, or countless other glitches.
Telephone is still hands down the most reliable communication channel, so always offer a POTS-based dial-in first and foremost. If you plan on screensharing, it's often better to offer a screenshare link after everybody has joined the telephone line, that way you can troubleshoot in real time when inevitably somebody's computer can't see your screen. I often just read a Join.me link over the phone -- it works nearly 100% of the time.
#4 Description: This is where any details go, such as the agenda. It's very helpful to provide an agenda if you can, and for larger meetings with >4 attendees, I'd almost require it just to be respectful of everybody's time. You can also add semi-important details such as 'Check in at reception on the 14th floor when you get here'. Anything that can't be figured out three minutes before the meeting, however, should be part of the Location Field (such as 'access code 12345'). Some peoples' calendars don't show Description as prominent as they should.
#5 Attendees: And of course, remember to actually add everybody to the meeting. Mark their participation as optional if they aren't required to be there. Nice feature: If you use Google Calendar and want to invite a Google Group to an invite, you can just add that group name, and all email addresses will populate automatically.
5. Accept the Invite
When you receive an invite from somebody, make sure to click 'Yes'. That way the organizer knows you received the invite, confirmed the time, and are actually coming.
If your attendee doesn't accept the meeting and subsequently doesn't show up, half of the time they'll probably claim they never received an invite. Nine out of ten times that's probably not true and they just forgot, but if they accept the invite, at least you know they got it. And if they don't accept the invite..
6. Send a Reminder
For everyone, however, it's useful to set a reminder in your calendaring software between 3-10 minutes beforehand. That way you never forget.
7. T-Minus 5 Minutes Until Meeting Time. Man Your Email!
Here's one that drives me crazy. You're three minutes into a half-hour meeting and can't connect to the provided conference line. You email the attendees asking for or providing an alternate. Three more minutes go by. Silence.
When you're about to hop on the phone with somebody, watch your email like a hawk. Inevitably somebody will be running late, or their phone will die, or your WebEx link will break. When this happens, it's critical that you get the details squared away over email as if you were on instant message. Every minute you wait for somebody to respond is cutting into a thirty minute block that took you four months to schedule.
8. Meeting Time! Dial Whatever is in the Location Field of the Invite.
As I said before, calendar invites are king. The Location Field should specify exactly what you need to do or where you need to go to close this deal. Don't call their signature, don't call their cell, don't email them with your Skype handle, don't send them a request for a Google Hangout. Click the link or dial the phone number in the Location. If it's not there, somebody didn't follow Step 3.
In the (unfortunately common) case where the Location is empty or wrong, email them asking for their preferred dial-in information.
In the (still unfortunately common) case where they didn't follow Step 7 and don't respond to your email, do then try to call a number in their signature or whatever contact information you can find. A late meeting is better than no meeting.
In the (even still unfortunately common) case where they don't pick up, leave a voicemail for posterity, and forward them this blog post.
9. Please be on Time.
Early is on time, and on time is late. So be early. If you're meeting in person, at least ten minutes early. I promise you'll first get lost and then end up in the longest security queue the lobby has ever seen, so be early.
Pro tip: When you're scheduling an in-person meeting, make sure to plan travel time to and from the location. Don't book two back-to-back in-person meetings at offices across the city. You'll never be on time.
10. Please End on Time.
The length of the invite in your calendar is the length that the meeting should run. Meetings run over all the time, but only go over time if both parties agree. Otherwise, offer to schedule a follow up -- and take the last three minutes of the meeting to schedule it in real time over the phone! That way you hang up with another invite on the calendar ready to go.
Also, if you accept an invite for 2-3PM, it's rude to say you have a hard stop at 2:30. If somebody proposes to meet for an hour and you can't or don't want to, ask to reschedule ahead of time. Otherwise they may waste their time preparing an hour of content for no reason.
Bonus #11: I'm Running Late and Need to Reschedule.
That's cool, it happens. Just email the organizer / attendees as soon as possible letting them know, and propose an alternate time to meet. If you're running late, email the attendees saying so, and let them know when to expect you. If you think you might miss more than 15% of the meeting, propose a time to reschedule instead.
If you are the organizer, please do not cancel the meeting if you cannot attend. It automatically removes it from everyone's calendars without record, and now I can't easily reference the information to reschedule. Instead, propose an alternate time and reschedule the same calendar event. Avoid making new ones if possible because it's preferable to have a record of the same invite being changed.
Meetings sure are a lot more complicated than they seem! It may be a lot to remember, but if you stay vigilant and try following this process as closely as possible, you should end up with a far more productive calendar in short order.
As you can tell, I spend way too much time thinking about the optimal way to schedule a meeting. If you have any more tips on how to optimize meetings, we'd love to hear them!
Matt Hubert is the co-founder of Bitmatica, a software design and engineering consultancy in San Francisco. Looking for help building your web or mobile product? At Bitmatica, every great relationship starts with a conversation and some free advice. Let's talk.
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