Even before the days of working from home, scheduling a meeting with your team often requires a lot of coordination. Trying to find the best time for everyone can take up unnecessary time and only result in more emails and hassle. Let’s take a look at four of the best team schedule makers you can find.
Also read:How to Select a Work Schedule App for Your Team
1. Calendly
Arguably, one of the most well-known team schedule makers, Calendly makes it so easy to schedule meetings, interviews, etc. To be fair, success with Calendly relies heavily on you and your team members inputting their own availability, but once everyone does, the app really shines. The best part is that the app does most of the work for you to help find the best times everyone can get together.
It works with Google, Outlook, Office 365 and iCloud. Calendly supports one-on-one, small group and collective availability for everyone. Calendly also takes different timezones into consideration with each meeting invite. Like more traditional meeting options like Outlook, you will receive notifications and reminders ahead of every meeting.
There is even a Chrome extension to help manage your entire schedule without leaving your curr1ent browser tab. Calendly is free for basic use, $8 per month for two calendars and $12 per month for access to six calendars per user.
2. Doodle
Doodle allows you to quickly discover who is available and it makes use of Outlook, Google Calendar, Office 365 and iCal to ensure everyone’s availability is covered. Once a meeting time is chosen, a link is created that can be shared with anyone else on the invite list. When you need a more personalized meeting with a smaller group, like a one-on-one session, Doodle works just as well.
Time zone headaches are also a thing of the past, as Doodle covers all of that without you having to worry where others are located. Best of all, Doodle does all of this and more with an interface that is incredibly intuitive. Reminders are present but also stay out of your way to avoid distractions. That you can set them to auto-send or turn them off altogether makes Doodle able to personalize itself to your ideal scheduling tool.
Doodle’s pricing starts at $6.95/month for one individual, starts at $44.75 per month for a team of five and works its way up to enterprise pricing for larger organizations.
3. You Can Book Me
Like the rest of the team schedule makers here, You Can Book Me is another standout option that seamlessly allows schedule booking without the email headaches. You can use the tool by connecting all of your existing calendars as well as those of your team members and share everyone’s availability. With complete control over your availability, you even have the opportunity to offer fixed durations for meetings so that your calendar does not get overwhelmed. Familiar options like time zone monitoring and reminders are also present, ensuring that you can stay on time for all of your meetings.
One of the differentiators of You Can Book Me is the opportunity to personalize the page so anyone outside of the company will see your branding across the scheduling page. That combined with a personalized booking link ensures that customers or partners can see your up-to-date schedule. The best aspects of You Can Book Me really center around having the ability to manage your entire team’s availability.
While most scheduling services limit themselves to calendar partners like Google Calendar, Outlook, iCloud, etc., You Can Book Me adds additional options that have become increasingly handy in a remote world. For example, the site allows you to automatically create Zoom conference calls and add Gmail and Stripe for keeping track of notifications sent or taking payments. That it only costs $10 per calendar per month makes it attractive financially.
4. 10to8
Proclaiming itself to be more than just a “simple appointment scheduling tool,” 10to8 is the perfect app for businesses that are going fully remote. Its integrations with Zoom video conferencing and Microsoft Teams help it stand out from the pack. That you can host video appointments whether they are internal meetings or with an outside vendor makes 10to8 immediately attractive for businesses large and small.
Like the others, 10to8’s main focus is ending unnecessary emails to schedule a meeting with a group, your team or an interview. You can set up email reminders for the meeting and synchronize everyone’s schedule with Outlook and other calendar services so double-bookings are no longer an issue.
What really sets 10to8 apart from the others is more than 1,500 app integrations. That means you can not only schedule meetings via Zoom or automate tasks with Salesforce, but you can include Slack, Telegram, WordPress, PayPal, Mailchimp, and so many more. To get the most out of 10to8, you’ll want to look at its higher tier plans which can be more expensive but do allow all of the Zapier integrations. Basic use or up to 100 meetings per month start at $9.60 per month all the way up to $40 per month for up to 600 meetings a month for six different staff members.
Final Thoughts
Between the move to remote work and colleagues across the country and the world, finding a meeting scheduler can be critical. Even as costs vary, the expense can be well worth it for any size business. The benefit of not scheduling meetings by searching endlessly for that one window that works for everyone is immeasurable. In the end, team schedule makers each offer their strengths, and you can’t go wrong whichever one you choose.
Now that you have a good idea how you will schedule your meetings, read on to learn how to manage a remote team and keep them motivated.