How to use Calendly an Advanced Guide

In this article we present an in-depth content on how to use Calendly for advanced users. If you are a beginner we have written a basic Calendly Tutorial.

Also, if you are wondering how calendly integrates with other softwares, we have a writeup on 11 Major Calendly Integrations.

1. Calendly Multiple Calendars

Calendly offers integration with most prominent external calendars such as Google Calendar, Outlook, Office 365. At the beginning of the setup, it asks you to connect with your official business calendar where you can add one or multiple calendars. Any addition or modification of events in the calendar is automatically synced up with Calendly and it sets your availability for clients.

All the calendars can be managed in one place.

Tap on the drop-down arrow of ‘Account’ on the Calendly dashboard.
Choose ‘Calendar Connections’ from the list.
The screen will show you all the integrated calendars with your account (Maximum 6 Calendars)
You can disconnect any calendar.
The configuration section lets you edit various settings on your calendar.

2. Calendly sync with Google Calendar

While signing up, if you are using Google email address, your Calendly account by default gets synced up with Google Calendar account. You can, however, disconnect it later or add multiple google calendar accounts (Maximum 6).

To make any changes in your Google Calendar Account setting, Tap on the drop-down arrow of ‘Account’ on the Calendly dashboard and choose ‘Calendar Connections’ from the list. Your integrated calendar account will appear.

The ‘Disconnect’ option will remove the calendar account from the list. If you are a premium user you can connect up to two Google Calendar accounts and in case of pro users, a limit of 6 calendars is available.

Under the ‘Configuration’ section, there are two options:

Check for conflicts- This option lets you avoid overlapping of events or double booking by clients. In the edit option, you can choose whichever calendars you want to choose from the list and check for conflicts.
Add to Calendar- If your Google Calendar has multiple calendars within it, you can choose a particular calendar to which you want to add the newly scheduled events. The blue tick mark lets you cancel an appointment automatically from Calendly once it is done in Google Calendar.

3. Calendly sync with Outlook

Just like a Google Calendar, you can connect your Calendly account with your official Outlook Calendar account. You can either signup to Calendly through your Outlook account or integrate it later in the ‘Calendar Connections’ options. Once added you can also remove it whenever you want.

There are also the same options of customizations available as for any other external calendar account.

4. Calendly sync with Office365

Calendly also ties up with Office 365 in pretty much the same way as any other Calendar.

Users can set up their account with Office 365 integration or later on add one or multiple calendars as and when required.

5. Calendly how to set availability

Calendly allows you extensive customization which allows you to take complete control of your appointment schedule. More often than not, Online Appointment Scheduling software faces the problem of double-booking where multiple clients book the same time slot for a meeting and then it just disturbs the entire schedule.

Calendly smartly takes care of it and lets you set time when you are available to meet a client and when you are not.

Just a few easy steps and you are all set:

On your dashboard, choose the ‘Event Type’ that you want to customize.
Click the setting gear and choose ‘Edit’ option.
Under the option ‘When can people book this event’, prescribe the event duration, range of date for the said event, and availability.
If you want to set availability of one particular date: jump on that date, choose the time between ‘From’ and ‘To’, choose ‘I’m unavailable’ if you are and decide how and when you want the filter to be applied.
Tap ‘Save & Close’ at the end.

6. How to embed Calendly into Website

Embedding Calendly means sharing your scheduling link to your clients by adding it to your official website. In this way, clients won’t have to bother you for the link each time they want to book an appointment.

There are three kinds of Embedding that Calendly offers:

Inline Embedding : This option generates a shareable code that you can just copy and paste on the allotted space on your website. Clients willing to book an appointment would click the link and the Calendly page will open up. Clients can check the available date and time as per your decided calendar and then book an event.
Pop-up Widget : Alternatively, you can allow a separate Calendly button appear on your website. Once clicked, a pop up window will appear with your event details. Clients can easily book appointments from there.
Pop-up Text : It is somewhat similar to Pop-up widget except that there will be a text link that would launch the Calendly page and view the client your event details.

To embed your website with Calendly link, follow these steps:

On your dashboard, choose the event and click on the setting gear icon.
Choose the ‘Add to Website’ option. A window showing all three kinds of embedding will appear.
Choose whichever embedding you want and copy and paste the code/link on the website.

7. How to embed Calendly into WordPress

It’s no rocket science. Copy the embed link from your Calendly event. You can choose from ‘Inline Embed’, ‘Popup Widget’ and ‘Popup Text’.

Now select your WordPress text where you want to embed the link. Choose the option ‘Insert Hyperlink’ and paste the copied code. Clients going through your WordPress content can easily book an appointment by clicking the highlighted link.

8. Calendly Recurring Events

Allowing clients to book recurring events from the many dates available is one of the strongest features of this app. If a client wishes to book more than one appointment in one go, they can do so instantly after booking the first appointment. The need to start over again from the first page is completely eliminated. This saves time and effort.

To allow your clients to schedule recurring appointments you can change the following setting:

Choose the event and click on the setting gear icon. Click on ‘Edit’
In the ‘Confirmation Page’ check the option to yes for ‘Display button to schedule another event’. Clients will be able to book another event at spot.

Remember, this is a premium feature and would not be available in Basic Plan.

9. Calendly Redirect

After a client books an appointment, you can redirect them to another website instead of displaying a confirmation page. This maybe your official business website or any other website for the client’s use. The details about your scheduled booking will be passed on to the redirected site through URL. This way you can also track the conversion rates.

You have to set up a URL link for the same and this is how you do it:

Choose the event and click on the setting gear icon. Click on ‘Edit’
In the ‘Confirmation Page’ select the option ‘Redirect to an external site’.
Insert the URL link of the site that you want the client to be directed to.
‘Save & Close’.

Remember, users with Pro plan can access this feature.

10. Calendly Thank You Page

The ‘Custom Link’ feature of Calendly lets you redirect your client to a custom created Thank you page. All you have to do is to:

Choose the event and click on the setting gear icon. Click on ‘Edit’
In the ‘Confirmation Page’ select the option in blue ‘Custom Link’.
Type in the text you want to be showed.
Insert the URL link of the site that you want the client to be directed to.
‘Save & Close’.

Remember, users with Premium plan can access this feature.

11. How to remove Calendly Branding

One of the stand out features of Calendly is that it allows you to customize your booking page with your own business brand. You can remove the Calendly watermark and logo on your booking page and insert your own personalized branding and logo.

On your dashboard, click on the drop-down arrow near ‘Account’.
Go to ‘Account Settings’. Set up your entire profile, pictures and other details.
To change the branding, turn off the show button near ‘Calendly Branding’.
Share the link of your personalized booking webpage to your clients.

This feature is available in both Premium and Pro plans.

12. Calendly Multiple Users

In a business with an entire team of employees at work, Calendly provides a platform to book meeting with any of the employees without having to set up separate Calendly account. Each one of the team members gets their own personalized Calendly link for booking an event. All the features of Premium and Pro plans are accessible to every team member.

You can add team members by following below steps:

On your dashboard, click on the drop-down arrow near ‘Account’.
Go to ‘Users’ and click on ‘+New Users’ option. This would let you invite your team members to join.
Type in the email addresses of all the users, choose the definite event types and send the request.
Once they accept the invitation, they would appear automatically in the ‘Users’ section.

There are four kinds of user roles:

Users - Have the power to change the settings of their own scheduling page.
Team Managers- Create and manage team events. Can add or remove users.
Admin- Can edit or change events from users' accounts. Can manage centralized billing.
Owner- Can change the roles of users. Can reassign ownership (Just for once).

You can also select ‘Round Robin’ in which you decide if a client should book an appointment by selecting a specific event or a specific team member. The appointments are then assigned to each user accordingly.

13. Calendly Reporting

To generate reports of past events, all you have to do is:

On your dashboard, switch to the ‘Scheduled Events’.
Choose which type of event you want to view the reporting of. It can be an ‘Upcoming’ event or a ‘Past’ event.
Apply the necessary filters as per your requirements.
Click the ‘Export’ option which downloads a zip file.
Extract the zip file and view the report.

Alternatively, you can also use the redirecting option and redirect your clients to an external site after they book an event. These would generate an analytical report of the conversions.

14. Calendly Location

There are two ways about deciding the location of the appointment.

Location decided by you.
- On your dashboard, choose the event and click the setting gear icon to ‘Edit’.
- Under ‘What event is this find the ‘Location’ field and type in the address..
- You can choose if you want the location to be shown while booking or after it is confirmed.
- ‘Save & Close’.
Location decided by the client.
- On your dashboard, choose the event and click the setting gear icon to ‘Edit’.
- Under ‘What event is this find the ‘Location’ field and choose ‘let invitee decide’. Click on ‘Customize’.
- Type in the ‘Location Question’ and decide the options for response.
- ‘Save & Close’.

15. Calendly Time Zones

Calendly allows you to set time zones according to you. It is one of the basic things that it asks while setting up the account.

On your dashboard, click on the drop-down arrow near ‘Account’. Choose ‘Account Settings’.
In the ‘Profile’ section, scroll down and find ‘Time Zone’ field. Select the preferred time zone.
‘Save Changes’

While booking an appointment, Calendly will automatically identify your client’s time zone and book an event in their time zone. If they want to particularly select a time zone they can do so by selecting from a drop-down list.

16. Calendly Language

Calendly has an option of change language to English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Portugese (Brazil) and Italian.

Choose the event you want to change the language setting of, click the setting icon. Choose the ‘Edit’ option.
Just on the top of the page, click on the drop-down list near the ‘Invitee Language’. Choose the language you want your invitees to see.

17. Calendly SMS

Calendly sends personalized text reminders to the clients prior to the actual appointment to control the no-show rate. You can enable the reminders through SMS in the settings.

Choose the event and click on the setting gear icon. Click on ‘Edit’
Under ‘Notifications and Cancellation Policy’ jump to ‘Text reminders’.
Turn the option to ‘On’.
You can personalize the message and set a specific time when the reminder is to be sent.

Clients cannot reply to the received text. The SMS reminders will be sent by a random number with an option to Stop or Unsubscribe. This feature is accessible to Pro users only.

18. Adhoc Meeting

Adhoc meetings provide greater flexibility in terms of your availability. You can create an event, choose the duration length and location of meeting, offer multiple dates when you will be available to honor the appointment. You can even offer weekend time for the meeting purpose. Send the link to the clients so that they can choose from many dates and times available.

If you are looking for a calendly alternative, Karen is designed to be a simpler solution than what calendly provides. We have written an in-depth article on how Karen is a better Calendly Alternative

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