Copper Staff
Contributors from members of the Copper team
If you haven’t heard yet, Google recently announced its new Google Calendar appointment scheduler as yet another part of the Google Workspace suite. And as the Google-recommended CRM, this new meeting scheduler syncs natively with Copper to help users grow their business faster and easier. Clients and prospects can book appointments without hassle — no endless stream of back-and-forth emails to figure out availability.
With this schedule maker in Google Calendar, users can set up and share a booking page showing their availability for appointments. Clients and prospects simply view the shared page and then book appointments directly from there. Appointments seamlessly sync with your Google Calendar, plus people and company records stored in Copper CRM.
Let’s get you started with a step-by-step guide for setting up the booking feature in Google Calendar.
Step 1: Set up your available appointment slots
Start by opening your Google Calendar. Make sure you’re using either a “week view” or “day view.” If you’re using a “week view,” you’ll see a page that looks like this. When you click on the “+Create” button in the upper left-hand corner, you’ll get the option to create an “Appointment Schedule.” Choose that option.
Next, set your windows of availability so that your customers and prospects know when you’re free. To do that, click on “Appointment Schedule.”
The Google Calendar scheduler will then give you options for setting your availability day-by-day and hour-by-hour. It will also allow you to choose how long each appointment slot will be. The default appointment is 30 minutes, as you can see below — but you can always customize appointment length to your specific needs.
Step 2: Customize the details of your meetings
The next step in using the Google Calendar scheduler is to set the details for your available meetings. This includes providing a customized message, setting a location for each meeting, and even choosing a photo or other graphic to display. The page will look like this:
And, abracadabra, your Google Calendar scheduler is ready. By taking these two simple steps, you’ve created a personalized booking site that you can share immediately with anyone you’d like — which leads us to step 3.
Step 3: Invite clients and colleagues to book an appointment
Now that your available schedule is set, it’s time to invite other people to schedule a meeting with you using Google Calendar.
When you open your Google Calendar, you’ll now see the block of appointments that you’ve set aside for clients and prospects. You’re free to name those available slots anything you’d like (we chose “Available Appointments” to be super creative with it). Whether they’re “Informational Calls,” “Product Demos,” “Free Consultations” or something else entirely, these appointment slots will now show up on your calendar. Click on that block of slots and it’ll take you to a page with a pop-up that looks like this:
Click on the little rectangles circled in red to automatically copy a direct link to your available meeting slots. Then all you need to do is paste that link into an email, text or direct message to share with your contacts.
This will give them a real-time look at your availability whenever they choose to use the link. Then your client or colleague can then choose the meeting slot that works best for them and book the meeting directly on your calendar.
The benefits of using Google Calendar’s scheduler with Copper
Google Calendar’s scheduler is useful for anyone with a business that needs to schedule meetings or appointments. And of course, it has added benefits for Copper CRM users since Copper integrates natively with Google Calendar.
This means you can access all of your CRM data right through Gmail or Google Calendar. Say a certain client has booked time with you using the Google Calendar scheduler, Copper will provide immediate access to everything you need to know about that customer directly from the calendar screen. Call notes, previous email communication, order history and other details are all at your fingertips the moment you need them.
Plus, think of how much time you’ll save now that your email inbox won’t be filled with these types of communications:
“Can you talk Wednesday at 10 am?”
Pause.
“Then how about Friday at noon?”
Pause.
“Well, what other times work for you?”
When you begin scheduling your meetings via Google Calendar, everyone will be able to choose a mutually-convenient appointment time right from the get-go.
Give it a try — and if you’re not a Copper customer yet, test out Copper CRM free for 14 days.
