Drop it like it’s hot?

It’s a bit late on the Friday to be finally writing this week’s little snippet of wisdom from the brain that is me, but its been a bit of a busy one!

I might end up having a big old slurp of the vino to get me through writing this, but hopefully you’ll find it useful!

Anyone else feel like they have done 30 days work in 4??? No? Just me?

See this week my inner geek has been fed, in fact she is stuffed!

I’ve been building CRMs for clients on Airtable and setting up Calendly We are on a mission this year to streamline the funk out of the processes and reduce the clicky click admin! I have nearly converted all my non tech automation loving clients to fully embrace the epic software that is out there and realise that automation isn’t a bad thing, it won’t crush the spirit of customer service, it will in fact elevate it because you will have more time to spend with them and actually make them money!

That is of course if you use it properly!

There is a certain etiquette when using automation and this week I am dropping some truth bombs to those of you that just drop your diary booking link like its hot!

Please stop!

When and to who you should give your appointment booking link to should be really thought about. Dropping your link too early might make the wrong impression and also let any Susan, Maurice or Trevor book up your time – when actually you could be doing more productive things.

But first why look at automating your bookings:

Benefits of using Calendly (other diary booking systems are available, but I like the back story of the creator of Calendly and a girl is allowed to have favourites, they are also upping their game and rolling out more and more integrations and features – latest one is a mega upgraded one for Active Campaign)

• Stops the ping pong of endless messages – this alone basically makes it the right way to go!
• Embed it directly on to your website or have a sexy little floating button that stalks people around your website
• Ability to take payments online for appointments
• Sync it to multiple calendars
• Hook it to your chosen event place and have multiple choices of them – Zoom,Teams etc
• Have multiple meeting types
• Set private meeting types so not everyone can book them
• Set individual availability for different meeting types
• Add questions to pre qualify your leads and get some extra info before your meeting.

Negatives of using Calendly

THERE ARE NONE!

But some people might say

• Paid version is 144usd a year to access all these benefits

This is not a negative at all!

Think about the amount of time you would save automating your meetings?

A lot yes!

Challenge for this week, time yourself and see how long it takes to add a diary invite, set up a zoom link and get a date in the diary for one meeting. 144usd now doesn’t seem a lot to pay out especially when you could be earning that in one call or in a few hours work.

Like I said earlier, there is an etiquette with using your booking links properly and keeping the customer service high and your time used wisely.

Things to think about

• Say you have had a new lead pop into your DMs and they want to arrange a chat and suddenly you just drop your link to your diary for them to book in a time.The potential client, especially if you are a VA, might have a million and one things to do and you are asking them to again do something else. Yes it might be good for them to find a time that suits them, but where is the care? Where is the pre qualifying that you are a good fit? Where is the building of the relationship if you just smack them in the face with your link? They have come to you after all and are interested in your services so why suddenly present a barrier to them? Chat to them, find out more, ask if they have a diary link that you can book some time in on and if not ( winner winner on a VA front you can offer to set them up on Calendly as a packaged service) then offer them one date and the link to your calendar.
• Don’t let everyone book in! I have seen so many people add their booking link to the bottom of their email with their signature – in fact Calendly‘s recent email suggests it – but be careful doing this. If you are sending a direct email to potential new clients then yes add it, it is a super idea- however make sure you have a specific meeting link. Set different availability for different types of call. If you offer free networking calls and paid calls then make sure the availability for the paid calls takes precedence over the free calls , otherwise you’ll find your whole week could be all booked up and no actual paid work is getting done.
• Book every single meeting through Calendly. Even if you are booking it in yourself and not sending people directly to the link, you use the link to book them in. This creates a diary invite, zoom/teams link and also one other massive benefit! It gives the other person the option to reschedule or cancel. How much time does it take you to rearrange meetings? Using Calendly lets your guest rearrange at a time that suits them – no faffing on your front as is all updated automatically.

Automating your meetings will literally change the game, it will give you more time for customer service, engaging with your potentials on social and also save the sanity of VAs everywhere!

As you can tell I totally love Calendly (and for true transparency the links to Airtable and Calendly are affiliate links – but a girl has got to get her perks where she can (and new handbags) and those that know me well know that I would never recommend anything or anyone unless it was the right thing.

Farewell my epic entrepreneurs

Until next week

H x