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Multi-person scheduling and team scheduling with Calendly

Multi-person scheduling and team scheduling with Calendly

Calendly is a widely-used scheduling platform that allows users to make 1-click meetings, relieving the busywork that goes into scheduling meetings. 

RooksDM recommends all their clients use Calendly to set internal meetings and to set meetings with their clients. It’s easy to use and has a price structure to suit companies of different sizes. 

See Calendly’s pricing structure on their website.

One-Click Process Allows Leads and Last Minute Meetings to Happen Seamlessly

Calendly provides you with a public link to your calendar that you can share with leads, clients and co-workers. Everyone sees your availability and is able to schedule meetings without you having to spend extra time and energy coordinating.  

You can customize your availability and can create meeting options that depict the format and time-frames you are willing to allow on your calendar.

Calendly has multi-person scheduling features

There are several multi-person scheduling options that allow multiple people to input their available and time preferences so multiple people from different companies or groups can coordinate a convenient time to meet. 

  1. The Round Robin feature allows scheduling to happen evenly across a team so no one team member gets more Calendly meetings on their calendar than another team member. This feature helps keep work evenly distributed. 
  2. Collective scheduling allows scheduling to happen when all members of a given team are available. This feature prevents meetings from happening without key players being present. 
  3. The group event feature allows multiple invitees to sign-up for a meeting time. This works well for classes, webinars or other lectures. It allows you, as the host, to set the max number of people who can sign up for a given meeting-time.

Manage Meeting Cancelations

If you need to adjust your calendar and cancel meetings set through Calendly, you can cancel those meetings through Calendly. When you cancel a meeting through Calendly, you can also send a message to others on that meeting. A link to your Calendly calendar will be included so the process of rescheduling the meeting can take place seamlessly.

Calendly can send attendees automatic messages

Calendly allows you to send automated messages to those with whom you’re meeting before and after the meeting. This can include sending an agenda or other pre-meeting information that may be necessary to have beforehand. After-meeting messages can help nurture new relationships and propel leads along the client channel. 

Connect Calendly to your CRM to optimizes tasks

Aside from simply managing your calendar, Calendly can connect to your CRM to help keep you on task with email and SMS reminders.   

Want help integrating Calendly and your CRM?

Schedule a free consultation with us!
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7 Reasons We Love ClickUp

7 Reasons We Love ClickUp

There are a lot of project management solutions out there. They are bright and colorful. Some are even easy to use. To encourage discussion and manage projects in our team and with our vendors and clients, we use ClickUp.

Here’s why:

1. Gantt charts improve task breakdown and forecasting

Gantt charts, integrated into our project management system, have revolutionized the way we view and arrange projects. It’s much easier to view and manage dependent tasks–tasks that cannot be started or completed until something else is done. In other views and in other program management systems, these appear more like lists with due dates, the only indicator of what needs to be done in order to start another task. 

This view also allows us to mobilize due dates and start dates. If a task takes longer than projected or a meeting is delayed, we can easily see how the overall timeline for a project at large is affected. We can make decisions based on this adjustment and keep the clients’ expectations in line with reality.  

Photo credit ClickUp.

2. Mind maps in ClickUp encourage collaboration and delegation

Mind mapping is a way for a group of people, each with different interests and strengths, to collaborate on a project. The resulting diagram visually organizes information and creates a hierarchical relationship between ideas and tasks. 

ClickUp has a feature that allows users to easily create mind maps and integrate these visuals into their project management, building tasks and gantt charts from the information. 

Photo credit ClickUp.

3. ClickUp templates make routine tasks easy

ClickUp has templates ready to use and a user-friendly way to create templates. For instance, we have a meeting template that we’ve customized and use for every meeting, be it with a vendor or a client. This helps us keep information streamlined and all parties informed. After every meeting, attendees and interested parties not able to attend receive the meeting-minutes in the same format.

4. Can create docs in ClickUp directly 

Instead of having to save documents externally and upload and attach them to tasks as you would in other project management systems, you can create documents directly in ClickUp and link to them internally. Since ClickUp is browser based as well as an app, you can create and access these documents whenever and wherever. 

5. Straightforward to do lists in ClickUp

As all project management software has, ClickUp has a to do list that enables users to create tasks, assign responsibilities and set deadlines. The to do list function in ClickUp is unique. It integrates with gantt charts and mind maps.

6. Goal tracking keeps everyone on task and on timeline

The idea of gamification has been around for a minute, but never seemed quite as important as during the pandemic when so many teams were forced to work remotely and still collaborate creatively and meet deadlines. ClickUp’s goal tracking allows teammates and managers to see who might have a bit too much on their plate or be otherwise struggling to complete tasks. 

Photo credit ClickUp.

7. ClickUp pricing is affordable; it’s free project management software for one-woman teams

If you are a one-woman team or a manager shopping for the project management solution, you can sign up for and use ClickUp for free, forever. You’ll get unlimited access to the system. If you onboard a team, plans start as low as $5 per member.

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5 Reasons We Love JotForm

With dozens of online form builders to choose from, it can be hard to know which one to pick. One we particularly love is JotForm. With JotForm, you get an advanced, feature-rich form building platform that’s also intuitive and easy to use.

Here are 5 reasons why we love JotForm:

  1. Professional Form Templates and Widgets

With JotForm’s library of thousands of form templates, it’s quick and easy to get started building a form. Simply select one of the temples, and from there, you can add your company’s logo and further edit and customize your form to meet your business needs—no coding necessary. If you want more advanced components included in your form, JotForm’s widget library includes hundreds of options, including an e-signature widget to collect legally-binding signatures through your online forms and a widget that links to your business’s terms and conditions and lets users agree to them with a checkbox.

  1. Form Integrations Galore

We are all about saving you time by efficiently leveraging technology, and JotForm integrations allow you to do just that. Forms created with JotForm can seamlessly be synced with the tools your company already uses. For example, contact forms submission information can be automatically sent to your CRM, email marketing service, virtual meeting platform, and could storage systems.

  1. Convert Existing PDFs to Online Forms

Manually converting your PDF forms into online forms is tedious and time consuming. But JotForm does the hard work for you. Simply upload your PDF to transform it into an online form. The layout of your original PDF is retained into a form that’s easy to fill out online.

  1. Security through HIPPA Compliant Forms

We’ve worked with many healthcare providers and understand how vital it is for patient information to remain private and secure. With JotForm, you can create HIPPA-compliant forms to collect and manage sensitive patient information. Form data is automatically encrypted, guaranteeing the privacy of your patients’ health information.

  1. Easy Payment Collection

JotForm makes it super easy to collect payment for your services and offers payment processing through the biggest and most trusted names in the payment industry, including PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, and Square, just to name a few. Best of all—JotForm doesn’t charge you additional fees for receiving online payments through their forms.

Want to learn more about Jot Forms?

Schedule a free consultation with us!
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Collect data AND stay compliant

Anytime you are sending or receiving confidential information, it’s critical to stay compliant. As many of our clients are in healthcare, finance, and law we experience this on a daily basis. 

Not sure where to start? Here are a few tips we often share with our clients:

Step 1: Ensure your environment is compliant 

The first piece of the puzzle is making sure wherever you are saving files and data is compliant. We recommend Office 365 because they have a straightforward mechanism to have a Business Associate Agreement (MS Hippa and Hitech and MS BAA Document).

We also recommend working with your managed service provider (MSP) on this. If you do not have an MSP, we are happy to recommend one that can help you to instate rules and policies regarding the security and privacy of your Office 365 environment.

Step 2: Collect data 

We recommend using forms to collect all data from clients. This will allow for the data to be structured and organized. It will also make it easier for you to have workflows and automations triggered based on the data shared.

MS Forms is included in most Office 365 licenses which is a great place to start. Sadly, at this time, MS Forms will not let users upload attachments though.

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Step 3: Collect files

We typically recommend the following two ways to collect documents and images. 

  • Option 1: Via OneDrive you can send a secure link to customers/partners requesting the files. You can also choose the specific folder that the files are saved. Click here to learn more.  
  • Option 2: Use a compliant online form like JotForms. This tool will allow you to create forms that are compliant as well as have the ability to add attachments to be uploaded. In our opinion, it is also more flexible and powerful than MS forms and allows integrations with Office 365 via excel, or webhooks 
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How to ensure new leads don’t fall through the cracks

When a business starts to take off, it feels incredible. What does NOT feel quite as good is the increase in admin work. A common pain-point that begins to happen is leads falling through the cracks. Owners get caught up in the actual work that needs to get finished, and they do not always prioritize prospective clients. If you own a small business​, read our tips below to prevent this from happening to you.

  1. Create a document outlining the process for intaking new clients  

You should outline the process a new potential client will go through before they can work with you BEFORE even thinking about technology. We see that there are multiple processes depending on the client type depending on your type of business. For example, if the client is reaching out about ‘Service A’ then they will follow a different process than if they were reaching about ‘Service B’.  Your goal is to be super clear on the following questions: What happens at each step of the process? What information do you need from the client? What action the client should be taking? What action your internal team will need to take to ensure you have all the information you need prior to working with the client? 

  1. Build a CRM system to manage your relationships 

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is one of the most valuable pieces of software you can have within your business since it helps you manage potential and current clients.  It can help you make data-driven decisions by compiling and organizing data on your current customers such as demographics, amount spent, and services.  The best part? Most CRMs are customizable! You can set it up as you best see fit your business.  Capturing new clients in a CRM will make it easier for you to keep track of them. This ensures they do not go missing in the process — which can mean missing out on new business (loss of revenue).  A few of our favorite CRMs are Salesforce Microsoft Dynamics, Hubspot, and Redtail (for financial services).

  1. Create a contact form on your website AND integrate it with your CRM system  

When a new client reaches out about your service, they will give you key data you need before you can meet with them (i.e. contact info, reason for inquiry, etc). Having your CRM integrated on your website contact form will automatically save this data in your CRM.  Gone are the days where you would need to copy and paste information from one place to another – it also helps with reducing the opportunity to enter inaccurate data.  Most CRMs support integrations with your website and hiring a team like RooksDM can easily set it up for you. 

  1. Set up CRM system tasks and reminders  

Tasks and reminders within your CRM are great because it ensures you don’t forget to do something—especially things in the distant future. It also makes it easier because you know exactly who and what you need to follow up on.  For example, if you need to follow up with a client in 2 weeks, you can set a workflow to automatically send out an email in 2 weeks if the client doesn’t respond to your initial email. This helps with saving time and also makes sure that you don’t forget to complete the task. Talk about time-saving!  

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4 Tips to Consolidate Your Technology

As a business professional in 2020, you understand the power of technology and the correlation it has with your daily efficiency. For many small to medium-sized businesses, this efficiency is critical to their success. This is why taking some time to review and consolidate your technology can continue to be beneficial.  Here’s how to get started:

  1. Make a list of all the tools that you use  
    • Think about collaboration tools: Microsoft Sharepoint, GSuite 
    • Think about department-specific tools: QuickBooks, Dropbox, DocuSign 
    • Think about marketing tools: WordPress, HubSpot 
    • Think about project management tools: Asana, Monday.com, Calendly
  1. Research the functionality of each tool
    • Many tools have multiple functions.  
    • Next to each tool research and list all of the feature that the tool offers 
  1. Compare the list to see if there are any overlapping features
    • Large collaboration tools (i.e. Microsoft SharePoint/GSuite) often have features users do not know about 
    • Example: Microsoft 365 has a scheduling tool similar to Calendly 
  1. Talk to your staff
    • Understand what functions they use regularly
    • Discuss this PRIOR to ending any contracts/plans

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Helpful links for Microsoft Office 365

Welcome to the wonderful world of Microsoft Office 365! Below you will find helpful links to help get you started.

Quick start 

Training 

Mobile 

Admin 

Billing 

User management 

Company wide 

Support 

Advanced trainings