Individual or professional, anyone doing business uses a calendar for appointments and reminders.

The first name that pops up when we say meeting scheduling software is Calendly!

It is an appointment-scheduling platform famous for its easy meeting-scheduling features. They have a free plan with basic features as well. 

But the free plan is away from the most required features like email reminders and customization of different types of meetings. 

 So even if you are an individual or a small business, you have to purchase their paid plan if you want to use these features.

Apart from that, Dynamics 365 users like you, you would have to pay extra for integrating CRM. Thus, your cost will be even more.

Is it worth paying such a high amount?

What if we say there is an app that will require no extra charges for CRM integration? It is a Dynamics 365 calendar plugin. This plugin integrates with your CRM, and you unlock all the calendar features within your CRM!

The app allows easy appointment scheduling for CRM and non-CRM users.

Let’s dig deeper to know why there is so much demand for a scheduling app and how this thing works. 

Why do you need a scheduling app?

If you are an individual or a company, scheduling calls with emails is outdated. It is a time-consuming process that is less effective. You don’t want your first impression on clients like this.

Communication with clients should be as smooth as possible if you want to offer satisfactory customer service. Calls are the best communication medium with clients.

There could be various types of calls that you have in a day. Maybe it is with your existing clients or with prospects. The call duration might vary as well. 

Your next step would be managing time wisely between prospects and clients. You must have appointments scheduled in a way that you efficiently utilize your time, and none of your appointment timings clash. 

Hence, you need a scheduling app. An app that will smartly schedule meetings avoiding any meeting time clashes and saving your time that earlier went for booking an appointment.

Let’s see how this feature works.

How can your clients/prospects book appointments using a Scheduling App? 

The first thing scheduling apps will require from your end is your availability. How many hours will you be available on the given dates? Based on that, meeting time slots will be created.

You have to add working hours or your available hours to your Calendar 365 plugins. You can set the same working hours for all days or keep them different.

Once you have entered your working hours, the calendar plugin will generate a link. It will be a shareable link that you can pass to your clients and prospects and add to your business or personal pages, website, etc. 

You might think that since the plugin is for Dynamics 365, the one using the link also has to be a CRM user. Well, not really! Any CRM or non-CRM users can access the link to book appointments. 

If you want to utilize your time to the fullest, you should know the purpose of the call. If you know the reason for the call, you can guess the duration of the call. This way, you could utilize your time to the fullest.

For that, you need to divide the types of calls based on the duration. For example, you can have:

1. Introduction calls of 15 minutes with prospects,
2. Demo calls of 30 minutes with potential leads,
3. Discussion calls of 60 minutes with clients and so on.

These are just examples. You can customize the name of the type of call and its duration. So, anyone with the meeting link will be first asked about the type of call they are interested in. Based on their preference, they will be asked to select the time.

Now, the working hours that we added earlier and the type of call selected by the client/prospect time slots will be created by the Calendar 365 plugins.

For instance, if you have added 9 to 5 as your working hour availability, and the prospect opted for an intro call, time slots like 9 to 9:15, 9:15 to 9: 30, and so on will be generated.

Prospect would select the time slot that works for them. Once they submit, both parties will receive emails with the meeting details. Calendar 365 will automatically add the meeting details to the calendar and send a reminder before the meeting.

For your convenience, Calendar 365 also allows you to keep some buffer time between calls. Sometimes calls might stretch beyond the defined hours, or you might want to prepare yourself for the next call. 

Whatever the reason, your aim should be to be present on time and be well prepared with the customer details. 

Why Dynamics 365 users should use Calendar 365 instead of Calendly?

Many Dynamics 365 users are using Calendly for appointment scheduling. It is one of the most popular apps around. 

But is Calendly the best choice for Dynamics 365 CRM users?

Not really!

The reason is that Calendly is a standalone app. You have to use it as an individual tool. If you want your CRM data on Calendly, there are no direct integrations available. You have to buy a third-party extension like Zapier to integrate your Dynamics 365 with Calendly.

The integration process is not smooth, and you might face challenges while doing the same.

Moreover, you have to pay extra to Zapier or any other extension provider over Calendly’s paid plan.

This will cost you a lot of money. 

So why invest in such an app when you can avoid all these troubles with Calendar 365?

Calendar 365 plugin integrates with your Dynamics 365 CRM, which means no third-party extension is required.

You will have all the functionalities of the calendar within your CRM. You don’t have to manage the calendar as an extra tool as you do with Calendly.  

Appointment scheduling is extremely easy, as we discussed above, and you get access to a lot more features like Resource Calendar, Customer Calendar, Entity Calendar, and total customization of filters at reasonable rates. 

Final Thoughts!

Scheduling apps are a must for business these days, and there is no second thought about it. Rather than buying the first app that pops up on Google, which can cost you a lot more than you might need to pay, as a Dynamics 365 user, a smarter decision would be a plugin that integrates with your CRM. It will save cost and reduce the need to use an extra app that still provides all necessary features within the CRM.