You may have heard about Cal.com's instant meetings feature before. It's a custom event type that was initially built for Deel but is now available to all Cal.com Enterprise subscribers. If you've read our case study or our instant meetings highlight, then you already know how wonderful an option this is. It's a feature that saves time, reduces miscommunication, and just makes it easier for people to meet.
Common questions about instant meetings
You might be wondering how to enable that feature for your own organization. Well, in that case, this is the article you need. We'll be covering all the basic things you need to know in order to set up instant bookings and get the ball rolling.
This means that we're going to answer basic questions about what instant meetings are and how they work, as well as walk you through the process of setting one up.
What are instant meetings?
In order to enable instant meetings, you'll have to be a member of an organization with a Cal.com Enterprise account. This is because this feature has been built exclusively for subscribers with complex scheduling needs. Assuming that you are an Enterprise account member, instant bookings can easily be set up from your event types dashboard. You can do this by either creating a new event type or turning a previously created event type into an instant booking. If you'd like to turn a previously created event type into an instant booking, simply follow the steps below. Either way, all you have to do is follow the steps below.
How to set up instant meetings
Assuming you're an Enterprise account member, setting up instant meetings is very straightforward. Here's how to do it:
Select a previously created event type or choose to create a new one.
If you're creating a new event type, you'll be prompted to name that event and specify its duration.
Otherwise, simply click on the pre-created event in order to access its settings.
Now that you've accessed the event-level settings, you'll see that there is a list of tabs.
Right below the Workflows tab, you'll see an item named Instant Bookings.
Click on this tab in order to access your Instant Booking settings.
Once you've accessed the Instant Booking tab, there'll be a toggle that you'll have to enable in order to turn the Instant Bookings feature on.
You'll notice that below this, there are additional settings you can use to dial in your instant bookings.
These include availability schedules, parameters, and the amount of time a host has to respond to the meeting and start it.
In addition, this is where you would set up webhooks.
Once you've made all your changes and customizations, click the Save button in the upper right-hand corner.
Who has access to instant meetings?
Just like all of your other bookable events, instant bookings can be hidden or public. If an instant booking is public, then anyone who visits your booking profile will be able to see it. If an instant booking is set to hidden, then a link will need to be shared in order for another individual to access the booking type. This link could be found within your email signature or it could be a button on a web page.
Just like all of your other bookable event types, instant bookings can be paired with routing forms in order to reduce confusion for clients and enhance efficiency. You can also visit the Instant Bookings tab within your event-level settings to set unique URL parameters.
Customizing instant meetings
Customizing your instant booking happens within the Instant Bookings tab. The changes that are made to an instant booking will only apply to that specific bookable event. The only exception to this is if an administrator within your organization uses managed event templates to create an instant booking type, which is distributed to multiple people. In this case, whenever the administrator updates the managed event type, the settings will be updated for anyone using that template.
How are team members notified that an instant meeting is pending?
It's easy to set up notifications for team members by customizing the webhook component of your instant bookings.
However, if you're uncomfortable using webhooks directly, you can also install apps like Make or Zapier. Once you've chosen your preferred connection method, it's simply a matter of deciding how you would like your team members to be notified.
Are they going to receive a message in Slack, an AI voice call, or perhaps an email marked urgent in their inbox? The only thing that you are limited by when it comes to sharing notification of an instant booking is your imagination.
What does the client see when they book an instant meeting?
After selecting a time slot, individuals booking instant bookings will see a button on the bottom of the screen marked Connect Now. Once they've clicked on this button, they'll be prompted to enter their name and contact information. After submitting this information, a waiting screen will pop up.
The waiting screen will disappear either when a team member responds to the meeting request or once it has timed out. Once a team member joins the meeting link, the event will proceed like normal. This means that the meeting will happen on whatever platform you've chosen as your instant booking location.
Using instant bookings is a great way to stand out from the crowd by making it easy for your colleagues and clients to reach you when it matters. If you'd like to learn more about Cal.com's Enterprise offerings, please feel free to reach out to a member of our sales team. Thanks for reading this article, and as always, happy scheduling!
