The Problem With Modern Meeting Scheduling Websites and Software

Meetings have historically been a way for us to manage our work with other people. However, with the proliferation of meetings in the modern workplace, we now need a way to manage our meetings. We’ve all been part of those absurd meeting email chains at one time or another where people endlessly go back and forth to find the perfect time to meet. At some point, you have to wonder if the amount of work put into setting up a meet is proportional to the amount of work accomplished at the meet. What exactly is the monetary value of everyone’s time being invested into scheduling that meeting? And once the meeting’s done with, has there been a net profit for the company out of that whole process? To put it in perspective, Doodle’s State of Meetings report reveals that professionals spend two hours a week in pointless meetings, costing their organizations a collective $541 billion dollars worth of wasted resources.

It’s the urgent need to resolve this recurring chaos that has spawned an ecosystem of meeting scheduling websites and applications. The global appointment scheduling software market is expected to grow by $633.47 million until 2025. A common theme running through modern scheduling software is that they all offer a calendar platform, but no way to create a consensus among the attendees around the meeting time itself. This simply shifts the “discussion” to a different interface, i.e. that of the meeting website, without solving the underlying problem. This means that people still have to spend a substantial amount of time agreeing on a meeting slot.

Doodle, on the other hand, was purpose-built to resolve exactly this issue. It offers a way for people to mutually and quickly schedule a meeting without email chains in, quite literally, minutes. Here’s a list of issues you’re likely to encounter with common meeting websites and software that Doodle can help with:

No Way to Build A Consensus

When multiple people need to meet, a list of time slots provided solely by the meeting organizer doesn’t help. You need a way to take into account everyone’s availability. Doodle offers this by way of a free online poll. With this feature, the entire cohort of attendees can vote on a time and date that best fits their schedule. Once the votes are in, the results can be made available for everyone to see on Doodle’s meeting website. The inherent transparency of this process means that everyone is aware of what the group at large prefers. It takes less than a minute to cast each vote, letting you finalize the meeting in no time.

Limits On the Number of Meets You Can Schedule

Many scheduling applications operate on a freemium model, wherein they restrict you to only a handful of meetings you can schedule before you have to buy into a paid version. Doodle, on the other hand, lets you conduct as many free polls as you want to schedule your meetings. If you choose to upgrade to Doodle Premium, it goes on to unlock more exciting features that build on the basic functionality to make scheduling even quicker.

Limited Automation

Most meeting websites offer to sync a slot to your calendar, but leave a lot for you to do in terms of broadcasting the meeting invite and ensuring everyone signs on. This is where Doodle shines, with features like easy invites and deadlines and automated reminders to fill out a poll. 

Limited Integration

Work and professional communication doesn’t happen on just one platform. You’re likely to use a variety of applications to discuss, operate, and meet your colleagues. The tech stack used differs as well from company to company. You’re going to be hard-pressed to find a meeting website or software that integrates with nearly every application you might possibly use. 

Scheduling meetings via email or chat applications is fundamentally unproductive. Everyone isn’t likely to be online at the same time to discuss and agree on a meeting slot (else it would be a meeting!), and it doesn’t prevent a back and forth in any case.

More than 30 million people around the world trust in Doodle to schedule their commitments because it offers them a unique interface and a feature-set designed to save them time. Explore it through a free trial today or feel free to reach out to us for questions. We’d be happy to speak to you.