Ten Doodle features you might not know about

Let’s have a virtual show of hands. Do you feel that meetings are consuming more of your working week than they used to? If your hand is in the air, it’s probably not surprising. A report by Harvard Business Review revealed that executives are taking more than double the number of meetings they did in the 1960s. 

This meeting count has likely only gone up in the last year, as most of us move to home working to help in the battle against COVID 19. It’s fair to say that for most people, remote working has been great. It’s helped improve things like work/life balance, reduce stressful commutes and improve mental wellbeing. In fact, research by the technology company, Barco, found that 85 percent of people want a combination of working from home and in an office when the world returns to normal. 

That doesn’t mean working in a hybrid fashion can’t present challenges. How do you arrange a get-together if some people are at home and others in the office? Will hybrid working increase the number of meetings and lead to a rise in conditions like burnout and Zoom fatigue?

Now let’s not put a downer on things because you don’t have to sacrifice the benefits of remote working to answer these questions. Using a meeting scheduler like Doodle can cut out all the administrative headaches that come with scheduling. This means you have more free time to focus on important things like delivering projects and spending time with family. 

To show you that’s true – here’s our top ten features that you might not have known about that can save you bags of time. 

1. Booking Page

The power and the benefits of Booking Page really can’t be underestimated. 

Let’s take it from the top. Booking Page allows you to set your availability so you don’t have to send endless emails to clients or colleagues to find some free time. Once you’ve decided what times you want to set aside for meetings, simply send a link to your calendar and Doodle handles the rest. 

Once a meeting is confirmed we’ll update your schedule and send you the details so you don’t forget. What makes Booking Page even better is that if you or your invitee have to change your meeting time – we’ll update your schedule automatically. No more forgetting or getting lost in a complicated schedule. 

2. 1:1s

Doodle 1:1s are a great way to get together with someone without having to spend hours trying to find a time you can both do. 

In our recent State of Meetings report, we discovered that due to COVID 19, 1:1 meetings were on the rise. A big factor in this was mental health check-ins. A report by the Academy of Management said that employees who feel lonely don’t perform as well as others. Regular contact with someone in the office, particularly if someone lives alone, can help to identify that early and act on it. This would correlate with the increase in these meetings. 

Using Doodle means that you can select a number of times to meet, choose the location (whether that’s virtual or in-person) and send the link. Once they confirm it’s added to your calendar. 

What’s even better is that you don’t have to worry about double-bookings. If you schedule something in one of the time slots you’ve suggested, we’ll remove it as an option. 

3. Polls 

Arranging a group meeting or conducting a poll is what Doodle is famous for. Whether it’s a meeting with clients or a team get-together, Doodle Polls help to remove the endless back and forth emails. 

We’ve all been there. You want to have a meeting and need to invite your team of eight. Everyone’s schedules are all over the place, so you all go around and around trying to find a time that works. After hours or even days, you agree on something only for someone to say it doesn’t work anymore. It’s scheduling hell! 

Thankfully, if you use Doodle, you can avoid all of this. If you’re the organizer, select times that you want to meet, decide if there’s a deadline and if you want reminders and you’re done. Send it around your participants and we’ll tell you the time that works best. 

4. Branding 

Having the right look for your business is just as important as providing a great service. So many brands around the world are instantly recognized just by how they look. Did you know that using Doodle doesn’t have to affect this? 

Custom branding is a much-loved perk of Doodle Premium. Our branding options allow you to add your own logo, background image and select your own color scheme. 

Streamline your schedule while keeping your professional look. 

5. Book on Behalf

A feature of our Bookable Calendar that many don’t know about. Book on Behalf lets you arrange a time for other people without having to wait for them to confirm their availability. 

Let’s set the scene. Imagine you’re a busy recruiter who finds the perfect candidate. You want to bring the hiring manager into the process, but are struggling to find a time for them to speak to the candidate. When you eventually do get a meeting in their calendar, the candidate has already taken another job. 

Book on Behalf ends this frustration by allowing you to book time directly on someone’s calendar without having to wait for them to get back to you. 

6. Admin Console 

One of our newest features is perfect if you’re managing a team. The Admin Console allows account admins to use their own dedicated dashboard to decide how their users make the most of Doodle. 

From what integrations they can use to pulling reports to gauge activity, the Admin Console gives companies greater flexibility in using Doodle the way that works for them. 

7. Integrations 

Using Doodle doesn’t have to change everything you do. In fact, our integrations make it easy to keep working the way you want to. 

Our Microsoft Outlook add-in allows you to harness the power of Doodle from your mailbox. This means you can send group polls, links to your Bookable Calendar and arrange 1:1s all from one place. 

With the rise in remote working over the last year, our Zoom and Microsoft Teams integrations make virtual meetings just as easy to hold as physical ones. With your preferred video conferencing tool linked – when it comes to booking a meeting all you need to do is choose the location and we’ll handle the rest. 

Zapier also gives you a chance to add Doodle to more than 2000 apps. This means if you’d like to include scheduling in your CRM or another tool you use – you can. 

8. Custom Questions

Have you ever had a situation where you’ve felt you could have been a little more prepared for a meeting? Well, this is where our Custom Questions tool can help. 

Using our Bookable Calendar, when you create a schedule for people to book time with you – simply add a few questions that will help you get a better picture of what the meeting is about. 

This can help you not only better prepare for the meeting but be more focused as you know exactly what you need to focus on. 

9. Automatic Reminders 

This is one of the great advantages of using Doodle to creating a poll. When you are looking to set up some time with your team or a group of friends, once you’ve selected your availability, simply add that you want your invites to receive an automatic reminder to reply. 

You won’t have to stress if you haven’t heard back from someone as we’ll prompt them for an answer on the day you choose. 

10. Time Zone Management 

Do regularly have to work with people based around the world and get confused about what their time is compared to yours? Or even worse agree to an important client meeting to find out, that for you, it’s in the middle of the night! 

Well, if you schedule through Doodle we can manage your time zones. This means that when you set up a meeting with someone it will display in your local time zone. 

Working remotely should never effect your productivity, here’s some tips on how to make the most of working from home.

For further reading, consider: https://doodle.com/en/resources/blog/branding-options-for-professionals/