6 ways to automate Calendly

Let’s be real: meetings probably aren’t the highlight of your day. But they don’t actually have to be a chore. Calendly, an online scheduling tool, helps streamline the process of setting up (and taking) calls by having people simply click on a Calendly link to book an appointment that works for all parties. 

But that’s just one part of the process. You’ll still need to sync your work calendars, set up video conferencing, add leads to your CRM—and more. Fortunately, with a Zap—our word for Zapier’s automated workflows—you can connect Calendly to thousands of business apps to streamline the whole process. Here’s how. 

Table of contents

Automatically track meetings

If you need to report on sales goals or performance to other teams, keeping an automatic record of your meetings can save you from frantically scrolling through your calendar when someone asks for an update.

Use one of these Zap to automatically add your Calendly meeting info to your spreadsheet tool.

Automatically send meeting notifications

Notifying attendees about upcoming meetings, time changes, or no-shows is an administrative task that just begs for automation. You can use Zapier to help with fine-grained notification schedules, reminders, and alerts. 

Use these Zaps to let the team know about new meetings the moment they’re created—or when someone doesn’t show up like they’re supposed to.

If your day is spent in your inbox instead of team chat, an email reminder does the trick. It’s also a great way to remind clients and meeting attendees outside your team that you have a call coming up.

Got another no-show? Send them an email. You might, for example, want to send them a personalized offer to keep them interested or a chance to reschedule at a later date. These Zaps can do this for you—automatically.

Create tasks from Calendly meetings

A meeting is usually just a first step, especially for client intros and sales calls. Make sure you properly follow up after a call—whether that’s remembering to send a thank you email or prepare a contract—by automatically creating a task in your project management software for Calendly invitees.

This can be especially helpful if you pass tasks across your team and want to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. Give one of these workflows a try so you never miss a to-do.

Add Calendly bookings to your other calendars

Adding Calendly events to your work calendar quickly and automatically helps eliminate double-booking, especially if work colleagues have access to your free/busy times. 

While Calendly has a built-in connection with some popular calendar apps, sometimes you may want events to show up in more than one place or on a calendar that isn’t connected to your account. 

Use the Zaps below to connect Google Calendar or Outlook to Calendly. In addition to automatically populating the new event’s title, start and end times, you can also specify a standard meeting location, include a personal conference dial-in or video meeting, and set an event’s color, visibility, and reminder schedule.

Set up video conferencing for Calendly meetings

By now, we’ve probably all experienced that moment of panic when you miss the start of the meeting because you can’t find the right video conferencing link. That short delay gets your meeting off on the wrong foot, leaving you frazzled and apologetic before you even say hello.

Automation ensures this never needs to happen again. Use these Zaps to automatically set up video conferencing for Calendly events. 

Add Calendly invitees to your CRM and email marketing funnels

An introductory meeting is often just the first step toward a sale. Making sure your client gets the right follow-up is an important next step.

These Zaps add invitees and contacts to your customer relationship management (CRM) tool, so you can track relationships as they develop. You can even add notes to each client in your CRM, so if they miss an event it’s a good idea for your sales team to know about it—so they can follow up accordingly.

Another way to ensure that you and your organization remain top-of-mind during the purchasing decision is to automatically add invitees to your email marketing newsletters. This way, even when you’re not speaking to prospects directly, you can share value, show them compelling information, and gently convince them to convert. Just make sure they’ve opted in to receive these types of emails before you add them.

Do more in less time with Calendly and Zapier

Calendly makes it easy to schedule meetings without resorting to long email conversations. But with a little imagination and Zapier’s ability to connect Calendly with dozens of other productivity, sales, and marketing tools, you can automate the entire meeting workflow. Think about it—no more double-booking, no more missed starts, and no rush to follow up when the meeting ends. What will you do with all your free time?

This piece was originally published in August 2020 by Nick Moore, with previous contributions by Jack Beaudoin. It was most recently updated in August 2024 by Elena Alston.