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Community Member
November 18, 2023

I'd like to allow invitees to choose meeting durations

  • November 18, 2023
  • 33 replies
  • 5904 views

Hey all. I generally love Calendly, but one missing feature bugs me. For some meeting types, I want to allow invitees to choose the duration of the meeting, within some choices I specify, sort of like this:

Calendly support suggested this:

The problem is, I already have multiple event types (Client, Prospect, Student, Client including evenings and weekends, Student extended hours etc.) If I clone all these events to allow for 45 / 60 / 90 / 120 min meetings, I will end up with an unwieldy list of way too many event types. Then if you need to edit an event, you also need to remember to edit all the various duration instances of the same meetings. It’s wildly inefficient and unruly.

Is there any reason you could see why Calendly is not letting us specify these choices for SOME meeting types?

For Calendly employees reading this: Is this feature in the works? If not, why not? 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Pinned Reply By Sean Marlin

Hi ​@E28808 and everyone else that contributed to this thread!

 

Just circling back to this post to let you know that we have implemented this feature!! No more workarounds for invitees selecting from multiple durations. You can learn more about it here. I hope you know we directly referenced this post to make the case for prioritizing this feature. Your voice was heard and made a difference. 

33 replies

Kelsi
CalPal Emeritus
November 18, 2023

Hey @E28808 - thanks so much for this thorough breakdown of your feature request. I LOVE seeing your use case drawn up for us in this way and truly appreciate it.

While this is not a feature I can make happen for you right now, I will make sure our product team puts eyes on this and considers it for future updates.

In the meantime, I have a work around to suggest that might help you out!

While you would still ultimately need to clone your event types and change the duration, offering a version of each event type with each desired duration - you do not have to send your open booking link to every invitee and allow them to pick from that plethora of event types.

What you could do instead is create a Calendly routing form. Routing forms let you request information such as industry, company size, specific interests, etc. from website visitors and automatically direct them to a specific scheduling or web page based on their responses. It's great for screening and qualifying sales leads on a website or matching clients or students to the booking page of the right subject-matter expert based on their interests, program, or other criteria. You can read more about setting up routing forms, here!

On your routing form you could ask a couple of questions, like “How long would you like to meet?” with several options to choose from and “What topic would you like to discuss?” or “What meeting type are you interested in booking?” with a list of your event type titles to choose from. Then, based on their answers, each invitee would be auto-routed to the appropriate event type booking page for booking! This means they would never even have to set eyes on your main booking page with all of the options you have to choose from. You could even choose to make all duplicate events “secret” so they don’t appear when you do share your booking link, and only invitees booking via the routing form have the additional options to be routed to! 

I truly do believe this is a great answer to your issue in the now - while we work on collecting feedback and implementing new features in the future! Let me know if you have any questions. =) I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, if you celebrate! 🦃

Kelsi - Calendly Community
New Community Member
November 24, 2023

I also would like this feature.  There are occasions where you can only specify one link, and I would like that link to be a “15, 30 or 60-minute meeting”.  When creating this type of event, it would need to have up to three distinct durations that are allowed to be chosen.  Then the user would see a radio button to select exactly one of the three durations.

 


Update: OK, reading the answer above, I tried out the routing solution and it works really well. It means it is a two-stage thing, but I think that works OK.

jillian
Community Member
November 24, 2023

Hi @Ian48816!

Glad to hear the routing options works for you, but I’ll make sure I add your feedback as well.

New Community Member
December 1, 2023

Adding my voice to the chorus asking for this variable duration feature!! Please, please, put your developers on this task.

I am a solo clergyperson at a small congregation, and I use Calendly (successfully and happily) for many educational and pastoral functions.  But I really wish there were an easy way for congregants to indicate--without having to go through multiple steps and forms, which deters many older and less tech-savvy folks--how long they expect it’ll take when they book a pastoral conversation with me, or a consultation for an upcoming life cycle event, or a rabbi visit to their Hebrew school classroom, etc. 

Beyond how this would vastly improve the flow and user experience generally, it would also help minimize some of the power imbalance that people can feel when requesting my time.  I feel bad holding the unilateral ability to pre-determine how long the interaction “should” last--which can in turn make congregants feel bad if their expectations don’t match that duration, making them feel rushed, judged, or overwhelmed.

Kelsi
CalPal Emeritus
December 2, 2023

Adding my voice to the chorus asking for this variable duration feature!! Please, please, put your developers on this task.

I am a solo clergyperson at a small congregation, and I use Calendly (successfully and happily) for many educational and pastoral functions.  But I really wish there were an easy way for congregants to indicate--without having to go through multiple steps and forms, which deters many older and less tech-savvy folks--how long they expect it’ll take when they book a pastoral conversation with me, or a consultation for an upcoming life cycle event, or a rabbi visit to their Hebrew school classroom, etc. 

Beyond how this would vastly improve the flow and user experience generally, it would also help minimize some of the power imbalance that people can feel when requesting my time.  I feel bad holding the unilateral ability to pre-determine how long the interaction “should” last--which can in turn make congregants feel bad if their expectations don’t match that duration, making them feel rushed, judged, or overwhelmed.

Hello, @RabbiJDN - I greatly appreciate the description of your use case and will absolutely add your feedback to this along with the others. I wish that I could put the developers on this task for you immediately! I hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

Kelsi - Calendly Community
New Community Member
December 28, 2023

hello, I want to add my request too. I am showing you my example to indicate it to the development team. I come for a head massage which can last 20 mins, 40 mins or 60 mins and getting the option of choice would be much easier for clients when booking. I also use an online store to sell my massages in the form of gift vouchers and this one offers 3 duration options, this would allow me to standardize my online offers. Thank you for listening and I hope to see this possibility soon. In the meantime I'll look at the routing forms.

Kelsi
CalPal Emeritus
December 28, 2023

hello, I want to add my request too. I am showing you my example to indicate it to the development team. I come for a head massage which can last 20 mins, 40 mins or 60 mins and getting the option of choice would be much easier for clients when booking. I also use an online store to sell my massages in the form of gift vouchers and this one offers 3 duration options, this would allow me to standardize my online offers. Thank you for listening and I hope to see this possibility soon. In the meantime I'll look at the routing forms.

Thanks so much for your use case, here! I understand completely why an ability to add multiple duration choices to your massages would be beneficial. For now, the solution of creating one event type for each duration and using routing forms will be excellent for you! I will include your feedback for our product team, as well! I hope you have a wonderful New Year. 

Kelsi - Calendly Community
New Community Member
January 21, 2024

It is pretty embarrassing that Calendly doesn’t have this feature in a straightforward way… Any update on when we can expect this fairly basic feature?

 

 

New Community Member
January 31, 2024

Also chiming in to support my need for this. I’m an accessibility consultant and sometimes sessions take 15 minutes, sometimes they take 2 hours. I’m sort of caught between a rock and a hard place because Calendly is actually really accessible for screen reading software, and as an accessibility consultant, I care deeply whether or not the products I use are accessible. Unfortunately, I also can’t afford a teams subscription to use the routing forms method. Really hope this functionality gets added soon, but in the meantime I’ll be looking at other scheduling platforms.

Kelsi
CalPal Emeritus
January 31, 2024

Also chiming in to support my need for this. I’m an accessibility consultant and sometimes sessions take 15 minutes, sometimes they take 2 hours. I’m sort of caught between a rock and a hard place because Calendly is actually really accessible for screen reading software, and as an accessibility consultant, I care deeply whether or not the products I use are accessible. Unfortunately, I also can’t afford a teams subscription to use the routing forms method. Really hope this functionality gets added soon, but in the meantime I’ll be looking at other scheduling platforms.

Thank you so much for the explanation of your use case. While I cannot make promises about if/when a new feature might be implemented based on user feedback I can assure you that your voice is being heard! We will include all of this feedback (from everyone commenting in this thread) in our reports for the product team to consider for future updates. 

In the meantime, if routing is not an option for you, you might consider creating an event type for each duration you’d like to offer. So, in your case, it might look like: 

  • “Accessibility Consultation: 15 minutes” 
  • “Accessibility Consultation: 30 minutes”
  • “Accessibility Consultation: 1 hour” 
  • “Accessibility Consultation: 90 minutes” and
  • “Accessibility Consultation: 2 hours”

Then, each of these event type options will appear on your main Calendly booking page (read more here: Share Your Calendly Link) for invitees to choose from. I know this does not entirely resolve your issue, but hopefully the info helps a bit! 

Kelsi - Calendly Community