Navigating Google's New Calendar Policy

Recent updates to Google's calendar privacy policy have sparked concern among sales and professional services teams, as well as recruitment organizations. In a world where digital appointments are the new normal, these changes have caused major disruption to the scheduling landscape - because some meetings booked through scheduling links are simply not showing up on calendars. 

In its latest effort to combat spam, Google has rolled out a new policy affecting all third-party scheduling tools, including popular platforms like Calendly and Chili Piper. 

Under the new policy, calendar invitations will only be automatically added to invitee’s calendars if you've had previous emails exchanged with that invitee. 

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That means, for first-time invitees, (such as those signing up for appointments or demos from website booking links), your calendar invites will NOT be added automatically, but instead require the invitee to confirm their booking by clicking on a confirmation link buried within an auto-generated Google Calendar message in their email inbox. (Example below.)

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This means that in some cases up to 60% of the meetings scheduled through calendar links are not actually making it to the recipient's calendar!

And prospects are not showing up to meetings, because they don't realize or remember that they had them!

While anti-spam policies are certainly important, the implications of this policy shift are significant, and require some adjustments - particularly if new business prospects are actively trying to schedule with you.

Here’s how you can resolve this issue:

1. Modify your webform and outbound email flows to confirm meetings over email before sending the actual calendar invite. Once the invitee responds with an email to confirm they indeed want to meet, the invite will successfully make it to their calendar since you are now considered a ‘known sender.’ The drawback is that you lose the utility of calendar links which integrate directly and automatically generate invites once a form has been completed. 

1. Provide clear guidance and reminders on how to accept the invite: You can provide prospects with step-by-step guidance and reminders on how to find and accept the calendar invite within their email inbox once they have signed up for the meeting time. The drawback here is that they need to locate the emailed calendar invite and navigate to the upper right corner to select the button that states "I know this sender," and then click "Yes" to add it to their calendar - a long, unpleasant and often unknown journey. 

1. You can (in theory) recommend that your prospects change their privacy settings in Google to allow ‘Everyone’ to send them calendar invites - but we honestly do not recommend this one. Anti-spam precautions are put in place for a reason, and many calendar links have indeed been hacked or accessed improperly. Further, most digital scheduling companies work hard to ensure a proper balance between getting meetings on the books and respecting calendars, so in many ways we appreciate these efforts.   

1. Consider Google Calendar scheduling links: Google's own scheduling links may be a viable option, but be aware that you may lose key features that are critical to sales and other professional and recruiting teams, such as Zoom integration, group scheduling, and automated reminders.

Are there any other options that allow me to automate scheduling, let my prospects choose times, AND ensure that the invites make it to their calendars?

Well, yes.

While the strategies above help you navigate Google's new policy, Scheduler AI can streamline this process even further in a variety of ways…

Scheduler AI can allow prospects to select times to meet within your webforms or outbound emails, and then Scheduler can wait to send the calendar invite until after prospects confirm via an easy, user-friendly, automated email confirmation. (Scheduler AI can also send reminders to confirm the time and/or can offer to help prospects reschedule as needed.) 

But it goes beyond that. Scheduler AI also offers the same benefits as some of the other calendar links, including features like automated videoconferencing, AI-generated group scheduling links, reminders, instant rescheduling, and more.

Our hope is that you are able to adjust your current workflows while still ensuring that your prospects' calendar invitations get placed directly on their calendars in the most efficient, effective ways possible. 

If your organization would like some help resolving this problem, please feel free to reach out to us at hello@scheduler.ai, and we can discuss a solution tailored specifically for your needs.