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How To Use Book Me in the Chrome Extension

For users of the Email Sidebar on:

 

11 min read

 

The Share Calendar Availability (Book me) feature allows parsing your and your colleagues’ availability periods based on Google calendar data to be sent to your business contacts, for example to negotiate a meeting time convenient for all participants involved or to schedule a series of meetings with different contacts.

The unoccupied time slots from meeting organizer calendar(s) are parsed to be saved as a link to an interactive scheduling table webpage (Booking page).

When building availability tables without specified “Until” date on Book Me link creation page, RGES shows the unoccupied time slots from calendar(s) over a 365 day span. This limit can be adjusted by request sent to our CSM team.

 

Tip

Also, see this Revenue Grid blog article for special insights about scheduling meetings via emails

 

The organizer’s and required in-org invitees’ availability spans are parsed on Book Me link generation, and later if a another slot gets occupied that is also reflected on the Booking page viewed by the recipient.

As soon as a recipient clicks on their preferred slot, RG Email Sidebar checks if the slot is still available in the organizer’s and required in-Org attendees’ calendars. In case it was occupied by another booking, the recipient is suggested to pick another slot. In addition, by refreshing Booking page browser window, the recipient can actualize the availability table after such checks.

 

Book Me links can be generated by the Add-In even if RGES Sync Engine is not running; however, in this case, if any slot is booked, the resulting meetings won’t be synced in the Salesforce calendar till syncing is resumed.

 

Tip

See this article to learn how to use the Book Me feature in RGES Outlook Add-In

 

 

 

To share your availability periods with your contacts

 

1. Open RG Email Sidebar for a relevant opened or new created email message in Gmail by clicking the Open RG Email Sidebar icon









2. In the Sidebar, click on the Book Me icon in the Smart Actions bottom toolbar

 

 

Once you click on the Book Me icon, you will see the following Book Me page in the Sidebar:

 

>>> Click to view details <<<

1. Action buttons Cancel and Insert:

  • Click Cancel to cancel the link creation and leave the Book Me dialog
  • Click Insert to generate the Book Me link after filling in all required fields

2. The subject of the meeting. RGES prefills it with the email subject, but you can modify it

3. The location where the meeting will be held (meeting room, online, etc.)

4. The duration of time slots for the meeting. You can select up to three different slots durations

5. The required attendees are prefilled with the email recipients. If the in-org attendees are added to this field, RGES analyzes their and the organizer's calendar data and shows only the slots that are available for all meeting participants. The internal in-org attendees added to this field will receive the invite for this meeting once the link recipient books it

6. The optional attendees who will receive the invite for this meeting once the link recipient books it. It's prefilled with CC email recipients

7. Business record in Salesforce (Account, Opportunity, Case, etc.), which will be linked to the resulting Salesforce event once the link recipient books the meeting

8. People record in Salesforce (Lead, Contact, Person Account, etc.), which will be linked to the resulting Salesforce event once the link recipient books the meeting

9. Allow or disallow to invite additional participants (as optional attendees) while booking a meeting on the Booking page

10. The time buffer between the meetings. You can set a minimum time gap between meetings to get ready for the next one or have a break

11. The meeting reminder. Select this checkbox to create a reminder about this meeting

12. The minimal span between the moment of booking and the actual start of the meeting. For example, this parameter won't allow anybody to book a meeting within 30 minutes from now, even if you have an available slot

13. Disregard organizer's calendar. If enabled, this parameter allows selecting the occupied slots on the organizer's calendar for booking meetings. Mind that the organizer's status will be set to "*Free*" for the booked meetings

14. Select the weekdays available for the meeting booking

15. Set the day hours available for the meeting booking

16. Set the dates range available for the meeting booking

17. The body field. Here you can add the meeting description, notes, and other related information

18. Manage defaults opens the Book Me defaults page, where you can set the default field values that will be prefilled in the Book Me dialog when you open it. More information here

 

 

Fill in the general meeting parameters

3. Fill in the basic meeting details in the opened Book Me dialog:

  • The Meeting subject field is prefilled with the subject of the related email (if any), and you can edit it if necessary

  • In the Location field, you can select a room or location from your Google workspace or manually enter a location (including online services). You can also set Google Meet in the Location field

  • In the Duration, you can select up to three different meeting slot durations that the Book Me link recipients may choose among on the resulting Booking page

  • In the Attendees (required) field, you can add the participants whose presence is required at the meeting. It’s prefilled with the email recipients. Also, you can add internal attendees who will receive the invite for this meeting once the link recipient books it

Note

If you add any in-org attendees (they must belong to your Google workspace) in the Attendees (required) field, the resulting Booking page will show only the time slots that are available on all in-org attendees and organizer’s calendars. This ensures that the selected slot will be convenient and available for all required in-org attendees

  • In the Attendees (optional) field, you can add the participants, who will also receive the invite for this meeting once someone books it, but as optional attendees. Note that optional attendees’ calendars are disregarded on building availability table

  • In the Body (Description) field (at the bottom of the Book Me dialog), you can add additional information for participants.

    This description will appear on the booking page for the recipients to see it and will be saved as a meeting description in the Google calendar and in Salesforce.

    This field is limited to 32k characters, if the description text is longer, it will be truncated to match this limit. Note that the generated email will not include this text in its body

 

 

4. Link the meeting with the Salesforce Business and People records:

  • In the Save to Salesforce record search box, you can find and select a Business record (Account, Opportunity etc.), which will be linked with the resulting Salesforce event once the link recipient books a meeting

  • In the Save to Lead or Contact search box, you can find and select a People record, which will be linked with the resulting Salesforce event once the link recipient books a meeting

Note

If you faced a situation when the booked meeting had linked to the wrong Contact in Salesforce, refer to this article describing how to resolve the problem and prevent it in the future

 

 

Fill in the advanced meeting parameters

Tip

If you don’t need the Advanced fields and controls in the Book Me dialog, click the v (collapse) icon next to the Advanced options section title to hide them

 

5. Fill in the Advanced meeting details to customize the calendar availability according to your needs:

  • Select the Allow inviting guests checkbox to allow recipients of the generated Book Me link to invite extra guests as optional attendees. Recipient can add up to 10 guest emails on the Booking page

  • Time buffer b/w meetings allows you to set a gap between consecutive meetings booked by different recipients via the Book Me links, so you can prepare for the next meeting or have a break

  • Using the Reminder field, you can enable and set a Google reminder in your Google calendar to notify you before the meeting starts

  • Using the Minimal span between booking & actual start field, you can set from 30 minutes up to 2 weeks span to ensure that you will have enough time to get prepared for the meeting after a slot is picked by Book Me link recipient

  • Select the Disregard organizer’s calendar to allow recipients of the generated Book Me link to book meetings on the occupied slots of your (organizer’s) calendar. Note that if this parameter is enabled, your (organizer’s) status on the booked meetings will be shown as Free. This feature is useful if you organize meetings for other people, where your participation is optional or not required.

 

Tip

RGES features an optional possibility to make the system treat Tentative slots as Busy instead of Free. This mechanics is managed Org-wide or for individual users, via the global setting ShowTentativeAsBusy. To enable this function refer to your Admin

 

The advanced parameters described below allow you to set the calendar availability limits by selecting the weekdays, work hours, and dates range for generating available meeting slots on the Booking page. Adjust these limits to set the availability spans specific to your regular work schedule, for example if you are only available for meeting the customers on Mondays and Thursdays from 2:30pm until 5pm; in some scenarios you may also need to make these limits broader, for example if you want to arrange a Book Me meeting outside of your working hours or on a weekend.

  • The Available on (days of the week) selection allows you to define the weekdays which will be available or unavailable for the meeting booking. For example, you can select the weekends to be available meeting booking or disable meetings scheduling on Mondays

  • Using the From and Until drop-down lists, you can set the hours range that will be used for generating available slots to book the meeting

  • The From date and To date calendar fields allow you to define the dates range that will be shown with the available slots on the Booking page. For example, you can use them for limited-time activities (conferences, field visits, business trips, etc.)

 

Note

RGES prefills the Available on (days of the week) selection and the From and Until down-drop lists with the default values. Also, you can adjust the prefilled values using the Book Me defaults feature

 

 

Once all necessary fields in Book Me dialog are filled in, RG Email Sidebar is ready to generate a short link to a Booking web page with a table showing the available time slots based on your calendar data, your colleagues (if any) calendar data, and other specified parameters.

 

6. Click Insert in the upper right corner of the page, and the link will be automatically inserted into the new email message

 

Now you can add other information to the email containing the Book Me link and send it to the recipients, so they can select a convenient day and time and book a meeting with you.

 

Tip

If you want to set a custom share calendar availability message template, refer to this article

 

 

 

Book Me Dialog Auto-Filling

In the Book Me dialog, RG Email Sidebar prefills some fields with the default values, the data retrieved from the selected email (if any), and your Google account. The following fields are prefilled with default values:

  • Meeting subject – the subject of the selected or opened email when the Book Me icon is clicked in the Sidebar

  • Duration – 30 minutes

  • Attendees (required) – recipients from the To field of the selected or opened email when the Book Me icon is clicked

  • Attendees (optional) – recipients from the CC field of the selected or opened email when the Book Me icon is clicked

  • Time buffer b/w meetings – 0 minutes

  • Reminder – None

  • Minimal span between booking & actual start – 0 minutes

  • Available on (days of the week) – from Monday till Friday

  • From and Until – from 8:00 AM till 5:00 PM

   

Managing Book Me defaults

Also, using the Book Me defaults feature, you can set custom values that would be prefilled every time you open the Book Me dialog in RG Email Sidebar.

Learn more about managing Book Me defaults…


Setting Google Meet as a Location for a meeting

You can set Google Meet in the Location field on the Book Me link creation. When an invitee books a time slot, the meeting will appear on your calendar with an already generated Google Meet link.

A new unique Google Meet link is generated for every meeting. Several invitees from inside or outside of your company can join the meeting by opening the Google Meet link

Note that the Google Meet link is not included in the Book Me email or selection table; instead, it will be added to the Google meeting created in the organizer and recipient’s Calendar

Tip

To make sure that the recipients do not lose the link, it is recommended to mention in invite email’s body that the link for joining the meeting will be available in the meeting’s Description on the recipients’ Google calendar as soon as they book the meeting

To set Google Meet as a Location for a Book Me meeting, enter “Google Meet” in the location field and select the corresponding list option. When creating next Book Me links, you will see the Google Meet option at the top of the location list.

It’s also possible to set Google Meet as a default location for Book Me meetings so that it is always automatically preselected when you create a new Book Me link.

 

 

 

 

How to Book a Slot (Recipient Side)

Note

The Booking page language is set based on the locale specified in the web browser of the Book Me link recipient

 

When the recipient opens the Book Me link, they can select the time slot by clicking on the preferred date and time. The time zone of the generated Booking page will be pre-set for each recipient based on their email client data. Also, they can select a specific time zone using the drop-down list above the list of available time slots.

 

Note

When a recipient clicks on the preferred slot, RG Email Sidebar checks if it is still available in the organizer and in-org required attendees’ calendars. In case it is occupied, RGES suggests recipient to select another time slot. Also, the recipient can actualize information about available slots by refreshing the Booking page

 

After recipient selects a slot on the Booking page, they also need to fill in their Full name and Email address in the Booking Confirmation dialog and click the Book meeting button.

 

Tip

The submitted recipient’s data (Full Name, Email, Phone number, and Notes) is saved in the local browser storage and will be automatically prefilled on the Booking Confirmation page if the recipient opens another Book Me link from the same organization

 

As soon as a slot is selected and booked by the recipient, it gets automatically reserved in your calendar, and you receive a corresponding email notification.

Note

To prevent calendar spamming activities via the Book Me link, a standard reCAPTCHA v3 anti-bot check is implemented on the Booking page

 

 

The Extra Fields: Phone Number and Notes

The Booking page also includes the optional fields Phone number and Notes. These fields allow meeting attendees to share their phone numbers with the Organizer and other participants for direct connection or providing extra details prior to the meeting.

Important

Since entered Phone number and Notes get appended to the meeting’s Description, they also get conveyed to all required and optional meeting invitees. For this reason, the recipients should always consider the privacy requirements for the Phone number sharing and what information can be listed in meeting Notes



Customizing Booking Confirmation

Revenue Grid offers an on-demand possibility to customize the Booking Confirmation page. You can add up to 15 fields and elements (drop-down lists, checkboxes) on this page, make them required, add disclaimers, etc.

Learn more about customizing the Booking Confirmation page…

 

 



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