Calendly is a scheduling tool that revolutionizes the way professionals and teams organize meetings and appointments.
With its user-friendly interface and seamless integration with popular calendar platforms like Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCloud, Calendly makes finding the perfect meeting time a breeze.
However, the true potential of Calendly unfolds when it's integrated with other digital tools and services. There are three main ways to automate Calendly:
Native workflows
Direct integrations, or;
Third-party software like Relay.app
In this comprehensive breakdown of Calendly automation, we’ll look at each method, and explore how Relay.app can supercharge your Calendly setup to make every meeting more productive.
What is Relay.app? Relay.app is a workflow automation software that lets you add human approvals and decisions to any automated workflow.
How to Automate Calendly (3 Easy Methods)
Let's give Calendly credit: it does a great job of automating the tedious scheduling process.
Before Calendly, we were all subjected to manual, tedious email exchanges before every meeting or virtual appointment.
Now, thanks to Calendly and its competitors, that automatically handle the nuances of bookings based on our predefined availabilities, we're able to focus on work instead of playing email tennis and dealing with boring scheduling logistics.
But this automation is just the beginning. Calendly offers ways to further automate and integrate its features with other tools and services, allowing you to streamline workflows and save even more valuable time.
Let's explore the three easy methods to automate Calendly ⬇️
Method 1. Calendly Workflows
Calendly Workflows streamline communications around your scheduled events, erasing the need to juggle multiple apps or perform repetitive tasks.
With a paid subscription, you can set up automated workflows to send emails or text messages to yourself, other hosts, or your invitees either before or after an event takes place.
To create a workflow in Calendly, go to your event type settings, select 'Workflows' from the sidebar, and then click 'New Workflow'.
From there, you can add triggers and actions, such as sending automated emails or messages, based on your scheduling needs.
You can trigger a workflow based on several event-related conditions:
- When a new event is scheduled
- Before an event starts
- When an event starts
- After an event ends
- When an event is cancelled
For time-based triggers, you can specify exactly how many hours or days before or after the event you want the workflow to run.
Even if the event is in the past, the workflow will still execute as long as the specified time condition has not passed.
Calendly also allows you to customize the communications sent during these workflows using templates and variables that automatically pull in details about the invitees and the event.
In terms of limits, you can create up to 50 workflows, which is fairly generous.
This can include a reminder email, a reconfirmation before the event, and a follow-up afterwards. These can be set as a separate workflow applied to the desired event types.
✅ Pros
- Handle routine emails and texts related to event bookings, reducing manual effort and ensuring timely communication.
- Flexibility to set up workflows that trigger based on specific events or timings, allowing for personalized and contextually relevant interactions.
- Manage up to 50 distinct workflows, accommodating a wide range of event types and communication strategies.
- Easy oversight and management of workflows directly from Calendly
❌ Cons
- While effective within Calendly, these workflows are confined to actions and triggers related to Calendly events, limiting broader integration with other tools and platforms.
- Although manageable, setting up and maintaining multiple workflows can become complex, especially for larger teams with diverse needs.
- Requires careful setup to avoid sending duplicate messages, which could lead to confusion and reduce the effectiveness of communication efforts.
Calendly Workflows offer powerful options for automating event-related communications, they might fall short for teams looking for more extensive automation capabilities across a broader tech stack.
Method 2. Calendly’s native integrations
Calendly's native integrations offer a straightforward way to connect your scheduling processes with other software tools, enhancing functionality and streamlining workflows.
These integrations allow you to sync Calendly Appointment data with popular platforms, from Zoom to Salesforce and HubSpot.
These integrations are designed to be user-friendly, typically requiring just a few clicks to connect and configure, making them accessible even to those with limited technical skills.
Whether you want to automatically creating qualified leads in your CRM system, scheduling video conferences with Zoom, or sharing marketing forms via your email tool of choice, Calendly's native integrations have got you covered for most one-to-one connections.
By seamlessly connecting Calendly with other tools, you can automate time-consuming tasks and ensure smooth workflows.
✅ Pros
- Reduce the need for switching between multiple platforms, thus simplifying the user's workflow.
- Changes in one platform are automatically reflected in others, ensuring all data is current and synchronized across tools.
- Automates routine tasks such as data entry and meeting setup, allowing users to focus on more strategic activities.
❌ Cons
- App triggers and functionality is limited
- Performance and reliability can be inconsistence (depends on the third-party maintenance)
- Triggers and actions are limited compared to dedicated workflow automation tools
While Calendly’s native integrations offer considerable benefits by connecting essential tools, they might not suffice for more complex or customized workflow requirements across diverse tech ecosystems.
This is where third-party workflow automation platforms like Relay.app come into play.
Dedicated automation platforms provide broader capabilities that go far beyond what you can achieve through Calendly's workflows or direct integrations.
Method 3. Workflow automation software
If you find that Calendly's native integrations are not enough to meet your automation needs, you may want to consider using third-party workflow automation software.
These platforms are specifically designed to automate repetitive tasks and streamline workflows across multiple tools and systems.
For example, with Relay.app you can create custom workflows that connect Calendly with hundreds of different applications—including those not directly supported through native integrations.
But it's just not the number of integrations that's different. With these tools you can design multi-step conditional workflows that automate tasks across platforms.
For example:
For a sales team aiming to optimize their engagement process, a multi-step workflow using Relay.app can streamline meeting setups and follow-ups.
1. Start by configuring Relay.app to detect when a meeting is scheduled via Calendly, automatically sending a scheduling link and personalized meeting reminders via Slack.
2. Post-meeting, trigger a follow-up email to the client to recap the discussion and next steps, enhancing relationship management and driving towards sales goals.
3. Additionally, automatically log the meeting details and outcomes in Notion for internal review and track progress in Google Sheets, ensuring all sales activities are aligned and transparent.
The bottom line? With workflow automation software you can go beyond simple one-to-one integrations and tailor workflows to meet specific business needs.
🏆 Want to see how Relay.app stacks up to the competition? Check out our comparison with Zapier and Workato or Make and Zapier.
✅ Pros
- Enables a broader range of automation, ensuring that various aspects of business operations can interact seamlessly with Calendly.
- Reduces manual intervention significantly, streamlining operations and increasing productivity by automating data transfers and task execution.
- Easily scales with your business, handling increasing complexity and volume of tasks as your needs grow.
❌ Cons
- Additional costs on top of your Calendly subscription
By integrating Calendly with a platform like Relay.app, users can leverage features like 'Human in the Loop' to incorporate necessary human decision points in automated workflows, ensuring precision where needed.
Inline AI capabilities also assist by automating data extraction and summarization within workflows, adding a layer of intelligence to the automation process.
7 Best Relay.app Calendly Automations
1. Share relevant resources pre and post-meeting
Making sure every meeting participant has the right materials at the right time is crucial for efficient collaboration, especially for team leads orchestrating multi-department projects.
Relay.app simplifies this process by automatically distributing necessary documents, links, and resources stored on platforms like Dropbox or Google Drive, linked directly to your Calendly events.
For example, you can effortlessly distribute onboarding materials to all stakeholders prior to any introductory workshops and get follow-up resources sent out after the meetings.
This proactive approach not only keeps the project moving smoothly but also boosts preparation and engagement, ensuring everyone is fully equipped to participate effectively.
2. Send personalized notifications
Important communications after job interviews or big team updates often falls by the wayside in the rush of a busy day.
Relay.app tackles this challenge head-on by automating personalized follow-up communications.
Whether it’s sending custom emails to interview candidates or posting updates to team channels on Slack, Relay.app makes sure that no participant misses crucial feedback or next steps.
Imagine wrapping up a candidate interview: Relay.app can automatically send a summary email to the interviewee, neatly wrapping up the main discussion points using its in-line AI to distill notes into clear, concise takeaways.
Plus, with human-in-the-loop touchpoints, you can review and approve these summaries before they go out, ensuring they meet your standards for clarity and professionalism.
More concerned about internal comms? Relay.app can post summaries and action items straight to your team’s Slack channel, keeping everyone informed and accountable.
3. Update your CRM
Keeping your CRM up-to-date with the latest meeting details doesn't have to be a manual chore. 🧹
With Relay.app, you can automate the flow of information from Calendly directly into your CRM system, ensuring every interaction is captured without fail.
This integration works seamlessly whether you use a dedicated CRM platform like Attio or versatile tools like Notion, SmartSuite, or Airtable.
Imagine automatically creating a new page in Notion for each Calendly event, logging new events as entries in a SmartSuite table, or instantly generating records in Attio after sales calls.
With these integrations, you can ensure every detail from your meetings—from timings to discussion points—is logged and ready for quick follow-up.
Save time, enhance your team’s ability to manage customer relationships, and make sure no details slip through the cracks.
4. Track and analyze meetings over time
Keep your team’s meetings streamlined and insightful with Relay.app’s smooth integration of Calendly and Google Sheets.
This automation captures every detail about your events—whether they're upcoming, just started, wrapped up, rescheduled, or even cancelled.
Think about the edge this gives remote teams.
Project managers can have Calendly events automatically logged in Google Sheets, creating detailed records from participant attendance to meeting outcomes.
Over time, you can spot trends like frequently rescheduled meetings or the average length of client calls. These insights help fine-tune your scheduling strategies and enhance meeting effectiveness.
If a meeting changes, your Sheets update instantly. Keep everyone aligned and informed, while your team stays focused on what truly matters, not busy work.
5. Turn meeting outcomes into actionable tasks
Relay.app helps turn your Calendly meetings into action, faster than you can say “task”. 🏎️
Say you've just wrapped up a strategy meeting scheduled through Calendly.
With Relay.app, you can have tasks automatically generated and assigned in project management tools like Asana, Todoist, or ClickUp.
Instead of finishing an email, forgetting to follow up, and losing momentum, with these automations, everyone already knows their next steps after the meeting finishes.
No more post-meeting scramble or forgotten follow-ups—just all the details and deadlines in your project management tool automatically.
And it's not just for office teams.
Let's say you manage operations and someone books a facility check through Calendly.
Relay.app can trigger a checklist of tasks in ClickUp, ensuring every part of your operation runs smoothly and nothing gets missed.
This kind of automation not only keeps your team on track but also embeds accountability and efficiency into every meeting, making every gathering a productive one.
6. Automate support ticket creation
90% of customers say instant customer service is crucial. And when these expectations aren’t met? Well, over half (52%) will abandon the company altogether.
Ouch.
The answer? Timely and efficient communication. But that’s not always easy to provide!
Automation makes it much easier and more achievable—especially if you have limited resources.
By integrating Calendly with Intercom or Zendesk through Relay.app, you can automatically create support tickets whenever a service-related appointment is scheduled.
No more lag between the initial appointment and ticket logging!
Your support agents (or your team members juggling their roles alongside support duties) can get a headstart on follow-ups, with detailed background information so they can provide personalized assistance with less effort.
With these integrations, you’ll save considerable time, improve the responsiveness of your customer support operations, and vastly improve customer satisfaction—while cutting down on extra work.
7. Streamline interview scheduling
Recruiting the right talent is critical, but despite abundant HR software, the process is still manual and time-consuming.
With Relay.app, you can seamlessly integrate Calendly with Lever to automate interview scheduling.
For example, set it so every time a candidate schedules an interview via Calendly, the details are instantly and automatically logged into Lever.
Why does this matter? Because the faster you schedule, the faster you can hire—and in today’s job market, speed can be the difference between securing top talent and losing them to a competitor.
Plus, a faster, more efficient interview process also saves your HR team precious time. This time is much better spent finding the best talent for your business, rather than focusing on boring manual busywork.
Over to you
Automating Calendly can radically enhance how you manage time and coordinate interactions, internally and externally.
While it’s possible to automate Calendly with Workflows or integrations, Relay.app stands out if you’re looking to integrate across multiple tools, value team collaboration and need human decision-making.
Relay.app provides several distinct advantages over these other methods:
- Automated efficiency. 🖥️ Streamline processes like meeting scheduling, follow-ups, and CRM updates, turning routine tasks into automated workflows.
- Enhanced collaboration. 👥 Keep your team in sync with automated notifications and updates, ensuring everyone is on the same page without constant manual updates.
- In-context AI and Human-in-the-Loop. 🤖♻️ Benefit from advanced AI that processes and summarizes data where needed, with options to include human decision points to maintain quality and personal touch.
- Seamless integrations: 🔌 Connect with a variety of tools from project management software to CRMs, ensuring that your data flows smoothly across your tech stack.
Ready to transform how you schedule, plan, and interact? Start with Relay.app today and experience a new level of automation tailored to modern business needs.
Get started with a free trial—no credit card required.
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Calendly automation FAQs
Can Calendly send automatic emails?
Yes, Calendly can automatically send emails to confirm appointments or send reminders. This feature is part of Calendly's workflows, allowing you to set up and customize email notifications for various event triggers.
Is Calendly workflow free?
No, Calendly workflows are not available on the free plan. They are part of Calendly's premium features, which require a subscription to the Professional, Teams, or Enterprise plans.
Does Calendly have an API?
Yes, Calendly offers an API that developers can use to integrate Calendly with other applications, automate scheduling functions, and customize the user experience. The API is available to users on premium subscription plans.
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