Doodle Survey Review

What Is A Scheduling Poll?

Scheduling polls allow you to arrange meetings, calls and other day-to-day responsibilities with any other parties who may be involved. With the help of a poll, you can ensure that everyone who needs to be a part of a discussion can make it to that conversation.

Attendees can fill out their polls individually, stating what times they’re available to meet and when they’re otherwise busy. Once the poll’s complete, you’ll be able to look over the data and set your meeting date and time accordingly.

Why Should You Use An Online Scheduling Poll?

Anymore, people are meeting through platforms like Zoom, Slack, Hassle, Zapier and other scheduling apps. While these online mediums are useful, arranging a meeting on them still requires that you establish a free block of time in all the attendees’ schedules.

Not only does an online scheduling poll allow you to quickly and easily learn about your invitees’ schedules, but you’ll also be able to send the appropriate parties reminders about your meeting as it approaches. This way, you won’t have to worry about anyone missing your meeting time.

What Can Doodle Polls Be Used For?

Today’s need for online meetings vastly outstrips what many folks expected. With that in mind, you can use online scheduling polls and the plugins therein to set up times for business meetings, game nights, work-from-home schedules, and more. These Doodle polls will help you overcome any time zone differences that might otherwise make establishing a meeting time more complicated.

How Can You Create A Scheduling Poll?

Each of the different scheduling apps allows you to create a scheduling poll through different means. Most of the time, you’ll be prompted to describe the event you want to schedule. After that, you’ll be encouraged to share what dates you want your potential attendees to consider. You may need to establish time blocks independently, or you may be able to create them all at once.

With this complete, you can then customize your poll’s appearance and share it with your attendees via email or link. Once you’ve filled in your own availability, all you’ll have to do is wait for the others to complete their schedules. Then you’ll be able to set your meeting time and prepare your notes accordingly.

What Are The Best Free Online Scheduling Polls and Survey Tools?

Given the increased use of online meeting spaces, there are several scheduling polls and survey tools you can use to get in touch with meeting attendees. These include:

Doodle
SurveyMonkey
Calendly

These tools often come with free versions that’ll allow you to provide meeting attendees with the basic information they need to let you know about their availability. Small businesses may benefit from more comprehensive profiles, though costs for these upgrades will vary based on the platform you want to use. Doodle, for example, makes Doodle Premium available to the small businesses that want more customization in their scheduling polls.

What Are Some Alternatives To Scheduling Polls?

Ideally, you’ll want to work with a scheduling app that allows for calendar integration. This sort of integration lets your attendees know when your meeting is and will help ensure they arrive on time. Unfortunately, not all of the best scheduling polls and apps come with this feature or others that you may find valuable.

As such, there are several alternatives to schedule polls readily available. Two of the most popular include Google calendar invites and Apple calendar share. Google Invites send meeting information straight to your attendees’ inboxes, though they do allow for less customization when it comes to setting a time. Outlook invites work similarly. Apple calendar share lets you reach out to meeting attendees through their smartphones instead of their desktops, allowing for near-immediate responses.

What Are Some Of The Best Meeting Scheduler Apps?

As mentioned, there are a number of free scheduling apps that you can take advantage of while trying to set up a meeting. Some of the best, with the most comprehensive plug-in libraries and features, include:

Boomerang Calendar
FreeBusy
Doodle

Doodle, in particular, has won many positive reviews thanks to its wide variety of time slots, calendar integration and hassle-free usability. Creating an account, be it free or premium, is easy, cost-effective and will help you stay on top of your attendees’ needs.

If you’re looking to schedule a meeting with friends, coworkers or potential clients, why not use a scheduling poll to your advantage?