I got an email from Brandon Watts, owner of Wattsware, about the effectiveness of Doodle, which is a scheduling service (they have free and paid versions). The creators of Doodle claim that they can save people
time when scheduling meetings or events, and they even conducted a study
to prove it. The study had 96 participants who were asked to organize a dinner for 4-6 people, a business meeting for 6-8 people, and another dinner for 10-15 people. They invited people using Doodle and more traditional tools, such as email, phone, and calendar invites. Across the board, the results demonstrated that they did indeed spend less time using Doodle. They also discovered that the bigger the group, the more time was saved when scheduling an event. Overall, Doodle cut down organizing time by more than half, which is obviously a plus.
It’s simple to use: create a poll, invite participants, and confirm the date and time that most, or everyone, are available for. People show their availability by checking the suggested days and times on a grid. While it seems self-serving for the Doodle company to do its own study, it actually works. I’ve seen meetings seamlessly and quickly organized, and there was no back-and-forth that you see with Outlook appointment confirmations or group emails.
Businesses need to use their time wisely and efficiently, and this is one tool that helps do that. If you’ve used it or know of another scheduling tool, let me know in the comments below.
