Openings is a major feature we announced last year was included with Fantastical Scheduling. Openings was designed to help out with your professional life when scheduling appointments with clients. However, we didn’t imagine you would find so many creative uses of this feature! You’ve let us know of many unique ways that you’re using Fantastical meeting links to generate business or help make your personal life easier than before, and you all seem to love it as much as we do. 😍

In this post, we’ll explore some of the most common use cases we’ve seen since releasing Openings, and maybe you can find some inspiration on how you’ll use it next.

Ever need a vacation from planning your vacation? 

Are you dreaming of your next vacation? Vacations are enjoyable once you’re there and can enjoy the hard work put into them, however planning and leading up to the vacation can get very stressful. 

For me, the family dog has to be in good hands while we are away, otherwise I can’t fully enjoy myself. The easiest way to manage this that I have found is to send out my Openings link to our family members who have offered to take shifts staying with our dog or watching him at their home. 

Rather than have my volunteers figure out the schedule on their own, I send out an email with all the details they need to know, including the Openings link that lets them “reserve” the time that they will be watching our dog. This also allows me to look at my calendar while I’m on vacation and see who currently has our beloved animal. 

Not only does this make me feel more comfortable knowing who is taking care of our fur baby, I can also help manage the schedule if changes are needed, or someone is not able to help at all, and make arrangements based on the existing schedule. 🐶

Help a friend in need with your Openings link

A friend from your local friend group broke his leg and is now in recovery mode, while still trying to take care of his family. You had a helpful idea of starting a meal train, to help with his recovery and take the pressure off of providing for the family, so that he can focus on getting better. 

Instead of starting an email or text thread, where everyone has to reply and then you have to coordinate each date that people sign up for, try sending out an Openings link with the info for people to book a time to deliver a meal to the family. You can fully customize your Openings link with a title and even a few pointers in the Description field so that people understand what will be requested of them when signing up, such as dietary restrictions or even where to leave the food on drop off. 

When the signup is complete and all of the entries are taken, you can then print off the schedule from a macOS device and give it to your friend so that they’re aware of when the meals will show up, and who each meal is coming from. 

Set your work day up for success

If you are in the photography business, you may be familiar with “mini shoots.” Mini shoots are a great way for customers to get a quick 15 or 30 minute photography session resulting in a handful of images. Photographers typically have a location set up with a backdrop and have multiple people sign up for sessions throughout an afternoon or a set period of a few hours. 

It’s not uncommon for people to book slots through a social media post, or even by leaving a comment in the comment section of a post. In some cases, the photographer can easily get overbooked based on demand or have to turn clients away if too many people are interested. Using an Openings link in the body of the announcement for the mini shoot will allow potential clients to see the available times, and the limited space, and book the appointment themselves. 📸

Also, make sure to use the Break time feature when creating your meeting template, as this will allow for a break before or after each meeting to account for the time it takes to switch between clients. 

Use Openings to add people to your team

Let’s stay in the business world for a bit, as one thing that will never change is the need for hiring new people as time goes on. Turnover in a company is inevitable and it can be complicated to bring on a new hire to your company. 

It can be difficult to find someone who takes the position seriously, and will give their all to a potential job offering. Sending candidates your Openings Scheduling link for them to book their interview time will force them to show initiative, rather than you having to offer a specific time that they may not reply to. This allows you to skip the questioning of who is committed to joining the company and gives the interviewees a chance to prove themselves prior to their first interview! 

When editing your meeting template, be sure to use our conference call integration, which will add your video conference to each meeting that is booked for you!

Learn more 

Since announcing Openings, we’ve loved hearing how all of you have integrated your Openings links into everyday scenarios, and we hope this post has inspired you with different ways to incorporate your links with this post. Reach out and let us know what you think if you try something new!

Check out our Support pages for more information on Openings, and as always, if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us on our website. 

We hope you have an awesome week ahead, and thanks for reading!