Using the Outlook Booking with Me Feature

MVP

 

Outlook’s new Booking with Me feature is rolling out worldwide. Any user with an Exchange Online license can create a personal bookings page to allow other internal and external people to book meetings with them. It’s a nice idea and a good example of how Microsoft can use its software toolkit to create new solutions.

 

https://office365itpros.com/2022/07/25/booking-with-me/

4 Replies

@Tony Redmond  I have just started using the bookwithme feature and in general I like what I see. However, a few observations by way of feedback.

 

1) A private link seems to be to only one type of meeting and does not also show public meetings.  I was expecting to see the ability to also display public meeting types via this link.  The scenario being I may want to offer the ability to a close associate or a VIP to book a longer meeting with me. However, I also want that VIP to be able to have the option of booking the sort of shorter meetings (with shorter lead times) that I might offer publicly in case they want to schedule a brief discussion with me.  Yes I could send them both public and private links but that is cumbersome.  I'd like to see the ability to build a menu of meeting types from a combined pool of public and private types and be able to generate a private link to that combined menu page.  At the very least I would like to see an option box to show public meetings from a private link. 

 

2) The meeting type descriptions have no scroll bars or other means of seeing a longer description until after the meeting is booked.  A longer description is very helpful because I might for e.g. offer a 20 meeting with no guarantee of video at a 2 hour  lead time (as I may not be in a position to be set up with video with only 2 hours notice) but I may want to offer a 20 minute meeting with guaranteed video but with a 12 hour lead time. Explaining the difference between these options takes more characters than that allowed at the meeting type selection point which is where it is most helpful.  The full text is shown on the manage meeting page but by then they may well have selected the wrong type of meeting. 

 

3) Some sort of editable text header to the page would be very useful.  This might say for example that meetings might be possible to arrange further into the future or for longer than than this page allows on a case by case basis - please email XYZ to arrange a bespoke appointment.

 

4) Vanity URL's.... or is it possible to put the page in an iframe.  The native URL is way too long to put on a business card or to read out on a voicemail message: either your own in the sense of Hi this is XYZ, I am sorry I can't take your call right now, please feel free to visit my bookings page at XYZ.com/MeetNicholas and select a time of your convenience  or to leave a message on someone's voicemail saying Hi I'd like to speak to you please visit my page at XYZ.com/MeetNicholas and pick a time of your convenience. 

 

 

As I don't work for Microsoft, I can't comment on how the Bookings with me feature might develop over time. You can have multiple private meeting types to accommodate the need to offer different types of meetings to VIP and others.
I'm testing Book with Me feature in our tenant. The email function doesn't work--error "Couldn't send email. Please try again later." The booking page uses our internal email address which is not out preferred email. Could that be related?
I don't know, but I would create a support request with Microsoft to make sure that your tenant is checked out and any issues are escalated to engineering if required.