TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Google Calendar

Score9.3 out of 10

334 Reviews and Ratings

What is Google Calendar?

Google Calendar is a time-management and scheduling calendar service, from Google, available as part of its productivity tool suite.

Categories & Use Cases

Google Calendar for the win

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are a non-profit organization, and we are also a child care center. While we are one business, it sometimes feels like two businesses due to the nature of our industries. Google Calendar helps me keep track of everything. I use it for meetings with donors, parents, community partners, and even my own staff. I set reminders, and it helps me not be late for everything!

Pros

  • Multiple Calendars
  • Virtual Meeting Tools
  • Subscription to outside calendars
  • Consistency

Cons

  • .ics integration
  • More intuitive with adding guests
  • Mobile app can be touchy, adds extra events

Return on Investment

  • Helps us gain Enrollment/Tuition by planning tours with prospective parents
  • Helps us get grants by deadlines
  • Helps plan board governance events

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)

Google Calendar is a must have.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Google Calendar is a great (and essential) tool for businesses. It allows users to control their calendars and also "booking links" for different types of events/appointments. If you want to talk to your customers, you can create 20-minute events or links, and let them book the time that works best for them. If you need to talk to a different set of users about a different topic, you can create another event, for example, lasting 40 min. Google Calendar will automatically update and adjust availability. It's a great tool, and a must-have.

Pros

  • Booking Links.
  • Share Calendars (Assistants, Colleagues, Personal).
  • Add Zoom room links or Google links.

Cons

  • OOO Feature shared in coworkers calendars.

Return on Investment

  • Timely Comms.
  • User Friendly.
  • Part of GSuite for business.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal) and Zoho Calendar

Other Software Used

Braze, Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub

Google Calendar - Solid product

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We utilize Google Calendar to collaborate with team members across the org. We are a fully remote company so having a central location to view co-workers schedule is a must. We also utilize it to schedule meetings with vendors and some in our org use it to schedule meetings with clients.

Pros

  • Easily see other team members availability
  • Easily block out time in my own calendar
  • Can view multiple team members schedule

Cons

  • Outsiders have added random meetings to my calendar
  • A feature to easily switch to "focus mode" to not get random invites to meetings

Return on Investment

  • Since it comes included with Google workspace, the ROI is pretty immediate
  • It improves collaboration/ saves employee time setting up meetings

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Google Workspace, Google Drive and Google Security Operations

Seamless integration and ease of use

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it to schedule meetings, whether those are ad hoc or recurring. People also use it to let people know when they'll be out of the office, or what their standard working hours are. Overall it makes it much easier to manage a fully remote team because we know when everyone is available.

Pros

  • set recurring meetings
  • integrate with tasks that are assigned to people with due dates
  • see the availability of coworkers to find an appropriate meeting time

Cons

  • The booking page is really helpful for external people who want to chat with me, but so few people use it, that it makes it more frustrating. The solution exists but nobody is using it. It needs to be highlighted more
  • You have to switch between email accounts or set up additional calendars to schedule work events vs personal events
  • integrations with other calendars don't update quickly, so sometimes a coworkers vacation doesn't show up in the calendar until much later

Return on Investment

  • Faster booking of larger meetings without having to ask everyone when they're available
  • Seamless booking with external people across video conferencing platforms
  • Easier to organize meetings around deep work time

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Apple iCloud Calendar (iCal)

Other Software Used

Chorus by ZoomInfo, Dovetail, BambooHR®, Guru, Atlassian Jira, Atlassian Confluence, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Gemini, ChatGPT, n8n, Anthropic Claude, Google Chrome

User Friendly and Increases Productivity

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use it to stay on top of my tasks, schedule meetings with teammates, and see when my team is in meetings so I can know when to send messages vs when not to. I also like the easy integration with Google Meet and Slack to stay on top of all communications in one tool suite.

Pros

  • Integration with Google meet for easy meetings.
  • Integration with slack to let my teammates know when I’m on a meeting when they message me.
  • Having visibility into all teammates calendars even outside of my direct team.

Cons

  • Make it easier to subscribe to other calendars on mobile
  • Recaps of my week and what kind of meetings I need to prepare for
  • Automatically record my meetings

Return on Investment

  • more efficient meetings with the notes feature
  • more productive with blocked focus time
  • healthy communication by sending messages outside of teammate's meeting times

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft 365

Other Software Used

Slack, Adobe Marketo Engage, Atlassian Jira