If you’ve ever tried to wrangle a team calendar, you know it can get ugly—fast. Double bookings, missed calls, endless Slack messages about “Are you free at 3?” If you’re using Novocall for call scheduling, you already have some tools to make this easier. But the software won’t do the work for you. This guide is for anyone who wants to keep their team’s availability clean, accurate, and headache-free—without wasting hours micromanaging everyone’s calendars.
1. Get Your Foundations Right
Before you start fiddling with settings, make sure you’re not setting yourself up for chaos.
- Centralize your calendars: Every team member should connect their real, primary work calendar to Novocall—not a random side Google account they never check. If you let people use personal calendars, you’ll end up with gaps, overlaps, and missed calls.
- Decide who controls what: Is each rep in charge of their own availability, or will a manager handle it? There’s no right answer, but you need to pick one and stick with it. Random, unmanaged changes are a recipe for confusion.
- Pick a time zone standard: Novocall handles time zones, but only if you set them correctly from the start. Make sure every team member’s profile shows their real location—not just whatever popped up by default.
Pro tip: Block off a half hour to walk your team through these basics. It’ll save you hours of cleanup later.
2. Set Up Working Hours (and Stick to Them)
This is where most teams mess up. Everyone sets their “availability” like they’re robots who never eat lunch or take a day off. Don’t do that.
- Be realistic: Set working hours that reflect when people are actually at their desks and able to take calls. If someone’s always at lunch from 12–1, block it out. If Fridays are slow, cut availability short.
- Use recurring schedules: Novocall lets you set weekly patterns. Use them, but don’t get lazy—update for holidays and vacations.
- Avoid 24/7 traps: It’s tempting to make more hours available, but you’ll just burn out your team and end up with missed appointments.
What works: Having a shared policy, like “no calls after 5pm” or “30-minute buffer between calls,” and making sure everyone follows it.
What doesn’t: Setting every slot as available and hoping for the best. You’ll pay for it in no-shows and overworked team members.
3. Sync Calendars—And Check for Conflicts
Novocall can sync with Google and Outlook, but it’s only as good as the calendars you connect.
- Sync all relevant calendars: If someone uses multiple work calendars, sync them all. Otherwise, Novocall can’t see the full picture and will double-book.
- Look out for “private” events: If events are marked private or invisible, Novocall might ignore them—leading to accidental bookings. Encourage your team to mark real conflicts as “busy.”
- Refresh connections regularly: OAuth tokens expire. If someone’s calendar stops syncing, you’ll get ghost bookings. Ask your team to check their connections every couple of months.
Don’t bother: Trying to work around a team member who refuses to keep their calendar updated. It won’t end well—better to fix the habits or leave them out of the rotation.
4. Use Team Pools Wisely
One of Novocall’s selling points is team pools—where calls are routed to whoever’s available. Useful, but only if you set it up right.
- Decide on round-robin or priority: Round-robin shares calls evenly; priority sends more to certain people. Choose based on your goals. Want to train up a new rep? Lower their pool weight. Want to reward top performers? Set a higher priority.
- Keep pools current: If someone’s on leave or out sick, remove them from the pool. Novocall isn’t psychic.
- Review regularly: At least once a month, check if everyone in the pool is still active and available. People leave, roles change, stuff happens.
Pro tip: Don’t overload the pool. More isn’t always better—if half your pool is never available, you’ll get weird distribution and frustrated customers.
5. Handle Time Off and Exceptions
No one’s available 52 weeks a year.
- Use Novocall’s exception/override features: Block out vacations, holidays, or training days directly in Novocall. Don’t rely on “I put it in my Google Calendar”—double-check it’s blocking off time in Novocall too.
- Communicate changes: If someone’s going to be out, flag it early. A quick Slack message or email beats a week of missed calls.
- Batch updates: If your whole team has a holiday, update everyone’s schedule at once. You don’t want to be the person approving out-of-office requests one by one.
What works: Scheduling quarterly reviews of everyone’s planned time off and updating Novocall in bulk.
What to ignore: Hoping “the system will figure it out.” It won’t. If you don’t tell Novocall someone’s away, it’ll keep booking them.
6. Keep Your Booking Links Clean
Each team member (or group) gets a booking link. If you’re not careful, old or unused links float around forever.
- Audit links regularly: Remove outdated or unused booking pages. Otherwise, people will book with ex-employees or for roles that don’t exist anymore.
- Standardize naming: Use clear, simple names so people know which link to use—“sales-team-west” beats “johns-cool-link.”
- Centralize distribution: Don’t let every rep send out their own random link. Use a shared doc or dashboard so everyone’s using the right one.
Pro tip: Test your links every month. Book a call, cancel, reschedule. Make sure things work as expected.
7. Use Reporting—But Don’t Obsess
Novocall offers reporting on who’s getting booked, who’s missing calls, and more. Use it to spot issues, but don’t drown in the data.
- Look for bottlenecks: If one rep is overloaded while others are idle, adjust the pool or working hours.
- Watch for missed calls: If someone’s missing a lot of appointments, dig in—maybe their sync is broken, or they’ve set their hours wrong.
- Don’t micromanage: The goal is smoother scheduling, not turning into Big Brother. Use reports to fix real issues, not to nitpick.
8. The Human Element: Train and Remind
No software replaces good habits.
- Run onboarding sessions: Don’t just send a doc—walk new hires through your Novocall setup.
- Send reminders: A quick quarterly check-in (“Hey, update your hours!”) keeps things tidy.
- Be clear about expectations: If someone keeps ignoring updates, address it directly. Most people just forget—don’t assume malice.
What works: Making calendar hygiene part of the team’s routine, not an afterthought.
What doesn’t: Hoping one training session will last forever.
9. Watch Out for Pitfalls
Some things sound good but don’t work out in practice:
- Letting everyone set their own rules: Chaos. Pick a standard, document it, and stick to it.
- Ignoring edge cases: Someone’s always got different hours, a unique time zone, or a special exception. Don’t ignore them—handle it upfront.
- Assuming “set and forget”: People’s schedules change. If you never review availability, you’ll end up with mismatches.
Final Thoughts: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Managing team availability in Novocall isn’t rocket science, but it pays to keep things simple. Start with the basics, set clear policies, and check in on your setup every month or two. Don’t chase perfection—just aim for fewer headaches and smoother calls. If something’s not working, tweak it. Your team (and your sanity) will thank you.