Meeting Polls Made Easy: How to Schedule With a Group

Trying to find a time to meet that works for a group can take forever. If you're part of a remote team or work across departments in a large company, you’ve probably spent hours juggling calendars, time zones, and delayed replies.

When it takes so, so long to schedule even a quick meeting, I’m sure you’ve thought: there has to be a better way. And there is—it’s called meeting polls.

Meeting Polls from YouCanBookMe (YCBM) make it easy to find a time that works for everyone. Instead of guessing people’s availability or chasing replies, you send a simple poll and let the group vote on the best time.

👉 Try out Meeting Polls

In this article, you’ll learn:

• When to use meeting time polls for different group meeting types
• How to set up a poll with YCBM
• How to get more people to respond to your meeting polls

Meeting polls can be useful in all kinds of situations, but they are especially helpful when scheduling with multiple people who have different priorities, locations, or levels of availability. Here are three of the most common ways teams use them:

Say you're trying to plan a meeting with teammates in New York, London, and Sydney. Instead of doing mental math to figure out which hours overlap, you can send a poll with several time options and let each person pick what works best in their local time.

For example, YouCanBookMe offers automatic time zone conversion, meaning each person sees the poll in their own time zone, eliminating confusion, misalignment, and scheduling conflicts. Even when you’re traveling, you can temporarily update your time zone for a specific period, keeping your availability accurate while you’re away.

Another common scenario when meeting polls are super useful is when you’re trying to book time with a team of busy people. Let’s say you need to schedule a quarterly planning session with your leadership team. Everyone’s calendar looks packed, and it’s hard to tell which meetings are flexible and which ones are set in stone.

Instead of emailing everyone individually or trying to compare calendar views, you can send out a poll with a few good time options. Each person can quickly vote on what works for them, and you can see which slot has the most support. Participants can also add comments to let you know which days are off-limits and which are flexible.

This makes it easier to find a time that works for the group. It also gives your team the chance to shift things around if needed, without putting the pressure on you to figure it all out.

Meeting polls are especially powerful when you're coordinating with people outside your organization. Clients and partners often have conflicting schedules, limited context about your availability, and no shared calendar to reference. Without the right tool, even a simple meeting can take days to confirm.

When you're organizing something like a product demo or a customer roundtable, speed and clarity are crucial. Sending a poll gives your invitees clear choices and makes it easy for you to lock in a time that works for the group. On top of that, they reduce friction in the scheduling process, so your clients and partners don’t have to shoulder the coordination effort.

Creating a meeting poll in YouCanBookMe is a straightforward process. You only need to have a YouCanBookMe account (note: meeting polls are included in all of YCBM’s plans, even the free one!). Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Log in to your YouCanBookMe account (or create one if you’re new).

Step 2: Select “Polls” from the top navigation menu.

Step 3: Click “Create new poll.”

Step 4: Give your poll a name, set the meeting length, and choose a location (such as a video link or physical room).

Step 5: Use the calendar to select the dates and times you want to offer as options.

Step 6: Publish your poll.

Step 7: Share your poll link with invitees so they can vote on the time that works best for them, or enter participants’ emails to send the poll invite automatically.

Voilà—you’ve created your first meeting poll! Once everyone has responded and you’ve confirmed the final time, YouCanBookMe will automatically send a meeting invitation to you and all respondents, with everyone added as guests. Simple as that!

Ready to try polling?

YouCanBookMe makes it easy to schedule group meetings without the mess of long email threads or calendar clashes. Set up your first meeting poll in just a few clicks.

Sending a meeting poll is easy (it’s certainly super easy with YouCanBookMe 😉). Getting people to actually respond? Well, you might need to give them a nudge!

Here are six proven ways to increase responses and lock in a time faster:

• Keep it short and focused: Only include the time slots you're truly able to offer. Too many options can overwhelm people or make it feel like their response won’t matter. Stick to the most realistic windows and make the poll quick to complete.
• Send the poll right after the conversation: If you’ve just wrapped up a discussion where a meeting was mentioned, send the poll immediately. When the topic is still top of mind, people are more likely to act before getting pulled into something else.
• Use the right communication channel: Email works for some teams, but others might respond faster in Slack, Teams, or even SMS. Choose the channel your group checks most often to avoid your poll being buried or ignored.
• Tell people why it matters: A quick sentence explaining what the meeting is for and how their input will be used goes a long way. It helps participants understand their role and why choosing a time contributes to the group’s success. Luckily, that’s easy to do with YouCanBookMe—you can add a meeting name and include extra context in the description field.
• Include a clear deadline: Let people know exactly when you need their response. A short timeframe encourages action and keeps the scheduling process from dragging on. YouCanBookMe also lets you set a response deadline directly in the poll settings.
• Send one or two reminders if needed: If people haven’t responded after a day or two, follow up with a short, friendly reminder. Change your subject line or message slightly so it doesn’t feel like a repeat or a nag.

Create your next meeting poll with YCBM

Coordinating group meetings will always be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be a blocker. Meeting polls offer a simple, reliable way to gather input and find the best time, so scheduling becomes a fast, low-stress step instead of a week-long headache.

YouCanBookMe is a scheduling tool built to help teams run smoother meetings. Along with meeting polls, it automatically sends meeting confirmations, reminders, and follow-ups, so you reduce no-shows and save time at every step.

👉 Get started with YCBM today!

FAQs

What are popular meeting poll tools?

There are a handful of popular tools people use to send meeting polls and group availability surveys:

• YouCanBookMe – Clean, ad-free polls with automatic time zone conversion and integrated scheduling features.
• Doodle – Simple and well-known, but the free version includes ads and clutter that can feel unprofessional.
• SurveyMonkey – Often used for general surveys, but not built specifically for scheduling.
• Calendly – Offers basic meeting polls, mostly for one-time meetings, with limited customization.
• When2meet – Free and fast for informal groups, but lacks calendar integration or time zone support.

What is a meeting poll used for?

A meeting poll is used to quickly gather availability from a group of people and find the best time to meet. Instead of guessing or going back and forth by email, the poll allows participants to vote on time slots that work for them. Meeting polls are especially helpful when scheduling with large teams, external clients, or people in different time zones.

What features should a good meeting poll have?

The best availability polls are simple for participants to use and flexible for organizers to manage. Look for features like:

• Automatic time zone detection
• Custom meeting lengths and location settings
• The ability to add a deadline for responses
• Calendar integration for faster booking
• No ads or distractions on the poll page

YouCanBookMe includes all of the above, so you can schedule group meetings without delays or confusion.