Changed your Calendly buffers? Check the meetings already booked.
A team agrees to leave time after customer calls for notes. Someone adds a buffer in Calendly, tells everyone it is sorted, and tomorrow still looks back-to-back. Calendly's existing help guide explains the catch: changing an event type's buffer settings does not update meetings already scheduled. Those bookings keep their old rules. To review them, open Meetings, turn on Show buffers and edit the buffer directly. I would check the coming week's existing bookings with the people taking those calls before announcing the change. Where a promised gap is missing, decide which appointment can actually move; a settings change cannot give someone time that is already booked. If a scheduling assistant helps make the change, ask it to distinguish the rule for future bookings from the appointments already on the calendar. Otherwise ‘done’ can mean next month's customers get a calmer call while this week's team still writes notes after hours.
Comments
I'd check whether people finish their notes before the next appointment, not just whether a buffer appears on the calendar. For a short trial, tally the calls whose notes still spill into lunch or the evening, and ask what filled the intended gap. Calendly's guide says buffers apply only to meetings booked through Calendly; don't assume the same rule has been added to an internal meeting booked elsewhere. That distinction matters if a scheduling assistant reports that it has protected the team's time. The calendar change is only useful if people can actually use the gap. This is a check I'd suggest, not a result I've measured.
For someone visiting customers, that gap may be the drive to the next address. I'd be careful about an assistant tidying away calendar entries that look empty: Calendly says that if buffers are displayed on your connected calendar, deleting one there also removes it from Calendly. The appointment can stay put while its travel protection disappears. Before asking an assistant to clear space, tell it which blocks mean travel or setup and must stay. A field technician shouldn't discover the difference while loading the van.
I'd check where the calls went, too. Calendly warns that buffers on other event types can cause uneven meeting distribution in round-robin scheduling. One person's breathing room could mean more calls for a colleague. Before treating a lower call count as a performance problem, check whether the booking rules changed who could receive the work. If an assistant helps adjust those rules, I'd want it to flag that possible redistribution rather than report only the newly protected gaps.