Book appointments by phone
With a calendar connected, your assistant gives out appointments itself, within your business hours and by the rules you set on the assistant's Appointments tab.
With a calendar connected, your assistant agrees appointments during the call and enters them in your calendar. This page shows how a booking works on the phone, which rules you set on the assistant's Appointments tab, and where to find booked appointments.
How a booking works
- A caller wants an appointment and names a preferred day.
- Your assistant checks your calendar for free times on that day and offers them.
- The caller picks a time. Right before entering it, your assistant checks once more that the time is free. If it has been taken in the meantime, by another caller or by an entry of your own, it says so and offers another free time. Otherwise it enters the appointment in your calendar with their name and reason, and confirms it.
- If confirmations are on, it then asks once whether the caller would like one in writing.
Without a connected calendar, with booking switched off, or when the calendar does not respond, your assistant agrees no appointment. It takes the appointment request down as a message instead.
The booking rules
Open Assistants
| Setting | Choice |
|---|---|
| Appointment length | 30, 45 or 60 minutes. Default is 30 minutes. |
| Buffer between appointments | No buffer up to 30 minutes' gap to every busy entry, before and after |
| Earliest appointment from now | No lead time up to 2 days |
| Public holidays in | Your German state, or federal holidays only. Your assistant then gives out no appointments on those days. By default no holidays are observed. |
Switches and dropdowns save immediately. Your assistant only gives out appointments within the Bookable times card. These are the same Business hours as on the Behaviour tab: a change in one place applies in both. Save changes to the times with Save. With no hours stored, the calendar alone decides.
Confirmation and reminder
In the Confirmation and reminder card you decide what the caller receives in writing after the call. Both are off by default.
- Send a confirmation to the caller: goes out immediately, with the date and the time, and by e-mail also a calendar file to keep.
- Send a reminder before the appointment: under Send the reminder, choose from 1 hour to 7 days before. The default is 24 hours.
- Channel: By e-mail, By SMS or Both. With Both, the caller chooses.
Your assistant asks the caller once, after the appointment is set. If they decline, nothing is sent.
Cancelling and moving by phone
In the Changing appointments by phone card you let callers change their appointment themselves: Allow cancelling by phone and Allow moving by phone. Both are off by default.
The caller states the date, the time and the name the appointment is booked under. Your assistant never names an appointment first. It only changes appointments it booked itself, and never a recurring series in your calendar. It checks a new time as it does for a booking: if the time is taken, the old appointment stays.
On a test call
On a test call your assistant reads free times from your calendar as usual, but enters nothing. It is told that the appointment would only have been entered in a real call, and is instructed to tell the caller so. Nothing appears under Appointments, nobody receives a confirmation or reminder, and webhooks receive no event. A test call does not carry out a cancellation or a move by phone either. Which appointment it would have booked is shown on the call in the Inbox, on the Test call: not carried out card.
See booked appointments
Everything your assistant booked is listed under Appointments, split into Upcoming and Past. Each appointment is confirmed, took place or cancelled. Cancelled appointments show who cancelled, for example cancelled by the caller by phone.
Every role sees this page. Everyone except Viewer can Move or Cancel an upcoming appointment from the row's menu. Both also change the entry in your calendar. When you cancel in the dashboard, the caller is not notified automatically.
Common problems
Your assistant only takes messages. On the Appointments tab, check that it says Calendar connected and that Allow booking appointments is on.
No times are offered on a day. The day is outside your Business hours, is a public holiday, falls before the earliest appointment, or your calendar is full.
You moved an appointment directly in your calendar. The Appointments page shows what your assistant booked and does not pick up changes from Google or Outlook.
A caller cannot cancel their appointment. Cancelling by phone is off, the appointment was not booked by your assistant, or the date, time and name do not match. Your assistant then takes a message.