Calendar booking

What this does

With Google Calendar or an Outlook calendar connected to Small Business Chatbot and booking turned on, the AI chatbot checks your free times during a chat, offers slots, and books, reschedules or cancels appointments in that calendar. With booking turned on for the voice agent, the AI receptionist does the same on phone calls. The settings on this panel apply to both and to your public booking page.

Connecting the calendar, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams links, the public booking page and disconnecting are in Google Calendar and Outlook.

Turn on booking in chat

1. Open the panel

   In the app's sidebar, open Calendar Booking, below Voice Agent. Until a calendar is connected, the panel shows Connect Your Calendar.

2. Connect your calendar

   Under Connect Your Calendar, click Connect Calendar and sign in with your Google or Microsoft account. Google Calendar and Outlook covers the sign-in. When you finish, the panel shows your booking settings.

3. Turn on booking in chat

   Under the booking page card, tick the box beside Turn on calendar booking for the chat agent. The label next to it changes to Active. This switch saves on its own. Booking in chat starts when this box is ticked.

   

4. Turn on booking on phone calls

   In the same card, tick the box beside Turn on calendar booking for the voice agent. It works on its own, with or without booking in chat. The box is greyed out until a voice agent is set up under Voice Agent › Settings. The next call uses it.

5. Save your settings

   In the panel's sections, change the settings you need. At the bottom of the panel, click Save Changes. The panel shows Settings saved.

Settings

Meeting Messaging

With Google Calendar connected, the panel also shows Add Google Meet location, which adds a new Google Meet link to each meeting. With an Outlook calendar, the button is Add Microsoft Teams location. Add Google Meet or Microsoft Teams links has the steps.

Availability Defaults

The chatbot offers only times inside these hours that are free in your calendar.

Booking Requirements

Booking Window

Booking Page Appearance

Button color and Outline and link color set the booking page's buttons and outlines. Reset colours returns both to #006BFF.

Workflow Integrations

Four buttons create email workflows as drafts: Create Booking confirmation, Create 24-hour reminder (24 hours before, 1 hour before and 1 day after), Create Internal notification and Create Cancellation follow-up. Nothing sends until you publish the draft in Workflows.

Booking Availability

Invitee rescheduling and cancellation turns on or off the secure links that let people who booked reschedule or cancel. It is on by default.

Disconnect calendar

The last card resets the connection. Disconnect or switch accounts covers what it removes and what it keeps.

Booking on phone calls

With Turn on calendar booking for the voice agent. ticked, the AI receptionist books, reschedules and cancels during the call:

• It checks your calendar for the day or time the caller asks about and offers only free times inside your Availability Defaults.
• It reads the day and time back and books once the caller says yes. The appointment carries the caller's name and the number they called from.
• Callers can cancel or reschedule appointments booked with the number they are calling from. The AI receptionist finds them by that number, reads the appointment back and changes it once the caller says yes. It only changes appointments booked with the calling number.
• With Require email? on, it offers to text the caller your booking link to finish the booking. If the caller would rather give an email, it takes it on the call and spells it back.
• With Require location? on, it asks for the address before it books.
• Phone changes follow the same rules as the reschedule and cancel links: they need Invitee rescheduling and cancellation on, and close 24 hours before the appointment, except for an appointment booked earlier in the same call. When a change isn't allowed, it tells the caller it will let your team know.
• When it can't finish, for example the time was just taken or the calendar doesn't answer, it offers to text your booking link and sends it with the caller's OK.

After the call, the summary email and the transcript end with a line for each change, such as "*Appointment booked: Tuesday, November 3 at 2 PM". Phone bookings start your appointment workflows like any other booking, with Voice agent as their booking source.

Without phone booking, the AI receptionist can still text callers your booking link, as Greeting and call rules explains.

If something goes wrong