Let Visitors Book Meetings via Chatbot

Book appointments

With Book appointments a visitor books a meeting with you without leaving the chat. Someone writes "Can I book a call next week?", the chatbot shows free times, the visitor taps one, adds their details and books.

You find the settings under Dashboard → your assistant → Functions → Book appointments. As long as the card's switch is off, the chatbot offers no appointments.

Where do appointments go?

The built-in calendar is the default.

Connect Google Calendar

1. Choose Google Calendar.
2. Click Connect Google Calendar and allow access in your Google account.
3. If you have several calendars, pick one under Select calendar. The chatbot looks for free times and creates appointments in this calendar.

Disconnect removes the connection again.

The built-in calendar prevents double bookings too: if two visitors pick the same time at once, only one gets it. The other is told right away and picks another time.

Appointment types

Create up to five appointment types. Each has a Name, a Duration from 15 min to 4 h and an optional Short description, for example "Free consultation", 30 min, "We check whether our offer fits you." The description appears in the booking card below the name.

With several types the chatbot asks which one is meant. Part of the name is enough: if the visitor writes "consultation", the chatbot picks "Free consultation". Add appointment type adds another one.

What does the chatbot ask before booking?

For Name, Email address and Phone number you choose one of three levels each:

By default Name and Email address are Required and the Phone number is set to Don't ask.

The chatbot always asks for at least one of these three: if two of them are set to Don't ask, the third cannot be switched off. On phone calls it always asks for the name.

Ask what it is about adds a free field "What is it about?", for example "New website for my shop". It is on by default.

Under More details you add up to five extra questions, for example company or number of people. The field type is Text, Email, Phone, Number, Dropdown list or Yes/no tick box. For each question you set the label and whether it is a Required field. For a dropdown list you enter one choice per line.

Example: you only advise business customers and call them beforehand. Set Phone number to Required and add a text field "Company" as a required field under More details.

When can people book?

Earliest booking is the minimum time between booking and appointment. With 24 h, a visitor who books at 3 pm gets times from 3 pm the next day at the earliest.

Break after each appointment stays free, for example for notes. With 15 min, after an appointment that ends at 10:30 the next one starts at 10:45 at the earliest.

Under Working hours you tick the weekdays and set a start and end time for each. Outside these times the chatbot offers no appointments. By default Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:00 are ticked.

Phone calls

Also use on phone calls is off by default. When it is on, the phone assistant can book appointments during calls.

Notification

With Email me about new bookings you get an email for every booking, in the language of your account. It lists the appointment type, time, name, email, phone, note, the answers to your extra details and which confirmation the visitor got. Without your own recipients it goes to your account email address. The switch is on by default.

Pass on automatically

New appointments can also go to other systems automatically:

• HubSpot: the booking appears as a meeting on the contact.
• Webhook: sends every booking to an address of your choice, for example Zapier, Make, n8n or your own CRM.

You find the settings in the separate entry Pass on automatically in the list of functions. Tick New appointments there. Both are available from the Standard plan, see the pricing page.

The booking card in the chat

When a visitor wants an appointment, the chatbot shows a booking card below its answer, in the floating widget and in the inline widget:

1. At the top: the appointment type with duration and time zone, for example "30 min" and "Berlin".
2. Below: up to five days side by side, each with weekday and date, for example "Tue 27". The visitor taps a day and sees up to eight free times of that day below it, for example "10:00 AM".
3. When the visitor taps a time, a form opens with the details you set under What does the chatbot ask before booking?. If the visitor already wrote their name, email address or phone number in the chat, those fields are filled in already.
4. After Book appointment a green box shows the date and time, for example "Tuesday, October 27 at 02:00 PM", and "Calendar invitation sent".

If a time was taken a moment ago, the card says so and removes that time. After a page reload the card still shows the booking.

Visitors can still book by typing, too. The chatbot then asks for missing required details. WhatsApp and other messenger channels, email, phone calls and the team wiki show no card: there the chatbot answers with text as before.

You can restyle the card with custom CSS via .wca-appointment, .wca-appointment-slot and .wca-appointment-confirmed.

Confirmation for the visitor

With Google Calendar, Google sends the calendar invitation.

With the built-in calendar, the visitor gets a confirmation email:

• in the visitor's language, if known
• with the name of your chatbot as sender
• with appointment type, date and time, duration and a calendar file (.ics) to add the appointment to their calendar
• replies go to your account email address

The email contains nothing the visitor typed in. White-label accounts without their own SMTP server send no confirmation. The card then only says "Appointment booked".

Managing bookings

All bookings are in the Bookings Dashboard, including phone number, note and extra details. View bookings in the card takes you there. With Google Calendar, bookings also appear in your Google Calendar.

Best practices

• Use clear names for appointment types: visitors see them in the card and in the confirmation.
• Keep the email address on Required if every visitor should get a confirmation.
• Plan a break if you need time for notes between appointments.
• Keep working hours up to date when your schedule changes.
• Connect Google Calendar if you already use it: the chatbot then never offers times that are busy there.