Your calendar is not connected
The receptionist takes an appointment request with the time the customer wants, and you confirm it yourself. The caller knows a confirmation is coming: nobody announces a time that could not be checked.
Calendar and appointments
Having your receptionist take real appointments, with no double booking and no promised time nobody can keep.
What you will have at the end
Appointments taken while you work, with the right duration, the right person and the right resource — and a reminder sent before the visit so the slot does not sit empty.
Above all, you will have avoided double booking. A proposed slot is held for the length of the confirmation: two simultaneous calls on the same slot cannot both leave with the same appointment.
Allow twenty minutes to declare your services, and five more if you connect an existing calendar.
Before you start
- The list of what you open to booking, and what goes through a callback instead
- The real duration of each service, preparation included
- What an appointment needs to be feasible: a person, a room, a piece of equipment, a vehicle
- The account of the calendar you want to connect, when you already use one
A service you do not want booked without you is declared as a request: the receptionist collects it, and you confirm.
The steps
- Step 1
Declare your services and their durations
Every service carries its real duration. A duration set too short produces days nobody can keep; that is the most common mistake at the start.
- Step 2
Say what each service needs
A particular person, a room, a piece of equipment, a hoist. Without that, the receptionist can offer a slot where the necessary resource is already taken.
- Step 3
Connect your calendar, or use ours
The connection states what it genuinely permits: reading availability, creating, modifying, cancelling. Where an action is not permitted, the receptionist collects a request instead of promising a confirmation.
- Step 4
Choose who confirms
Direct confirmation where availability is certain, or a request for you to confirm. The two mix: direct booking for routine maintenance, a request for major work.
- Step 5
Set the reminders before the visit
The reminder goes out ahead of the appointment and cancels itself if the booking moves or disappears. That is what prevents a reminder for an appointment already cancelled.
How a slot is held, then confirmed
When the receptionist offers a time, that time is held for the length of the conversation. If the caller hesitates, the hold stands; if they hang up without confirming, it is released and the slot becomes available again. That mechanism, and only that, is what stops two simultaneous calls from leaving with the same slot.
Confirmation is given on the phone only once writing into the calendar is possible and verified. While a calendar connection is not qualified to create an event, no firm time is promised: the receptionist takes an appointment request, and you confirm it from your workspace or your software.
Durations, resources and buffers
A service duration is how long the work really takes, not how long it ideally takes. Travel, preparation and tidying up belong inside it, or else they are declared as a buffer between two appointments. A duration set too short produces a day nobody can hold and delays that stack up.
A resource is whatever the service cannot happen without: one particular person, a room, a vehicle lift, a van. Declared, it rules out offering a time when it is already taken. Undeclared, it protects nothing — and it is the most common oversight at the start.
The edge cases
You block personal time somewhere else
Free slots are read from the connected calendar. If you note your commitments in another calendar, they stay invisible. Attach the calendar where you really block time, or move your unavailability into it.
Two customers ask for the same time
The first to confirm gets it. The second is offered the slots still open during the same conversation, without being given a time only to have it taken back.
An appointment is cancelled in your software
The cancellation comes back into the workspace when the connection reads changes, and the reminder attached to it is withdrawn. When the software does not permit reading, cancel from the workspace so the reminder follows.
Some services should not be bookable
Declare them as requests rather than direct bookings. A major inspection, an expert assessment or a complex first consultation are collected, then confirmed by you once you have read the file.
If something does not work
An appointment was booked when you were not free
Your connected calendar probably held an event with no declared availability. Check that the calendar being read is the one where you block personal time.
The receptionist offers slots too close together
The declared duration of the service does not include your travel or your preparation. Add them to the duration, or declare a gap between appointments.
She takes a request instead of confirming
Either the connection to your calendar does not permit creation, or availability could not be checked. The Connections screen says which of the two applies.
A reminder went out for a cancelled appointment
The cancellation happened directly in your external calendar without the connection reporting it. Cancel from the workspace, or check that the connection reads changes.
Frequently asked questions
What owners ask about appointments.
Do I need an external calendar?
No. You can use the calendar in your workspace, or connect the one your team already reads. The choice can change later, and your list of services follows it.
How is double booking avoided?
An offered slot is held for the conversation and offered to nobody else while the hold stands. It releases itself if the conversation ends without a confirmation.
Does a reminder go out before the visit?
Yes when you set one, and it cancels itself if the booking moves or disappears. That is what stops a message reminding someone of an appointment that is already off.
What happens if my software refuses creation?
The receptionist takes a request instead of promising a confirmation, and the connections screen names the action that is not permitted. Nothing is announced to the customer that the system cannot hold.
The four actions — read, create, change, cancel — are shown separately, including the ones that are refused.
Can I mix direct booking and requests?
Yes, service by service. A routine job books directly, a major intervention is collected as a request, on the same phone line and with the same instructions.
Who sees the appointments taken?
The people on your team whose role opens the calendar, and only for the site they are attached to. Every creation and every cancellation leaves a timestamped trace.
After this
What makes the calendar genuinely useful.