Setting up appointment booking: calendars, slots and reminders
Define your services, durations and available slots under Appointments, add a booking step to a flow, and the agent offers open times, confirms a booking, and can sync it to Google Calendar and Sheets. It works the same on chat and voice, sends automatic reminders to cut no-shows, and needs the Business plan (₹7,999/month, excluding GST).
- Appointments is a Business-plan feature (₹7,999/month, excluding GST).
- The same booking step works identically on chat and voice conversations.
- Connect Google in one click for calendar events and a spreadsheet row per booking — no service-account JSON needed.
- Automatic reminders before the slot are what actually reduce no-shows, not the booking step alone.
- Every booking can create a CRM record automatically for follow-up.
Prerequisites
Appointments needs the Business plan (₹7,999/month, excluding 18% GST). Before building anything, define your services (what can be booked), their durations, and the time slots you're actually available. This data drives everything the bot offers, so get it right first rather than fixing it after customers start booking against wrong hours.
Also decide, before launch, what should happen at the edges: a service that needs a buffer between bookings for cleanup or travel time, or a slot that should not be offered less than a set number of hours before it starts. Both are configuration decisions made once under Appointments, not something you patch reactively after a customer books an appointment for ten minutes from now.
The exact click path
- Open Appointments and define your services, durations and available slots.
- Add a booking step to a flow: the agent will show open slots, the customer picks one, and it's confirmed and saved.
- On the Appointments page, click Connect with Google to link your account in one click, then pick a calendar (every booking becomes an event) and/or a spreadsheet and tab (every booking is appended as a row).
- Set up an automatic reminder before the slot.
Worked example: booking in chat and on a call
A clinic's WhatsApp bot handles 'I want to book an appointment' by showing the next three available slots with the doctor's name, the customer taps one, and it's confirmed with a WhatsApp reminder scheduled for the day before. The same booking step, wired into a voice agent, lets a phone caller book identically. The agent reads out the open slots and confirms verbally, with the same underlying appointment record and reminder.
Neither channel needed a separate booking system built for it, since the same slots, the same availability rules and the same reminder logic serve both. Build the logic once under Appointments and reuse it everywhere the booking step is dropped into a flow.
Reminders and rescheduling
Automatic reminders, typically a WhatsApp message sent before the slot, are the single biggest lever for reducing no-shows; the booking step alone doesn't do much without them. Give customers an easy reschedule path in the same reminder message (a 'Reschedule' button leading back into the booking step) so a genuine conflict becomes a moved slot instead of a no-show.
Track your no-show rate before and after turning reminders on for a service, it is the clearest evidence of whether the reminder cadence and wording are actually working, and gives you a concrete number to improve rather than a general sense that things feel better.
Pairing booking with a post-booking flow
A confirmed booking is a natural moment to do more than just say thank you. Chain a short flow after the booking step: directions or a map link for a physical visit, a prep checklist ('please bring your previous prescription'), or a payment link if a deposit is required to hold the slot. None of this needs a separate build — it is simply the next few steps after the booking step in the same flow, using the appointment details already captured as variables.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely fix |
|---|---|
| No slots showing to the customer | Availability wasn't set for that service, or all slots in range are already booked — check the Appointments page. |
| Double-booking concerns | Confirm the booking step checks live availability rather than a cached list — slots update as soon as one is taken. |
| Google Calendar not updating | The Google connection may have expired — reconnect under Appointments → Connect with Google. |
| Reminder never sent | The reminder template isn't Meta-approved, or the reminder timing wasn't actually configured for that service. |
| Voice booking doesn't confirm properly | Make a test call yourself and listen for where the agent hesitates — usually a sign the slot list was read too fast or unclear. |
What to test before going live, and cost
- Book a real test appointment yourself through chat, and again through a test call if you use voice.
- Confirm it appears correctly in Google Calendar and the linked spreadsheet, if connected.
- Wait for the reminder to arrive (or adjust timing temporarily to test it faster) and check it renders correctly.
- Test the reschedule path end to end, not just the initial booking.
Appointments requires the Business plan (₹7,999/month, or about ₹86,389/year with the yearly discount, excluding GST). There's no extra per-booking charge; WhatsApp reminder templates use Meta's own per-message fees with no Convo360 markup.
Factor in the Google Calendar and Sheets connection as a one-time setup cost in time, not money, since the one-click sign-in replaces what would otherwise be a service-account configuration step.
Most businesses complete it in a couple of minutes on their first visit to the Appointments page.
After that, syncing new bookings needs no further attention from anyone.
Treat it as a one-time task worth doing properly the first time.
Double-check the right calendar and spreadsheet tab were chosen before relying on it for real bookings.
A quick test booking confirms it end to end.
Step by step
- Define services, durations and slotsSet up what can be booked and your actual availability under Appointments.
- Add a booking step to your flowWire it into a chat flow, a voice flow, or both.
- Connect GoogleLink a calendar and/or spreadsheet in one click to log every booking automatically.
- Set up a reminderConfigure an automatic message before the slot to reduce no-shows.
- Add a reschedule pathGive customers an easy way to move a booking instead of missing it.
Example conversation
Set up appointment booking
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Frequently asked questions
Which plan includes Appointments?
The Business plan, ₹7,999/month excluding GST, or about ₹86,389/year with the yearly discount. Starter (₹999/month) and Pro (₹2,999/month) don't include the Appointments module, so you'll need to upgrade to book slots through chat or voice.
Can customers book on a phone call, not just chat?
Yes. The same booking step works identically on a voice agent connected to Exotel, Plivo, Twilio or SIP: it reads out the open slots, confirms the customer's choice verbally, and saves the same appointment record chat bookings use.
Do I need a Google Sheets service-account key to sync bookings?
No, click Connect with Google under Appointments to sign in once — a service-account key is still available as an advanced option if you prefer it.
How much do reminders actually help with no-shows?
They're the main lever — a booking without a reminder relies on the customer remembering unprompted, while an automatic reminder before the slot nudges them to show up or reschedule.
Can a booking create a CRM record automatically?
Yes. Every booking appears in your appointments list and can also create a CRM lead in the same step, so your team has a record to follow up on without re-entering the customer's details anywhere else.
Related reading
Available across India — see WhatsApp & AI calling automation by state and city.