Appointments, Google and Outlook Calendar

How booking works

• It offers only open times inside your opening hours, skipping times that are already booked and days you're closed.
• It gets the customer's name and phone number and reads them back before booking.
• It saves phone numbers with the country code, worked out from where the customer is calling or chatting from, and asks which country the number is from when it can't tell.
• If the customer corrects their email or phone number right after booking ("No, it's m-a-r-s..."), your AI saves the correction on that booking, and the confirmation and reminders go to the corrected details. It never books them a second time to do it.
• Outside your hours, it still answers questions, takes messages and books the next open time.
• Every booking appears on the Appointments page, and the customer's lead moves to Booked on the Leads page.

Set up booking

1. 1Go to Settings > Hours, set your opening hours and click Save hours.
2. 2Go to Settings > Services and click Add service. Add the name, how long it takes and the price.
3. 3Open AI receptionist, click the Booking tab and check that it shows at least one appointment type, and that Book appointments is on in the What it can do tab.

Booking something yourself, like a phone booking? Add it on the Appointments page with New appointment (or to your connected Google or Outlook calendar), so your AI knows that time is taken.

Connect Google Calendar (optional)

Frontivo.io has its own built-in calendar, so booking works without Google. Connecting Google Calendar keeps it in step with Frontivo.io: new bookings, new times and cancellations update your Google Calendar automatically, and times you're busy in Google aren't offered to customers.

You can connect one calendar at a time: Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar. To switch, disconnect the one you have first.

1. 1Click Integrations in the menu, then click the Google Calendar tile (under Calendar).
2. 2On its card, click Connect Google Calendar.
3. 3Sign in with Google and click Allow.

The Google Calendar card then shows Connected. Click Test connection on the card: it should say it can see your availability.

Only your main Google calendar is used. Events you made yourself are only read to know when you're busy; Frontivo.io never changes or deletes them.

Connect Outlook Calendar (optional)

Use Outlook instead? Outlook Calendar works the same way, with a Microsoft 365 work or school account or a personal Outlook.com, Hotmail or Live account. New bookings, new times and cancellations update your Outlook calendar automatically, and times you're busy in Outlook aren't offered to customers. Takes about 2 minutes.

1. 1Click Integrations in the menu.
2. 2If Google Calendar is connected, click its tile and click Disconnect on its card first (only one calendar can be connected at a time).
3. 3Click the Outlook Calendar tile (under Calendar), then Connect Outlook Calendar on its card.
4. 4Sign in with your Microsoft account and choose the account whose calendar you use for work.
5. 5Click Accept. Frontivo.io asks only to read and edit your calendar events and to see your account's email and name - never your mail, contacts or files.
6. 6Back on Integrations, the Outlook Calendar card shows Connected with your account email. Click Test connection: it should say it can see your availability.

Only the main calendar of that account is used. Events you made yourself are only read to know when you're busy; Frontivo.io never changes or deletes them.

Some work accounts need an IT admin to approve new apps. If Microsoft says so, ask your admin to allow Frontivo.io, then connect again.

To disconnect, click Disconnect on the card. Frontivo.io deletes the saved sign-in; appointments already in Outlook stay there.

Customers can move or cancel their own booking

Customers can ask your AI to check, move or cancel an appointment they booked. Your AI only ever talks about that customer's own bookings.

On calls, texts, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, the customer is recognized by the number or account they're using. On your website, they must give the phone number or email they booked with and the name on the booking, and both must match. Their first name is enough, and a full name matches a booking saved under just the first name.

On your website, after a few wrong tries your AI stops looking and offers to pass the request to your team, so nobody can guess other people's bookings. Checking or changing a booking with the right details doesn't count toward that limit.

1. 1The customer asks to move or cancel, for example "Can I move my appointment to Friday?" They don't need to say "move": "Can we do 2 PM instead? Please book it." from someone who already has a booking also moves it.
2. 2Your AI finds their booking and reads it back (service, day and time).
3. 3To move it, your AI offers real open times and moves the booking as soon as the customer says yes. The old time is freed up; no second booking is made.
4. 4To cancel, your AI offers to move it instead, and cancels only after the customer clearly says yes.

Once a website customer is recognized, the chat shows under their name in the Inbox, with their bookings and lead next to it.

The change shows on the Appointments page and in your connected calendar (Google or Outlook), reminders move to the new time, and you get a notification. The customer gets the new time (or the cancellation) in writing - see [Messages your customers get](#customer-messages).

Messages your customers get

Frontivo.io tells customers about their bookings by itself, in the language they write to you in (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian or Tagalog; otherwise your AI receptionist's language), with dates written the usual way for that language, in your business's time zone.

• Booking confirmation: right after a booking made on a call, on your website or from the Appointments page. Bookings made in a text, WhatsApp or email conversation are confirmed in that conversation.
• Moved or canceled: when you or your AI moves or cancels a booking, the customer gets the new time or the cancellation. To change the wording, add Appointment moved or Appointment canceled in Automations. To stop these messages, add it there and switch it off.
• Reminders: new accounts get a reminder 24 hours before each appointment, switched on. A booking made inside that time gets one reminder straight away (unless its confirmation just went out the same way). Customers can reply C to confirm (it shows as Confirmed) or R to change the time with your AI.
• How it's sent: WhatsApp customers get WhatsApp (within 24 hours of their last message, or with an approved template), others a text from your Frontivo.io number. Email confirmations and reminders are coming soon. If nothing can reach them, you get a notification saying why. A customer who replied STOP gets none of these messages, on any channel.
• Messages ask customers to reply to the message itself, which reaches your AI and your Inbox. They never ask customers to text your public number, which may be a landline.
• Follow-ups you didn't need to send right away - review requests, new-lead and quote follow-ups and no-show messages - wait until 8:00 to 21:00 in your time zone, and end with "Reply STOP to opt out."
• Follow-ups when someone goes quiet: when a customer asks about booking, prices or an urgent problem, your AI answers, and they stop replying without booking, Frontivo.io follows up on the same channel they used. New accounts get these switched on, timed for your industry (for example 1 hour, the next day and 3 days later; 15 minutes and the next day for urgent trades). They stop as soon as the customer replies or books, never go to a conversation your team took over, and Instagram and Messenger only get them within 24 hours of the customer's last message. Change or switch them off in Automations; if you don't have them, click Set up follow-ups on the Follow-up (no reply) card.
• If the customer has a conversation with you from the last 24 hours on the same channel, the message also shows there, marked as automated, so your AI and your team know what they're replying to.

Message everyone booked on a day

1. 1Open Appointments and click Message everyone booked.
2. 2Pick the Day. You see how many customers are booked that day, with their names and times.
3. 3Type your message, for example "Hi, this is Bright Smile Dental. We're closed today because of the storm - we'll call you to find a new time."
4. 4Click Send to ... customers, then Yes, send it to ... now. It goes out within a minute.

Each customer gets it on the channel that reaches them: WhatsApp, a text from your business number, or email. Texts count as automated texts on your plan, and customers who replied STOP aren't messaged.

When it's done you see who got it, and anyone it couldn't reach, with the reason, so you can call them. Each message is also added to that customer's conversation in the Inbox.

It doesn't change any appointment. To cancel or move one, do it on the calendar - the customer is told by itself. You can send up to 5 of these notices a day, to up to 200 customers each.

How double bookings are prevented

• Your AI only offers times inside your opening hours that aren't booked in Frontivo.io and aren't busy in your connected Google or Outlook calendar.
• Right before it books or moves an appointment, it checks your connected calendar once more for that exact time. If something was added there a moment ago, it tells the customer the time was just taken and offers other times.
• Two customers (or you and a customer) can't take the same time at once: the second one is asked to pick another time.
• One customer isn't booked twice by mistake: if someone who already has an upcoming booking asks for another time, your AI moves their booking instead of adding a second one. If they want an extra, separate appointment as well (for example for a family member), your AI checks with them first, then books it.
• If Google or Outlook can't be reached for a moment, booking still works using Frontivo.io's own calendar.

Time zones

Every time your AI offers or confirms is in your business's time zone, set in Settings > Profile. Google Calendar and Outlook show each event in your own time zone, wherever you are.

If a customer is in another time zone, your AI says times in your business's local time. Keep your time zone up to date if you move.