AI Appointment Setting

AI Appointment Setting connects the AI receptionist to your real Google Calendar. A caller who wants to book does not get "let me check and call you back". The AI checks live availability, offers a time that is actually free, confirms it, and writes the appointment before the conversation ends. Since September 2026 the same booking works inside a text thread, and a company can connect as many calendars as it has people.

Connecting a calendar. Open the AI Manager, then the Appointments tab, and click Connect a Google account. Google asks you to sign in and approve. TelBuddy then lists that account's calendars and you tick the ones the AI may book on, giving each one the name customers use (a person's name, or Front desk). Nothing is assumed: an unticked calendar is never touched. Connecting or disconnecting an account is admin only, because it is the company's Google grant. A green Connected badge on the card tells you it is live.

How a booking happens on a call. The AI asks for the date, time and the caller's name. As soon as it has a specific date and time it checks the calendar, in the number's own time zone, and answers from what it finds. Free: it confirms and books. Taken: it says so and offers something that is open. It knows the current date and time, so "tomorrow at two" resolves correctly.

How a booking happens by text. Turn on Book appointments by text in the AI receptionist's settings (the box is disabled until a calendar is connected). The AI then has three tools in a text conversation: check one exact time, list the free times on a day within your business hours, and book. It never states a time is available without checking, and it never books until the customer has confirmed an exact date and time in their own words. What happens next depends on the receptionist's mode:

• Autopilot books the appointment on the calendar and replies that it is booked.
• Draft writes the same reply, telling the customer the time is booked, and holds it for a person. The draft card in the inbox shows the appointment (time, length, name, and which calendar when you have several) with "Book it on the calendar when this message is sent" already ticked. Click Book & Send and both happen in one click. Untick the box to send without booking, or Edit the wording first. If the slot was taken between the draft and your click, nothing is sent and the card tells you to offer another time.

See AI Draft Mode vs. Auto Mode for how the two modes differ everywhere else.

Many calendars. A salon has five stylists and five calendars; a brokerage has one per agent. Connect them all (from one Google account or several), name each, and the AI books whoever the customer asks for. Ask for Maria and it checks and books Maria. Say anyone and it checks everyone, offers the first free times with the name attached, books the first person free, and tells the customer who they are booked with. Details in One Calendar Per Person.

Business hours and time zone. Suggested times stay inside the business hours you set for that number under Voice Settings. A customer who asks for a time outside those hours is not refused; the AI is told it is outside hours and lets the customer decide. All dates use the time zone set for the number in System Manager.

Intake questions still get asked. Any question marked Required is still collected, whether that happens before or after the booking. If a required answer arrives after the appointment is booked, the calendar event's description is updated so the event stays complete.

What shows up on the calendar. Every event carries the customer's phone number and everything captured during the conversation, on the event itself. Bookings made by text are marked as such in the description.

Appointment Logs. Every booking, from a call or a text, is listed under Appointment Logs with a View in Calendar link. When you have more than one calendar the list shows which calendar each booking is on and can be filtered by calendar. Deleting an appointment there removes it from Google Calendar too, and an appointment deleted directly in Google disappears from the list the next time it loads.

Who can see which appointments. An admin can limit a team member to specific calendars in System Manager (Record Access). A stylist limited to their own calendar sees only their own appointments and can only approve text bookings on their own diary. See Section Access and Record Access.

Features at a glance

• Books on a call and inside a text thread, from the same connected calendars
• Autopilot books on its own; Draft holds the booking for one-click Book & Send in the inbox
• Live free-or-busy check before any time is offered, and again right before writing
• As many calendars as you have people; the AI books who was asked for, or the first person free, and says who
• Suggestions stay inside the number's business hours and time zone
• Required intake questions still enforced; late answers update the event
• Appointment Logs show and filter by calendar; deleting in either place stays in sync
• Per-person calendar visibility through Record Access