An AI receptionist that books into your Google Calendar

If your bookings live in Google Calendar, most new appointments start with a phone call. When nobody can answer, the call goes to voicemail.

An AI phone assistant connected to your Google Calendar can answer those calls, find a free time and add the appointment to your calendar during the call.

What it does with Google Calendar

During a call, the assistant can:

• check when you’re free, across one calendar or one per person
• offer times that fit the length of the job and your working hours
• book the appointment as an event, with the caller’s name, phone number, address and what it’s for
• find an appointment it booked when the caller rings back, then move or cancel it

Events it books appear in Google Calendar like any other, on your phone and on everyone else’s who shares the calendar.

Events you add yourself count as busy too. To offer times it only needs to know when you’re busy, not what the events are.

A booking call

0:25

ASSISTANTHartley Heating, how can I help?

CALLERHi, I need my boiler serviced. Have you got anything this week?

Checked Google Calendar: free Thursday 9 to 11 and Friday from 2

ASSISTANTThursday morning between 9 and 11, or Friday from 2. Which suits you?

CALLERThursday morning.

ASSISTANTWhat's the address?

CALLER14 Elm Road.

Booked Thursday 9 to 11 in Google Calendar, with the address and phone number

ASSISTANTYou're booked for Thursday between 9 and 11 at 14 Elm Road. If you need to change it, ring this number and I'll move it.

Before offering those two times, the assistant checked the engineer’s calendar for gaps long enough for a service plus travel, inside working hours. It then added the appointment to the calendar with the address and the caller’s phone number in the event.

The rules you set

A calendar shows when you’re busy. It doesn’t know how long a job takes or which jobs you want over the phone, so you tell the assistant:

• what you offer and how long each takes, for example a boiler service is an hour and a half and a quote visit is 30 minutes
• your working hours, breaks and days off
• the gap you need between appointments for travel or clean-up
• how far ahead it can book, and the latest it can book for the same day
• who does what, if there are several of you
• what it must not book, for example anything over a certain size goes to you for a quote first

You can change these yourself in the Replystate dashboard whenever they change.

When something else fits better

Google Calendar works well when bookings are simple: a person, a time and a job. If you take deposits, sell packages or need clients to fill in forms before they come, you probably already use a booking system such as Fresha, Jane or Jobber. In that case the assistant should book into that system, and our team connects it there instead.

Calls that should go to a person

Some calls need you. You decide which, with rules written in plain language, for example:

• Emergencies, such as a leak that won’t stop, go straight to your mobile.
• Anyone unhappy with a job goes to the owner.
• Large jobs and anything that needs a site visit to price go to you as a message.

When it transfers a call, it passes on what the caller has already said. If nobody answers, it takes a message with the details.

Setting it up

1. For a week or two, note what people call about and how long each job takes.
2. Our team connects the assistant to your Google account and the calendars it should book into.
3. Write down your services, working hours and booking rules.
4. Write the rules for calls that go to a person.
5. Start with missed calls and calls outside working hours. Read the first week of calls in the dashboard and fix any rule it got wrong.

What to ask before choosing one

Ask whether it checks your calendar during the call, or works from a copy that can be out of date.

Ask what happens when two callers want the same time.

Ask whether it can move and cancel appointments, or only book new ones.

Ask who can change the rules. Working hours and prices change, and waiting on a supplier for each change is slow.

Then call it. Ask for a time you know is taken, change your mind halfway through, ask about something it can’t know. A prepared demo won’t show you how it copes with that.

About Replystate

Replystate makes an AI phone assistant that answers and makes calls for businesses. Our team connects it to your calendar and writes the first rules with you. After that you can change it yourself in the dashboard, where you can read every call and see what the assistant booked or changed. To hear it book into your own calendar, get in touch.