Now you can have visitors request or schedule appointments with your team without integrating to a calendar through your Instabot account. (If you want to connect a Google or Office 365 calendar, we recommend using our Schedule a Meeting node!) This can also allow your visitors to schedule appointments when your team has different or more niche calendar platforms (e.g. Yahoo, YouCanBookMe, Apple, etc). 

How it works
The process to use this in your bot takes less than 5 minutes and uses three nodes: an Email Address node, a Full Name node, and a Date/Time Picker.

1.    Collect user’s email address

When you’re ready to let a user schedule a meeting, first choose an email node to collect their email address. You’ll choose “+ Node” and then “Email Address” node. You’ll need to collect an email so that you can send an appropriate appointment confirmation. So first add a node that says, “What is your email address? (So I can send you an appointment confirmation.)”

2.    Add a full name node
Next, ask your prospect or client for their name so you know who you’ll be meeting. Choose “+Node” and then “User’s Name”. In the bot node editor, write something like, “Please provide your first and last name.” (So I know who I’m reaching out to.)

3.   Add a Date/Time Picker node

Next, add a node by clicking “+Node” and then in “Advanced”, select “Date/Time Picker”.

4.  Select availability for meetings

When you open up the Bot Node Editor, direct your users to choose a date and time for the meeting, i.e. “Select a date and time that would be most convenient to meet.” Then select availability for meeting.

The default is set for weekdays between 9 am and 5 pm in 30 minute increments. You can always click on “Update this availability” to change the dates and times that people can choose—this is completely up to you! And make sure to click, “Save the user’s response to a profile” in order to save the date and time requested to each user, and click Add Node.

Then you can add a No Reply node letting people know that you’ll send an email to confirm the appointment. You can write copy such as, “Your meeting is booked, we’ll follow-up to confirm. Speak to you soon!”  (Or a multiple choice node, giving them the option to book another meeting). Now you can publish the bot to test the flow. It should look a little like this:

Keep in mind that when you use the Date/Time picker it will not perform a real time check with your calendar so it’s possible for more than one prospect to schedule a meeting at the same time. If you need your calendar to show actual availability for a calendar, you’ll want to use our Schedule a Meeting node.

Still have questions? Just email us at [email protected]