Docs / Setup
Scheduling
Services, your team and their hours, calendar sync, and the rules agents book by.
The agents only offer times that are really free: inside someone's bookable hours, not already taken, not blocked in their own calendar, and far enough ahead. Settings has one entry for each part: Services, Team & hours, Calendars and Booking rules.
Services
What can be booked. For each service set:
- Name and length (for example "Blood test, 15 minutes").
- Price, in your business's currency. Agents quote it when asked.
- Who can do it: one or more people from your team.
Preparation notes ("Fast for 10 hours before a blood test") are set per service in Settings → Business. When a booking for that service is confirmed, the agent must include the note (Safety and quality).
Team and hours
Team is everyone who can be booked: doctors, nurses, stylists, rooms. Each person can have a short profile (title, qualifications, specialties, languages and a short bio), which the agents use to answer "who should I see?" and "is Dr. Patel a pediatrician?".
Hours are when each person takes bookings, day by day. Your business's default hours apply to anyone without their own. Different from your opening hours in the business profile, which are what agents tell people.
Calendars
Connect each person's Google Calendar or Outlook calendar. Their busy times are then respected, so a dentist's lunch meeting in Google Calendar can't be booked over. Signing in sends you to Google or Microsoft and back to this tab.
Booking rules
| Rule | Choices | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| When an agent books | Confirm instantly · Staff approve each booking | With approval, bookings arrive as Booking approval items in the Inbox and the person is told it's a request. |
| Minimum notice | None, 30 minutes … 1 day | Agents never book sooner than this. |
| Start times every | 10, 15, 20, 30 or 60 minutes | How slots are spaced. |
| Book up to | 14 … 180 days ahead | How far ahead people can book. |
Moving and cancelling
People can move or cancel their own visits in the conversation once they've confirmed who they are (Identity and privacy). Moving keeps the same service and can switch to another person who does it. A cancelled slot can be offered straight away to people on the waitlist by the Schedule Optimizer.
Something missing or unclear? Ask in the chat at the bottom right, or talk to the Saient team.