The receptionist who never sleeps: your calendar

Result

Your business takes bookings at any hour from a link, with your hours, time between appointments and a reminder for every client.

Estimated time

50 minutes

Cost

US$ 0 to set up. Each email costs less than a cent: US$ 0.675 per 1,000.

Analogy

Step-by-step guide

Menu paths are shown as they appear in the English interface, with the Spanish name in parentheses for teams that work in Spanish. Everything happens inside your sub-account, as one of its users (mission 2) and with the time zone you set in mission 3. Each calendar is set up under Settings → Calendars (Configuración → Calendarios); the Calendars menu is where you see the appointments.

1. 01

   Decide your receptionist's hours

   Pick a service and its length. For the practice account: "Lash appointment," 60 minutes.

   Pick your business hours: Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

   Pick the break between appointments (15 minutes), the minimum notice (2 hours) and how far ahead people can book (30 days).

   Key points

   • Minimum notice prevents last-minute bookings. If you set it to a day, you won't be able to test the link today: for the test, keep it to a few hours.
   • With the interactive below, you can work out how many appointments fit in a day under those rules.

   Source: F5, F6

2. 02

   Create the calendar

   Settings → Calendars → + → Personal bookingCopy path

   In a Spanish-language account: Configuración → Calendarios → + (o «Crear calendario») → Personal booking

   Before you start, make sure you're a user of the sub-account; you did it in mission 2's "Add yourself to your sub-account" step. If Select team member says No Data below, go back to that step.

   Open Settings → Calendars. The tabs at the top are Meetings, Services, Rentals and Connections; inside are Calendars, Preferences and My availability. If those three show in Spanish even with your interface in English («Calendarios», «Preferencias», «Mi disponibilidad»), they are the same tabs.

   Click the blue + button, which has no text, to the right of the filters. If there are no calendars yet, the button says Create calendar.

   Choose calendar type opens. Pick Personal booking: it's the one HighLevel recommends for 1:1 appointments with one person.

   In the New calendar window, enter "Lash appointment" under Calendar name and select yourself under Select team member.

   Check Custom URL: after /widget/bookings/ comes a short name built from the calendar name, like lash-appointment. Set Meeting duration to 60 minutes and click Confirm.

   Key points

   • The other types are Round robin, Class booking and Collective booking. Under Explore more types there's Event calendar: don't pick it, because it has no users to assign the appointment to and doesn't check your other calendars.
   • A new sub-account has no calendars. By default, when an Account-type user is assigned, HighLevel creates a personal one in their name ("…'s Personal Calendar"). Your agency user doesn't get one. Don't use it for this mission: create your own with its name.

   Source: F1, F2, F3

3. 03

   Fine-tune the rules

   Settings → Calendars → (your calendar) → Availability · Booking rulesCopy path

   In a Spanish-language account: Configuración → Calendarios → (tu calendario) → Disponibilidad · Reglas de reserva

   Open your calendar. The editor has the sections Basic details, Staff & location, Availability, Booking rules and Advanced settings, with Save changes at the top.

   Under Availability you see your user's schedule (by default, "Weekdays, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM"). An on-screen tip reads "The timezone for meetings is set within the selected availability schedule," so the time zone comes from there.

   Your weekly hours and their time zone live in your schedule: Settings → My Profile → Calendar → Schedules, or Settings → Calendars → My availability. Set Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., in your business's time zone.

   Back in your calendar, check that Availability shows that schedule. If it shows another one, pick yours.

   Under Booking rules, set Meeting interval to 15 minutes, Meeting duration to 60 and Date range to 30 days. "Count available days only" can stay as it is.

   Set Minimum scheduling notice to 2 hours. Its unit selector defaults to Days: switch it to hours.

   Set Post buffer time to 15 minutes: it's the break after each appointment. You don't need Pre buffer time, the margin before the appointment.

   Maximum bookings per day and Maximum bookings per slot cap how many appointments fit per day and per time slot; you don't need them today. Save with Save changes.

   Key points

   • The appointments' time zone comes from the schedule selected under Availability. Make sure your schedule's time zone matches your business's (mission 3). The client sees the times in her own city's time.
   • In the Spanish interface, Post buffer time is «Margen posterior» and Minimum scheduling notice is «Aviso mínimo de programación».
   • Meeting interval is «Intervalo de reunión» and Date range is «Intervalo de fechas»; Pre buffer time is «Margen de preparación». The caps are «Reservas máximas por día» and «Máximo de reservas por franja horaria».

   Source: F4, F5, F6, F8

   Minimum noticeMinimum scheduling notice · 2 hours: the earliest anyone can book

   10:00–11:00 · Lash appointmentMeeting duration · 60 min

   11:00–11:15 · BreakPost buffer time · 15 min

   11:15–12:15 · Lash appointmentMeeting duration · 60 min

   12:15–12:30 · BreakPost buffer time · 15 min

   … until 7 p.m.Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

   The time the client seesThe same slots in her own city’s time; the appointments’ time zone comes from the schedule selected under Availability

   Settings → Calendars → (your calendar) → Booking rules

4. 04

   Have it send a confirmation and a reminder

   Settings → Calendars → (your calendar) → Advanced settings → Notifications & policiesCopy path

   In a Spanish-language account: Configuración → Calendarios → (tu calendario) → Configuración avanzada → Notificaciones & políticas

   Under Advanced settings, open Notifications & policies. There's one row per notice: Appointment booked (Status: Unconfirmed), Appointment booked (Status: Confirmed), Cancellation, Reschedule, Reminder and Follow-Up.

   Each row shows the Email, In-app, SMS and WhatsApp channels and a pencil to edit it. Don't assume email is on: only In-app may be.

   Click the pencil on Appointment booked (Status: Unconfirmed). On the Email tab, set the switch to Enabled and, under "Who should receive this notification?", choose Contact.

   Do the same on Appointment booked (Status: Confirmed). That way the confirmation arrives whatever status the appointment gets.

   Do the same on Reminder and choose when it goes out: one day before the appointment.

   Leave SMS and WhatsApp off for now. Save each notification in its window and, at the end, the calendar with Save changes.

   Key points

   • Auto-confirm new calendar meetings, under Form & confirmation, comes turned on: the appointment comes in confirmed. Turn on both "Appointment booked" rows anyway: if someone turns that option off, the confirmation still arrives.
   • Texting requires a number connected to HighLevel and, for U.S. numbers, A2P registration. They come in module I.4.
   • In mission 11, your workflow takes over the confirmation and the reminder. That day you'll turn these calendar emails off (both "Appointment booked" rows and Reminder), so clients don't get every message twice.
   • In the Spanish interface, the rows are «Cita reservada (Estado: No confirmada)», «Cita reservada (Estado: confirmada)» and «Recordatorio».

   Source: F14, F15, F17

5. 05

   Adjust the booking form

   Settings → Calendars → (your calendar) → Advanced settings → Form & confirmationCopy path

   In a Spanish-language account: Configuración → Calendarios → (tu calendario) → Configuración avanzada → Formulario & confirmación

   Under Advanced settings, open Form & confirmation. In the "Forms & guests" block, Select form is set to "Default (First name, Last name, Email, Phone, Notes)." Leave it.

   Below it is Consent checkbox, turned on. Its text is generic: "I confirm that I want to receive content from this company using any contact information I provide."

   Turn it off. Appointment emails are service messages, and the messaging consent boxes live in your mission 8 form, one per purpose.

   Under Confirmation page, change the Thank you message. The default reads "Thank you for your appointment request. We will contact you shortly…", which misleads: with auto-confirm on, the appointment is already booked.

   Write something short, like "You're booked. Your confirmation is on its way by email." Save with Save changes.

   Key points

   • AXIS rule: consent goes in separate boxes, one per purpose. That box accepts "content" through any channel and lumps everything into one.
   • You'll customize the calendar's form in lesson I.6.1. Today the default one is enough.

   Source: F4

6. 06

   Open the door and book the first appointment

   Settings → Calendars → (your calendar) → Share calendar → Permanent linkCopy path

   In a Spanish-language account: Configuración → Calendarios → (tu calendario) → (flecha de compartir) → Permanent link

   At the top of the editor, click the share icon (an arrow). Share calendar opens, with the tabs Scheduling link, One time link, Embed code and QR code.

   Copy the Permanent link. It looks like https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/booking/<id> and doesn't change even if you change the URL's short name.

   Heads-up: opening Share calendar saves the calendar on its own. If you left a change half-done, check it.

   Open the link in a private browser window, without your login.

   Pick a time on your next business day and book as Fran Test AX-7K2Q, with an email of yours that isn't in your contacts, so you get the confirmation.

   For the phone number, use yours, never a made-up one.

   Find the appointment in Calendars, in the calendar view or the appointment list.

   Key points

   • Use the permanent link, not the Scheduling link one (/widget/bookings/ plus the short name): that one changes if you change the short name.
   • Always test in a private window. If the browser remembers your details, the booking may attach to another contact.
   • Booking creates or updates the contact of whoever books. You now have Fran Test AX-7K2Q in Contacts.

   Source: F11, F12, F16

7. 07

   What you don't do yet

   Don't connect your Google Calendar today unless you need it. If you do, check that it blocks only events marked as busy; you'll see it in full in lesson II.5.2.

   Don't build team calendars or appointment distribution. That comes in module II.5.

   Key points

   • A well-built booking calendar already answers for you at any hour. The rest is fine-tuning.

   Source: F10

Interactive

How many appointments fit in your day?

Change the inputs to your business's numbers and see how many appointments your receptionist can book.

If it breaks

The mistakes that repeat most, and the way out.