AI booking controls

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Per-number booking rules and safeguards for the WhatsApp AI receptionist — a minimum booking notice, employee notifications, the appointment link customers receive, booking two or more people at once, automatic recaps, and how the AI only ever books an active professional.

The WhatsApp AI receptionist books real appointments against your live calendar (see Contact Center). This page covers the controls and safeguards around how it books: a minimum booking notice, notifying the assigned employee, the appointment link the customer receives, booking a group in one chat, an automatic follow-up when a customer says they'll decide later, and the guarantees that keep bookings accurate.

These settings live in Contact Center → Agent settings. The per-number rules (booking notice, employee notifications) are on the Numbers tab; the recap is on the AI Behavior tab. Managers and staff with the Use contact center privilege can edit the per-number settings; the AI Behavior tab is manager-only.

Minimum booking notice (per number)

Stop customers from grabbing a slot with no time for your team to prepare. Each WhatsApp number has a Minimum booking notice — the shortest gap allowed between now and the start of a booking.

Set it under Contact Center → Agent settings → Numbers, per number.
The default is 60 minutes. Enter 0 to allow booking right up to the current time.
The AI honors it both ways: it won't offer a time that falls inside the notice window, and it won't book one even if asked — it offers a later time instead.

Give a busy location a longer notice (say 120 minutes) so the front desk always has room to get ready; a quiet walk-in-friendly spot can use a short notice or 0.

Notify the assigned employee of new bookings

When the AI books an appointment, you can have the assigned employee told automatically — handy for staff who don't sit in the app all day. Employees need no user account: the message goes to the phone number on their staff record.

Turn it on per number under Contact Center → Agent settings → Numbers:

Tick Notify the assigned employee of new bookings.
Choose How to notify — SMS or WhatsApp.

The employee receives a short message with the service, date and time, site, and customer name. For WhatsApp, a verified staff WhatsApp number is used when available, otherwise the phone on the staff record.

SMS is the most reliable channel for staff notifications. A WhatsApp notification to an employee who hasn't messaged the business number recently can be blocked by WhatsApp's 24-hour rule on the official Meta Cloud API. If in doubt, choose SMS. (SMS requires your organization's SMS provider to be configured — contact support if the SMS option doesn't send.)

Notifications only go to active employees who have a phone number on file. Inactive staff, or staff with no phone, are simply skipped.

The appointment link the customer gets

As soon as the AI books, reschedules or changes an appointment, the customer receives their own appointment page in the confirming message — a private link showing the service, date, time, location and professional, with add to calendar and, if you allow it, cancel.

It is on by default for every number. To change it, go to Contact Center → Agent settings → Numbers and tick or untick Send the appointment link when the AI books.

The link is sent automatically, in the same message that confirms the booking — the customer never has to ask.
Each person gets their own link. Booking two people in one chat produces two different links, and one person's link never shows the other's appointment.
The link keeps working after the chat: it always shows the appointment's current details, so a rescheduled time is reflected the next time the customer opens it.
A cancelled appointment's link stops working.

Untick the setting and this number stops handing out appointment links entirely — the AI will not send one even if a customer asks for it. Leave it on unless you have a specific reason not to; customers who book by chat otherwise have nothing to open.

Booking two or more people in one chat

Customers often book for themselves and a friend at the same time. The AI handles a group properly — one customer profile and one appointment per person, each with a different available technician (never two people with the same technician at the same time).

The AI asks for each additional person's name (and phone, if they share it) and creates a separate customer record for them.
Each guest gets their own booking on the calendar at the same slot, assigned to a different active technician.
If only one technician is free at that time, the AI says so and offers the second person another time or professional rather than double-booking.

A guest booked this way is a separate customer record with its own appointment. If the guest later needs to change their booking, they contact the salon directly — the first customer can only manage their own appointment.

The AI only ever books an active professional

Bookings are always assigned to a currently-active technician who is on the calendar at that location — the AI can't book with someone who has left or is hidden from the calendar.

Just as important, the AI never presents a professional as confirmed unless it really checked. If a customer mentions a name — for example asking for someone who no longer works there — the AI looks them up first and either offers to book with them (if they're still on your team) or gently suggests a current professional instead. It won't simply echo a name the customer guessed as though the appointment is set.

If a customer changes their mind after booking — a different service, dropping an add-on — the AI updates the real appointment (or rebooks) and confirms the concrete change, rather than only acknowledging it in the chat. Every such change is recorded in the conversation as a staff-visible note.

Automatic recap when a customer says they'll decide later

A warm lead who says "let me check and I'll confirm" is easy to lose to a busy day. When a customer defers a decision, the AI schedules one automatic WhatsApp follow-up — a recap — to continue the booking.

Configure it under Contact Center → Agent settings → AI Behavior:

Auto-recap when a customer says they'll decide later — the on/off switch (on by default).
Recap delay (minutes) — how long to wait before following up. The default is 60 minutes; 0 turns it off.
Custom recap message (optional) — leave blank to use a friendly default in the customer's language.

How it behaves:

Exactly one recap is sent per conversation.
If the customer messages you again before the recap is due, it's cancelled — they came back on their own, so there's no nag.
If they booked in the meantime, no recap is sent.
If the recap goes unanswered, the conversation follows your normal idle follow-up and no-response close.

The AI never promises to phone a customer — it communicates only on WhatsApp. When someone asks to be called, it reassures them it will follow up right there in the chat, and the recap does exactly that.