Reschedule and Cancel Appointments from WhatsApp with Google Calendar
This recipe lets a customer move or cancel an appointment by sending a message. AeroChat finds the event in Google Calendar, offers new times, applies your notice policy and updates the calendar. Part of the Google Calendar integration.
What happens today
A customer messages at 7am: “something came up, can I move today’s 3pm to next week?”. Nobody sees it until mid-morning. By then the 3pm slot is too close to offer to anyone else. Other customers do not message at all, because changing a booking means waiting for a reply, and they simply do not turn up.
The earlier you hear about a change, the more likely you can fill the time.
The flow that works
- The customer asks to move or cancel. AeroChat finds their upcoming appointment in the calendar using the phone number they are messaging from.
- It confirms the appointment with them.
- To move it, it offers up to three new times of the same length. To cancel, it confirms which appointment.
- It checks the notice against your policy and says what that means for them.
- It updates or deletes the event, confirms the change, and tells your team when a same-day slot opens up.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer asks to reschedule or cancel an appointment, follow these steps.
- Search our Google Calendars for upcoming events that include the phone number they are messaging from. If there is no match, do not share any booking details. Ask for their name and the appointment date, and hand the conversation to a team member.
- Confirm the service, staff member, date and time with them.
- If they want to reschedule, check the same staff member’s calendar for a free block of the same length within our opening hours, and offer up to three times closest to what they ask for. When they choose one, move the event to the new time and keep the same details.
- If they want to cancel, confirm which appointment, then delete the event.
- Check how much notice they gave. Example policy: free changes up to 24 hours before the appointment. Inside 24 hours, tell them our late-change policy plainly. If they ask for an exception, hand the conversation to a team member.
- Confirm the change with the service, date, time and address. If the old appointment was today or tomorrow, notify the team that a slot is free.
Never move another customer’s booking. Never offer a time the calendar shows as busy. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the notice period and late-change policy to your own before you paste it.
What to connect
- Google Calendar. Connect your Google account when AeroChat asks and approve access to your booking calendars. This recipe finds bookings by phone number, so it works best when bookings include the customer’s phone number in the event, as the booking recipe does.
- Your policies. Upload your cancellation and late-change policy to the AeroChat knowledge base so the replies match what you have written.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What you still decide
- Your notice period for free changes.
- What happens to a deposit on a late change or cancellation.
- How many times a customer can move the same booking.
- Who on your team hears about freed same-day slots.
AeroChat applies your policy the same way every time, and passes exceptions to a person.
The result to expect
Customers tell you about changes earlier, because it takes one message instead of a phone call. Freed slots show up in the calendar as soon as the customer cancels, while there is still time to fill them.
Measure it with your own numbers: no-shows and late cancellations per month, before and after you start.
Let customers change bookings themselves
Paste the recipe, connect your Google Calendar, and test it by moving a booking you made for yourself.
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