Book Zoho Bookings Appointments from WhatsApp
This recipe turns a booking request in chat into a Zoho Bookings appointment, with real free slots offered in the conversation. Part of connecting Zoho Bookings to WhatsApp and AI chat.
What happens today
A customer asks on Instagram whether their usual stylist is free on Saturday. Someone checks Zoho Bookings between appointments, replies with two options, and waits. The customer answers an hour later, one option has gone, and the thread goes on. Some customers send the booking link instead and never finish the form.
The flow that works
- AeroChat answers the customer’s question first.
- It matches the request to one of your Zoho Bookings services and staff members.
- It checks Zoho Bookings for free slots on the day they want and offers three.
- It takes their name, email and phone number and books the slot they pick.
- It confirms the date, time, service and staff member in the chat.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer asks to book an appointment, answer their question first from our knowledge base. Then follow these steps.
- Match the request to a Zoho Bookings service. Use the 45-minute cut and blow-dry for haircuts and the 120-minute colour service for colour work (example services).
- Ask which day suits them and whether they want a particular staff member. If not, use any staff member who offers that service.
- Check Zoho Bookings for free slots for that service and staff member on that day and offer three. If there are none, check the next two days (example).
- When they pick a slot, ask: “Can I take your name, email and phone number for the booking?”
- Book the appointment in Zoho Bookings with their name, email and phone number for that service, staff member and time.
- If they mention anything the staff member should know, add it to the appointment notes.
- Confirm the date, time, service and who they will see.
Only offer slots Zoho Bookings shows as free. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the services to the ones in your Zoho Bookings account before you paste it.
What to connect
- Zoho Bookings. A Zoho Bookings admin registers a Self Client in the Zoho API Console, copies the client ID and client secret, and generates a code with the Zoho Bookings scope. Paste these in when AeroChat asks.
- Your knowledge base. Upload your service details, prices and policies to AeroChat so it can answer before it books.
After you paste the recipe, AeroChat builds the workflow as a draft and shows a checklist: connect Zoho Bookings, add your knowledge base if the recipe uses one, then switch it on. If it built the connection from Zoho Bookings’ public documentation, the checklist asks you to check it once against the current docs.
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
- Which services AeroChat offers, and for which requests.
- Whether customers can pick a staff member, or AeroChat picks the first one free.
- How many days ahead it looks when the day they want is full.
The result to expect
Customers who ask for an appointment leave the chat with one in your Zoho Bookings calendar, even outside opening hours. Your team stops relaying slots back and forth, and your working hours and buffers still apply.
Measure it with your own numbers: appointments booked from chat, and the time from first message to booking, for a month before and after.
Next: reschedule or cancel an appointment in chat.
Works on every chat channel
This workflow runs the same way on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, TikTok, Telegram, the chat on your website and email, with the same Zoho Bookings connection behind it. See what each channel does on the Zoho Bookings integration page.
Book your first appointment from chat
Paste the recipe, connect Zoho Bookings, and ask your own chat for an appointment this weekend.