Key Benefits
Appointment Scheduling
A key feature in what makes AVA so powerful is the ability for AI agents to use “actions” during a call.
Overview
There are a number of “actions” that an agent can take, including call forwarding, sending SMS or emails, and Appointment Scheduling. This affords the AI agent full autonomy in a phone call by allowing it to reference your calendar to find available booking times, negotiate with the contact for their preferred time, and then schedule the meeting in your calendar on your behalf. Let’s take a look at how this works.Details
In order for the Appointment Scheduling action to work—and ultimately for your AI Agents to be able to reference your calendar and create bookings in it—a calendar needs to be properly configured in the GHL account associated with AVA. This is also true for any additional Sub-accounts or Client Accounts. Here is a brief of what that looks like:Setting Up Google/Outlook Calendar
Setting Up Google/Outlook Calendar
You can sync a variety of 3rd party calendars in GHL including Google, Outlook, iCloud, and Calendly. To do this, ensure that you are in the account which you want to add the calendar, and the account that is associated with AVA.
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Navigate to Settings in the GHL side-panel
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Click on My Profile
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Scroll to the bottom of the page to find Calendar Settings where you will see Calendars and Video Conferencing options. It will look like the image below
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Click Add New and you will be presented with the options of supported calendar providers
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Follow the steps and once you’ve successfully linked your calendar, it will show up under Connected Calendars and you will see some Calendar Configurations such as Linked Calendar and Conflict Calendars. It is not necessary to change anything in these configurations, but feel free to explore these functions
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You have successfully integrated your calendars! You may repeat the steps for syncing your video conferencing accounts to ensure all necessary accounts are synced and available to be shared to clients.
Setting Up GHL Calendar
Setting Up GHL Calendar
Creating a GHL calendar is straightforward and provides a great degree of customizability and functionality. For now, we will go into the basics of creating one and ensuring that it is accessible within the AVA Voice AI platform.
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Ensure that you are in the correct account where you want the calendar to be created, and that is associated with AVA
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Navigate to Settings in the GHL side-panel
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Click on Calendars and you will arrive at Calendar Settings
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Click on the blue Create Calendar button to create a new GHL calendar
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You will be met with a variety of options defining how the calendar will work based on your business needs. Pick the one that is most aligned with what you are trying to accomplish
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Once you have successfully connected a calendar, it will appear in the calendar list where you will see some basic information about the calendar. In this example, the calendar is named Seminar Follow-Up
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Once your calendar has been successfully setup in GHL, it will be accessible via AVA in the Project Configurations, and Campaign Configurations to be selected and used by the AI Agent during phone calls. If you do not see your new calendar, press the “refresh” button in AVA to refresh the list of available calendars
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You have successfully created a calendar! You may create more calendars based on a variety of needs including team scheduling, calendar/meeting type and distribution, customer segmentation etc. More information and strategies on advanced and effective calendar use are discussed in our community learning portal.
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First, you will see the number of booked meetings per Project in green on the AVA homepage. This is a nice and easy way to see at a glance how many appointments have been booked per executed Project as depicted in the image below. Remember that a Project can hold multiple Campaigns, and so you will need to click into the Project to see which Campaign these bookings belong to.
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Clicking into the Project will show you all Campaigns associated with that Project and priority is set on displaying the current status of the Campaign—whether it is In Progress, Paused, Completed, or Not Started, amongst other available statuses.
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When clicking into a Campaign, in the Contacts section, you will find contacts separated into two buckets; Contacts To Reach and Reached Contacts. This shows you the status of the campaign in terms of which contacts have been reached and who is left on the list to be called. In the Reached Contacts tab, you will see the results of the calls including if a meeting has been scheduled with a contact or not.
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You may also consolidate your efforts by opening the Call History section of AVA in the AVA side-panel, where you will be able to filter your search by a number of parameters, including Meeting Booked. In this way, you will be able to see a wealth of information about the call such as: which agent called, when the call occurred, a summary of the call, a full transcript, sentiment analysis, and more.
- The Call Status is also available in the output of the AVA Voice AI Contact Called trigger, which means that it can be used to form the basis of some conditional logic within GHL, for instance sending a follow-up text/email reminder sequence for contacts with booked meetings, or separating into a nurture sequence the contacts who completed a call but didn’t book. For more information on using the Contact Called trigger output in conditional logic, please refer to the Integration with GHL chapter.
FAQs & Troubleshooting
General Questions
What is the purpose of Appointment Scheduling in AVA?
What is the purpose of Appointment Scheduling in AVA?
Appointment Scheduling allows AVA AI agents to reference calendars, negotiate meeting times with contacts during calls, and book meetings directly into your calendar. This automates a critical part of customer engagement and enhances efficiency.
Do I need a calendar to use the Appointment Scheduling feature?
Do I need a calendar to use the Appointment Scheduling feature?
Yes, you must have at least one active and properly configured GHL calendar connected to AVA for the AI agents to book appointments or check availability.
Can I use multiple calendars with AVA?
Can I use multiple calendars with AVA?
Yes, you can connect and use multiple calendars to organize appointments by team, meeting type, or customer segmentation. You can select which calendar the AI agent references based on the project or campaign configuration.
Calendar Integration
How do I connect my Google or Outlook calendar to GHL?
How do I connect my Google or Outlook calendar to GHL?
- Navigate to Settings > My Profile in the GHL side-panel.
- Scroll to Calendar Settings, click Add New, and select your calendar provider.
- Follow the prompts to authorize and connect your account.
What should I do if my connected calendar doesn’t appear in AVA?
What should I do if my connected calendar doesn’t appear in AVA?
Click the Refresh button in AVA’s Project or Campaign Configurations section to update the list of available calendars.
Can I integrate calendars from other platforms like iCloud or Calendly?
Can I integrate calendars from other platforms like iCloud or Calendly?
Yes, GHL supports integration with various calendar providers, including iCloud and Calendly. Follow the same connection process to sync these calendars.
Managing Appointments
Where can I see the number of appointments booked by AVA?
Where can I see the number of appointments booked by AVA?
- On the AVA homepage, booked appointments are displayed per project in green for easy tracking.
- Within each project, you can see which campaigns contributed to those bookings.
Can I filter for appointments in AVA?
Can I filter for appointments in AVA?
Yes, navigate to the Call History section in AVA, where you can filter calls by parameters such as Meeting Booked to view detailed call and appointment information.
Are appointment details visible in GHL workflows?
Are appointment details visible in GHL workflows?
Yes, the Call Status output in the AVA Voice AI Contact Called trigger includes meeting details. This can be used for conditional logic, such as sending follow-up messages or categorizing contacts into specific sequences.
Advanced Configurations
Can I customize appointment scheduling parameters for specific campaigns?
Can I customize appointment scheduling parameters for specific campaigns?
Yes, preferred scheduling parameters can be set in the Project Configurations, Campaign Configurations, or directly within GHL for advanced customization.
What happens if I have overlapping availability in multiple calendars?
What happens if I have overlapping availability in multiple calendars?
Use the Conflict Calendars feature to inform GHL of your availability based on your connected calendars. This ensures no double-booking occurs, and AVA schedules appointments accurately.
How do I organize different types of appointments?
How do I organize different types of appointments?
Create multiple calendars for team scheduling, meeting types, or customer segmentation. You can select the appropriate calendar for each project or campaign in AVA.
For additional questions or guidance, try using our Virtual Support Agent! Available 24/7 to help resolve most issues quickly at thinkrr.ai/support. If you still need assistance, visit our support site at help.thinkrr.ai and submit a Ticket or contact our team directly at hello@thinkrr.ai.