Appointments: bookings from the chat

Your customers book appointments from the web chat, by DM on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp or Telegram, or by talking to Sparky. Every appointment lands in a Google calendar that Ignix creates for each person or room in your business, with an automatic reminder. Appointments you take by phone go in that same calendar and Ignix respects them: it never offers a time that is taken.

Setting it up

1. Go to Appointments.
2. Services: what can be booked, how long each one takes, the price if you want it mentioned, and a buffer before or after if you need one (cleaning up, travelling).
3. People and rooms: who or what gets booked. Each one has its weekly hours, its days off and its spots at the same time (1 for a person; 10 for a class with 10 places).
4. What to ask when booking: name, phone, email, and your own questions ("Is it your first visit?"). Everything lands in the contact's profile.
5. Rules: how often slots are offered, the minimum notice, how far ahead people can book, whether they can choose who with, when the reminder goes out, and the currency prices are shown in (type just the number in each service).
6. Connect Google Calendar with the business's Google account. Ignix creates one calendar per person or room; share each one with that person from Google and they will see their appointments on their phone (step by step in "Several people on the team", below).
7. Turn appointments on with the switch at the top.

How a customer books

• On your website: the chat shows a "Book" button that opens a picker: service, day, time, details, confirm. No AI involved.
• By DM: the flow builder has an "Appointment" block that does the same with buttons: quick replies on Instagram, Facebook and Telegram, a list on WhatsApp. Hang it off any keyword you like ("BOOK") or off a comment. The "Book an appointment by DM" template in the gallery comes ready: keyword → appointment → thanks, and a person if there is no slot.
• With a link: the public booking page (Appointments > Booking page) works for your Instagram bio, a QR code or your website, and from there you can set it as the "Reserve" button on your Google Business listing.
• Talking to Sparky: with the AI agent, Sparky books in conversation ("I'd like a haircut on Thursday afternoon"), answers questions along the way, and cancels or moves the appointment if asked.

Where to put the link

The public page (Appointments > Booking page) is a plain link: app.ignix.social/book/your-business. Where to put it so people book:

• Google (Maps and Search): if your Google Business listing is connected in Ignix, press "Set as the Reserve button" on the page card and the listing shows a Book online button with your link. Without the listing connected, do it by hand: business.google.com > Edit profile > Bookings > Add link.
• Instagram: Edit profile > Links > Add external link, with a title like "Book an appointment". Also as a link sticker in a highlighted story. Instagram's "Book now" profile button is reserved for Meta's own partner apps and does not take a link of your own — which is why on Instagram what really books is the DM, with the "Appointment" block or with Sparky.
• Facebook: on your page, the "Book now" action button does accept any link: Edit action button > Book now > your link.
• WhatsApp Business: in the business profile, in the "Website" field; and in the welcome message.
• TikTok and the rest: the bio link. And a QR code at the counter, pointing to the same page.

Your page as a storefront

In Appointments > Booking page you can add, all optional, a cover photo, two lines of introduction, the address (with a Google Maps link), your opening hours (worked out from the hours of the people who take bookings) and a photo per service. And you can show your web chat on the page: visitors ask in the chat and Sparky answers if you have it on. That way a business without a website has its page, with bookings and support, on Ignix.

Google Calendar is the source of truth

Everything Ignix books shows up in that person's calendar. And everything you write there yourself — a phone booking, a holiday, a meeting — blocks the slot. That is why manual appointments must go in the calendar Ignix created ("Ignix · Ana"), not in another one.

If you move or delete an appointment in Google, Ignix sees it within minutes and tells the person who booked: an email with the new time, or a notice that it has been cancelled. If you drag the appointment onto another person's calendar, it is reassigned on its own.

A new time is not taken for granted: the email asks the customer to confirm it with a button and warns that without confirmation the appointment may be cancelled. Until they do, the event shows in red in Google Calendar and as "new time not confirmed" in Appointments; when they confirm, it turns green. If the reminder goes out and they still have not confirmed, your team gets an alert with their phone number: better a call than a customer turning up at the old time.

Several people on the team: one calendar each

Ignix does not connect to each worker's Google account. It connects to one account, the business's, and creates inside it a separate calendar for every person you add in People and rooms: "Ignix · Ana", "Ignix · Luis". People and rooms and Organization > Team are two different lists: a worker needs no Ignix login to take bookings, and inviting someone to the team does not make them bookable. To give everyone their agenda:

1. Connect the business's Google account, not a worker's. The calendars live in it, and so does the address customers reply to. When someone leaves, nothing has to move.
2. Add each person in People and rooms with their own hours and days off; Ignix creates their calendar on the spot. In each service, "Who does it" says who performs it, and in Rules you decide whether the customer picks who with or gets the first person free.
3. Share each calendar with its worker. On the person's card, "Share it in Google" opens that calendar's settings (be signed in to Google with the account you connected). Under sharing with specific people, add the worker's Google address with permission to make changes to events. They accept the invitation and the calendar appears in their Google Calendar, on the phone too; if it doesn't, in the app's settings pick the calendar and turn on sync.
4. Each worker writes in their own calendar. A phone booking, a day off, a personal appointment: everything goes into "Ignix · Ana", choosing that calendar when creating the event. Ignix only reads the calendars it created, so what they keep in their personal calendar blocks nothing.

If a worker uses Apple Calendar or Outlook, the same settings page has a secret address in iCal format they can subscribe to: read-only, so their phone bookings still go in through Google. When someone leaves, remove them from the calendar's sharing and untick "Available for booking" on their card; the calendar stays in Google with its history.

What the team sees inside Ignix is a separate matter: owners and admins get the alert for every new booking, the Appointments page lists what was booked through Ignix, and whoever uses the MCP connector can check slots or book from their assistant.

Emails and alerts

Whoever books receives, if they gave an email, the confirmation with the appointment attached to add it to their calendar, the reminder at the hours you choose (24 h, 2 h…), and an email if the appointment changes time or is cancelled, whether you cancel it from Ignix or in Google. They carry your business's name, colour and logo (the web chat's), and where a customer's reply lands is your choice, in Rules: nowhere, the Google Calendar account you connected, or another address. In the web chat everything is also left in the conversation. By DM, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp only allow messages within 24 hours of the customer's last message, so there the email is the safe one. Telegram has no such window: whoever books there also gets the change, the cancellation and the reminder in the same chat.

Your team (owners and admins) gets an alert with the customer's details on every new booking, and another if the customer cancels by talking to Sparky. Each person receives it by email or notification according to their preferences, in Sparky AI > Settings.

What the customer tells you when booking lands on their contact card: the email in its own field, and the phone and your custom questions as custom fields (named after the question). They also get the booking tag, so you can filter Contacts down to everyone who has ever booked. If they book from the public page or you book them from your AI assistant and no contact exists yet, one is created.

From your AI assistant

If you use the MCP connector, your assistant gets five appointment tools: see how they are set up, check free slots, book (an appointment that comes in by phone while you talk to it), list the upcoming ones and cancel. Same agenda, same Google Calendar.

Plans

Bookings with buttons (web and DM) are included from Blaze. Sparky booking in conversation is part of the AI agent: included in Inferno, or with the AI pack on any plan.