Appointments with Fynn

With a calendar connected, Fynn offers your customers free times in the chat and books the one they pick. You decide whether your team confirms each booking with 1 tap or Fynn books it on his own, and you make the same choice for cancellations and moves. Appointments are part of the Business and Enterprise plans.

What Fynn needs

Everything is on Settings > Integrations > Appointments. Fynn offers times only when all of this is in place:

• A connected Outlook account with at least 1 calendar switched on under Calendars Fynn books into. See Connect your calendar. Google Calendar is coming soon.
• At least 1 appointment type that is Bookable.
• Saved Bookable hours with a Time zone.
• The switch Fynn offers free times turned on.
• Fynn answers in the inbox as a Support Bot. Where he is an Info Bot, he answers questions but books nothing.

Table reservations in aleno need less: no appointment types, bookable hours or time zone, because the times come from aleno. See Connect aleno.

To check the result, use Preview at the bottom of the page: Show free times lists the next times Fynn would offer right now, read live from your calendars with the saved rules.

Appointment types

An appointment type is what customers can book and how long it takes, for example Haircut, 45 minutes, or Viewing, 30 minutes. Under Appointment types, enter the name customers see (up to 60 characters) and the Length in minutes (5 to 480), then click Add. A workspace can have up to 30 types.

Switch a type to Paused to stop offering it for a while. Renaming or deleting a type leaves appointments already booked alone: they keep the name and length they were booked with.

Fynn asks which type the customer wants when that is unclear. He never asks why the customer needs the appointment, and never asks for health details.

Bookable hours

Customers can book only inside these hours, which you set per weekday. Every time is offered and shown in the Time zone you pick. Until you save, the page only suggests the hours of an inbox with business hours switched on, and Fynn offers no times yet. Hours that run past midnight cannot be booked, so a day must close after it opens.

Booking rules

• Minimum notice: the shortest time between a booking and the appointment, from "No notice" to 7 days. The default is 2 hours.
• Bookable ahead: how many days ahead customers can book, up to 90. The default is 30.
• Buffer: time kept free before and after every busy time in the calendar, up to 2 hours.
• Start times every: when it is set to 30 minutes, Fynn offers 09:00, 09:30, 10:00 and so on. You can pick from 5 to 120 minutes.

The bookable hours, the booking rules and the Fynn section below are saved together with Save booking rules. Free times are offered only after the first save.

Who confirms, cancels and moves

In the Fynn section, choose who decides New bookings, Cancellations and Moves:

• Your team, with 1 tap, the default. A new booking holds the time, and your team confirms it in the conversation. For a cancellation, Fynn gets the customer's yes and your team cancels with 1 tap; until then the appointment stays booked. For a move, Fynn offers free times and holds the one the customer picks; your team moves the appointment with 1 tap, and until then the old time stays.
• Fynn, after the customer's yes. Fynn books, cancels or moves the appointment right away, in the calendar too, and lets your team know.

When your team confirms new bookings, Fynn offers a time only if your team has at least 1 hour inside the bookable hours to confirm it before the minimum notice begins.

When Fynn books on his own, he books at most 5 appointments per hour for your workspace. A further booking in that hour waits for your team like a request.

A request your team has not confirmed yet is withdrawn or moved at once in both modes, because nothing is in the calendar yet. Fynn changes an appointment only for the customer it belongs to: in the conversation it was booked in, or once the customer verified who they are.

How a booking goes in the chat

1. A customer asks for an appointment on any channel Fynn answers. Fynn reads your calendars live and offers up to 3 free times, written in the message with the time zone, so they reach every channel.
2. Fynn asks which type the customer wants when that is unclear, and for the name to book under when he does not know it. In live chat he first asks for an email address, because every message about the appointment also goes out by email.
3. The customer picks a time, and Fynn asks for a yes. When Fynn books on his own, the question reads like this: "Book Haircut (45 min) on Friday, October 30, 10:00 AM (Berlin time) for Maria? Reply yes to book it, or tell me another time." When your team confirms, he asks whether to send the team a request.
4. After the yes, the time is booked, or held for your team, and the customer reads what happens next.

Fynn checks the time again right before he books it. If it was taken in the meantime, he says so and asks for another time. A customer can hold at most 2 upcoming appointments; for a third, a teammate takes over.

The card in the conversation

Every appointment shows as a card in its conversation, with the type, the customer's name, the time and the calendar. Your team decides right there:

• A request has Confirm and Decline and says until when it waits for your team. If the calendar did not take a booking, Try again replaces Confirm.
• A confirmed appointment has Cancel appointment, which asks first, deletes the event from the calendar and tells the customer, and Open in calendar.
• When the customer asks to cancel or move a confirmed appointment, the card shows Cancel appointment or Move to with the new time, next to Keep.

Your team hears about appointments on the bell, by email and by push, as each person set it under Settings > Notifications: Appointment Requests for what your team decides, Appointment Updates for news such as a booking Fynn made on his own. Both go to the person the conversation is assigned to, or to everyone who can open it if nobody is assigned. A request that still waits after 2 hours sends one reminder.

A request holds its time for at most 23 hours, and only until the minimum notice before the appointment begins. If nobody decides by then, the time is free again and the customer is told.

What the customer is told

Each step sends the customer one short message in the conversation, in the language the booking was made in: English, German, Portuguese or Hindi, and English for any other language. Every time is written in your time zone. For example:

• Waiting for your team: "Your request for Haircut on Friday, October 30, 10:00 AM (Berlin time) is with the team. You'll get the confirmation here."
• Confirmed by your team: "Your Haircut on Friday, October 30, 10:00 AM (Berlin time) is confirmed. If you need to change it, just reply here." When Fynn books on his own, it says "is booked".
• Declined: "Sorry, we can't do Friday, October 30, 10:00 AM (Berlin time). Reply here and we'll find another time."
• Not decided in time: "We could not confirm Friday, October 30, 10:00 AM (Berlin time) in time. A teammate will reply here."
• Cancelled by your team: "Your Haircut on Friday, October 30, 10:00 AM (Berlin time) has been cancelled. Reply here if you'd like a new time."

Live chat customers get each of these messages by email as well, so a confirmation reaches them after they closed the chat. On WhatsApp, a free text message reaches the customer only within 24 hours of their last message. When your team decides later than that, the customer is not told there and the card says so: send an approved template from the reply box, or reach the customer another way.

Frequently asked questions

Which plan do I need?

Business or Enterprise, and a 7 day trial of either plan includes appointments. If a workspace moves below Business, Fynn stops offering times, and your team can still decide the requests that are open.

Does Fynn ever book without asking the customer?

No. Fynn offers only times your calendars show as free, and he always gets the customer's yes before he books, cancels or moves anything. Whether your team confirms after that is your choice.

Can customers choose who they book with?

Yes, when each person has their own bookable calendar. Customers ask for the name you gave the calendar, for example "with Anna". Otherwise Fynn books the first free calendar in your order.

What if I change an appointment directly in my calendar?

Deskwoot does not notice, and the customer is not told. Cancel or move appointments on the card in the conversation, so the calendar and the customer stay in step. A deleted event only frees the time for new bookings.

Does it work on every channel?

Yes, wherever Fynn answers: website chat, email, WhatsApp, Telegram, LINE, SMS and X. In live chat Fynn asks for an email address before he books, because the messages about the appointment also go out by email.