Direct Booking

Turn on Direct Booking, and your AI Receptionist can check your real calendar availability. It reads Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook / Microsoft 365. It offers open slots and books the appointment, all during the inbound call. The caller hangs up with a confirmed time on your calendar, and a calendar invite in their inbox. This is different from the Follow-up Text option. That option texts the caller a scheduling link to fill in after the call. Direct Booking commits the appointment during the call, while you still have the caller’s attention. When Direct Booking is on, it replaces the follow-up text scheduling flow for that receptionist.

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What you need

• A connected calendar: Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook / Microsoft 365
• An active AI Receptionist agent
• The calendar connection is shared with AI Calling. Connect once, use everywhere.

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Connect your calendar

If you already connected a calendar for AI Calling, you are done. The AI Receptionist reuses the same connection. Otherwise:

1. Open your receptionist’s Settings page
2. Turn on Direct Booking in the Call Handling section
3. Click Configure on the Direct Booking card. The dialog opens with Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar connect cards.
4. Click Connect on your provider
5. Sign in with your Google or Microsoft account
6. Grant calendar access. hyzl asks permission to read your busy times and to create new events.
7. Choose which calendar to use. The default is your Primary calendar.

The connection status updates to Connected. Disconnecting later (from either product’s settings) turns off booking everywhere that uses your calendar.

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Set up booking for your receptionist

Booking details are shared with AI Calling. There is one set of booking settings for your account, used by both your receptionist and your calling campaigns. Editing them here updates them everywhere (and vice versa). The on/off toggle, however, is independent. Turning Direct Booking on for your receptionist does not affect AI Calling, and vice versa. After you turn Direct Booking on:

1. Click Configure
2. Set the meeting length in minutes (30 is a good default)
3. Set the availability window: the days of the week and the start and end times the AI may offer. hyzl reads the window in your calendar timezone.
4. Set buffer times before and after each appointment. The AI will not offer slots that overlap these.
5. Set the minimum notice (the AI will not offer anything sooner than this)
6. Set the look-ahead window: how many days into the future the AI may offer
7. Choose the meeting type:
   • Online first, phone as backup. The AI collects the caller’s email for a video invite. The invite uses Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, matching your connected calendar. If they decline, it books a phone callback instead.
   • Phone first, online meeting as backup. The AI books a phone callback by default. It offers a video link (Meet or Teams) when the caller shares an email.
   • Custom. Describe the format (e.g. an on-site appointment) and the AI follows your instructions.
8. Customize the calendar event title and description templates

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What the caller hears

A typical inbound conversation:

Caller: I would like to come in some time this week. AI: Of course. We have availability Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. Does either work for you? Caller: Tuesday afternoon. AI: I have Tuesday at 2 PM available. Shall I book that for you? Caller: Yes. AI: Would you like a calendar invite? If so, what email should I send it to? Caller: john at example dot com AI: Let me read that back: J, O, H, N at example dot com. Did I get that right? Caller: Yes. AI: I booked you for Tuesday at 2 PM, and the invite goes to john at example dot com. Is there anything else I can help with?

The letter-by-letter read-back is automatic. It is how the AI confirms the email so a one-character mistake does not send the invite into a void. If the caller declines to share an email, the AI confirms a callback number instead and books a phone appointment.

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Mid-call changes

Callers sometimes change their mind before hanging up. On the same call, the AI can:

• Reschedule the appointment it just booked to a different open slot
• Cancel the appointment entirely
• Correct its own mistake if it booked the wrong time

The AI can only modify appointments it booked on this same call. It cannot touch unrelated events on your calendar.

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View bookings

hyzl records every appointment your receptionist books on the Bookings page. That page covers bookings from both AI Calling and AI Receptionist. Filter by the AI Receptionist source to see just these. Each booking shows the time, caller details, meeting type, status, and full change history. Cancelled and rescheduled appointments stay in the list with their status updated.

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Timezones

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Fix common problems

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Direct Booking is on but the AI never offers to book

Check three things:

1. Confirm your calendar (Google or Outlook) shows Connected in the Direct Booking section
2. Confirm the booking settings under Configure: the meeting length, the availability window, and the event templates. AI Calling shares all three.
3. Confirm you have free slots inside your availability window within the look-ahead period. If your calendar is full, the AI has nothing to offer.

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”Calendar access has expired”

A refresh token can expire if it is not used for a long time. It also expires if you change your Google or Microsoft password. Reconnect from the Direct Booking section (or from AI Calling’s Settings, the same connection). Calls keep working in the meantime. The AI skips booking until you restore the connection.

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Direct Booking and Follow-up Text

When Direct Booking is turned on, it takes precedence over the Follow-up Text scheduling flow. The AI books directly instead of offering to text a link. Turn Direct Booking off to return to the text-link behavior.

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What hyzl stores

When you connect your Google or Microsoft calendar, hyzl stores three things:

• a refresh token. hyzl uses it to read your busy/free schedule and create events.
• the calendar ID and timezone you chose
• a connection timestamp

hyzl does not read the contents of your existing events. It reads only whether each window is free or busy.

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Next steps