How to type appointments in your calendar

Keep adding appointments to Google Calendar the way you do today. For each event, make sure of four things:

1. The customer’s mobile number is somewhere in the event: the title, the location or the description.
2. Their name is in the title (“Jane Smith”).
3. A word for the kind of appointment is in the title, when you have more than one kind (“Jane Smith - Consultation”). It chooses the messages and the checklist.
4. The address is in the location when it is not at your place, so the customer’s page shows it.

You do not need to type them in a fixed order or format. Each appointment page in the app shows What we understood, so you can check.

Events typed by a business with the “General appointments” starter set and one type of its own, “Consultation” (its words: “consult” and “consultation”), and what the app reads from each one.

A word in the title (or else in the description) says which kind of appointment it is, in any case and as a whole word: “consult” finds “Smith - Consult” but not “Consultant”. An event with none of the words is a general appointment. The words of each starter set:

Use your own words, add kinds or remove them in Settings → Appointment types.

• Any way people type them: 202-555-0143, (202) 555 0143, 202.555.0143, 2025550143 or +1 202 555 0143.
• A line that starts with “Phone:”, “Cell:” or “Mobile:” is read first. Then the title, the location and the description.
• Up to 3 mobile numbers in the United States or Canada. The first is the customer’s; the others (a spouse, a tenant) get the same messages.
• Your own numbers are never a customer’s: add your office and team numbers in Settings → Calendar, and we never text them.

An email address in the event (or a guest) is read too: customers without a mobile number can get their messages by email. We never invite customers to an event.

An event that looks like an appointment but has no mobile number waits under Appointments → Needs info. Add the number to the event in your calendar, or answer it there, and it becomes an appointment.

We remember customers: an event with the email of a customer you have, or a name you once said is theirs, becomes their appointment by itself next time.

• Events someone else created and invited you to (a lead platform, a colleague). You can change this in Settings → Calendar.
• Invitations you said no to, and events that are already over.
• Events with one of your skip words in the title, for example “#no” (none at first; add them in Settings → Calendar).
• All-day events: reminders need a start time. They wait under Needs info until the event has one.

To check new appointments yourself first, use “Approve each new appointment before its first message” in Settings → Calendar.

• Move the event: the old reminders are dropped, and the customer gets the new time. They are asked to confirm it again.
• Delete it: no more reminders go out. A customer who had confirmed gets a short “canceled” message (a setting in Settings → Messages).
• Change the title, number or address: the app reads it again and uses what changed.

So you see customers’ answers in Google Calendar on your phone, we put a mark at the start of the event’s title:

• ✅ the customer confirmed.
• 🔁 they asked for a new time.
• 📞 they texted that this time may not work (like “NO”), so call them. It goes away when they confirm again, the time changes, or you mark the call done.
• ⛔ the customer stopped our texts (they replied STOP), so they get no more text reminders. Call them: some people write “Stop” to cancel or to stop the work.
• ⚠️ our last message did not reach them, or nobody can get their messages. Call them.

We never read our own marks as part of the title. Choose words instead of icons, or no marks, in Settings → Calendar.