Appointments

Appointment booking settings do not live on the AI page.

• Meeting types Gene may book are on Settings > Calendars > Meeting Types (Managers only): enable a type and set Bookable by to AI or AI + People.
• Preferred meeting format (No preference, In person, Video or Phone) is the workspace-wide dropdown on Settings > Calendars > Availability (Managers only).
• Meeting tool (Google Meet, Zoom or Microsoft Teams) is per person, in the Meeting tool card on Settings > Calendars > Availability. Each teammate picks their own.
• Messages around each meeting (the confirmation, reminders, cancellation and no-show messages, the channel each goes out on, and your own emails and wording) are on Flows > Appointments, documented at Flows > Appointments.

What the AI reads when it books#

The assistant books meetings using the types on the Meeting Types tab and the Preferred meeting format. These choices apply to the whole workspace:

• Enabled and Bookable by: Gene may offer a type only when it is enabled and set to AI or AI + People. People keeps it for your team and booking pages. Disabling a type stops new bookings for it.
• Format and Location: In person, Video or Phone, with an address or fixed meeting link when applicable. The host's own meeting tool can create a video link, see below.
• Assignees: Gene only offers, books and sends links for meeting types where the lead's owner is one of the Assignees. If the lead has no owner, or their owner is not on any type, every type is available.
• Preferred meeting format (Settings > Calendars > Availability): when a lead wants to meet, Gene suggests this format first, among the types it can use for that lead.

There is no separate switch for in-person meetings, online meetings or call-backs. Gene offers the formats of enabled AI-bookable meeting types. If every type is people-only or disabled, Gene does not propose a booking and hands the conversation to your team. A workspace with no meeting types keeps any older booking preferences until it creates a type; without either, Gene assumes an online meeting.

When a lead asks for "a call" and there is an AI-bookable Video type but no Phone type, Gene offers an online video call.

Which video tool a meeting uses#

The meeting tool is not a workspace setting. Each teammate sets their own in the Meeting tool card on Settings > Calendars > Availability (a manager can also set it for them there), and every video meeting Gene books with them (from a chat, the Gene sidebar or the public booking page) uses it:

• Connecting Google Calendar sets it to Google Meet if they have not picked a tool. Zoom and Microsoft Teams can be picked once Zoom or Outlook is connected.
• A meeting type set to Zoom or Microsoft Teams under Meeting Types still uses that tool for its own bookings, whatever the host picked.

Because the tool depends on who hosts, Gene does not promise leads a specific tool. It confirms the time and sends the join link in the booking confirmation.

Alongside those, the times the AI can offer come from:

• each host's work hours (Settings > Calendars > Availability);
• the meeting types with their booking rules (Settings > Calendars > Meeting Types).

No calendar and no work hours yet#

Until someone in the workspace connects a calendar (Google Calendar or Outlook, under Settings > Calendars > Connections) or sets work hours, Gene has no real times to offer, so it offers none. It still offers the meeting: it asks the lead which days and times suit them, then hands the conversation to your team with those times so you can confirm one. It never books a time in this state. As soon as anyone connects a calendar or sets hours, Gene offers real times again.

When a lead asks for a call#

A lead who asks for a call or a meeting ("can we do a call next week?") gets it booked on every channel: WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, email, SMS and the rest.

• The assistant asks at most one meeting-prep question first, about something it still needs (often where the lead is, so the times fit their clock). When nothing is missing, it asks none.
• Then it offers two specific times with their dates and books the one the lead picks.
• Asking for a call is a booking request, not a request for a person, so Gene does not hand the conversation over for it. A lead who asks for a person is still handed over.
• If the lead says "the first one works" before any times were offered, Gene offers the times in that reply instead of asking another question.

The lead's timezone comes first#

Before it proposes any time, the assistant confirms where the lead is.

• When the contact already has a timezone saved (Location on the contact), Gene uses it and does not ask again.
• Your office timezone is never taken as the lead's. Until the lead says where they are, Gene asks once.
• When the lead's phone number points to a country, it checks that in one line ("I see a Dutch number, are you in that timezone now?") instead of asking for a timezone cold.
• With nothing to go on, it asks which city they are in.
• It gets no times to offer until the lead has confirmed.
• It then quotes times in the lead's own timezone, never your office's.

Two times first, the booking link as a fallback#

When the calendar has free times, Gene offers the lead the two best of them in the lead's timezone and books the one they pick. It does not send your booking link instead.

When the lead names a day ("can we meet on the 29th?"), Gene looks up the free times on that exact day and offers two of them. If that day is full, it offers times on the next day and says so. It can look as far ahead as the meeting type's Date range (14 days when it is not set, 60 days at most). For a day further out, Gene tells the lead how far ahead bookings open and suggests a day inside that range. When the lead names no day, Gene checks the coming days with a few times spread across each one, so a team that works long hours still gets its later days offered.

Gene sends the self-service booking link only when:

• the lead turned down the times it offered;
• the lead asked for a link;
• no free times came back, or the calendar check failed.

A lead whose owner is an assignee of a meeting type leads can book only gets a link to one of their owner's types, never another type or an outside booking page. When that type has Lead's owner first on and the lead's owner is one of its assignees, Gene offers and books the owner's times first, then the type's other assignees. When the meeting goes to someone other than the lead's owner, the lead moves to the person who took it. See Lead's owner first.

Where things live#

Tips#

• If a lead is told "no times are available", check Availability first: Gene can only offer slots inside the configured work hours, in the right timezone.
• If a lead got a booking link without being offered times first, check the conversation: they turned times down, asked for a link, or there were no free times in the window.
• If a lead was booked only with their own advisor, or told their advisor will be in touch instead of getting a link, the meeting type has Lead's owner first on.
• If Gene asks leads for their preferred times instead of offering times, nobody in the workspace has connected a calendar or set work hours yet.
• Give an in-person type a definite location (a real address, not "our office"). The assistant reads it when proposing options.
• If a lead got a Zoom link where you expected Google Meet (or the other way round), check the host's Meeting tool card, then the meeting type's video setting.