Appointment types: different lengths for different appointments
Appointment types
Most businesses book more than one kind of appointment, and they do not take the same amount of time. A quick showing is not a listing presentation; a hygiene visit is not a new-patient exam. Appointment types let you say how long each kind runs, so your assistant offers the right amount of time instead of one length for everything.
If you do nothing
Nothing changes. Until you add a type, every appointment uses the single appointment length on your Calendar page, exactly as it does today. The line under the heading tells you which length is in use right now.
That is deliberate. Your appointment length decides which times your assistant offers a lead, so we do not change it for you based on your industry — you choose.
Adding types
On Settings → Appointment types:
- If you have no types yet, you will see a button offering common starting points for your industry. These are researched suggestions, not rules — a real-estate agent is offered showing / buyer consultation / listing appointment, a dental practice new patient / hygiene / emergency. Add them and change whatever you like.
- Or press Add a type and build your own.
For each type you set:
- Name — in English and in Spanish. These are your words; leads hear them, so name them the way you would say them out loud.
- Minutes — how long the appointment itself runs.
- Gap after — time you want left free afterwards. This is where drive time between showings or turnover between chairs belongs.
- Default — the one type used when nothing more specific is known. Only one type can be the default.
Press Save appointment types when you are done.
Good to know
- You can have up to 12 types. Lengths run from 5 to 480 minutes.
- Renaming a type is safe. Each type keeps a short internal id, so changing the name it shows does not disturb anything already booked.
- If you have types but have not marked one as the default, appointments with no specific type fall back to your single appointment length. Marking a default is what changes that.
- Removing a type does not touch appointments that are already on the calendar.
What this does not do yet
Adding types here records them and shows them. Choosing a type during a conversation, and naming the type in reminders, arrive with the next scheduling releases. Until then the length in use is the one described above.