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Cal.com

Updated

Your chatbot offers a visitor the free times of your Cal.com event types and books the one they choose. Setting it up takes about two minutes: you make an API key in Cal.com and paste it into ChatFrom.

What it does

  • Offers your free times: when a visitor wants a meeting, a demo or an appointment, the chatbot reads what is free in Cal.com and offers a few times, in the visitor's own time zone as their browser gives it, or another they name. In a messaging app, where the chat cannot tell, times are in your Cal.com time zone.
  • Books the one they choose: it asks for their name and email, confirms the time once, and books it. The appointment is in your calendar at once, or waits for you when you confirm that event type by hand.
  • Leaves the confirmation to Cal.com: the visitor gets Cal.com's own confirmation email, with its links to move or cancel the appointment.

The chatbot does not move or cancel an appointment itself. It tells the visitor to use the links in that email, which work for them alone.

In Cal.com

  1. Open Settings, Developer, API keys and press Add.
  2. Name it ChatFrom. A key that never expires saves you entering a new one later.
  3. Copy the key. It starts with cal_ and is shown once.

In ChatFrom

  1. Open your chatbot and go to Tools. Under Connections, tap + on Cal.com.
  2. Paste the key and press Connect Cal.com. The card shows your account and lists your event types.
  3. Tick the event types the chatbot may book, up to 12. They are ticked to begin with, the first 12 of them, but for one hidden on your Cal.com page, which waits for you to tick it.
  4. Press Try it at the top of the page and say "Can I book a demo next week?", pick one of the times, and give a name and an email.

Your event types

  • Several event types: the chatbot asks which one the visitor wants when it is not clear from what they said.
  • Your rules stay yours: working hours, buffers, notice and limits are Cal.com's, and the chatbot only ever offers a time Cal.com says is free.
  • Not offered: an event type that takes payment, has seats, repeats, asks the visitor to verify their email, or requires an answer the chatbot cannot give, such as a meeting title, a location or a question of your own. The card shows these with the reason.
  • A phone number or a topic: when an event type requires the visitor's phone number or what the meeting is about, the chatbot asks for it before booking.
  • Needs your confirmation: for an event type you confirm by hand, the chatbot says the time is requested, not yet confirmed.

After you change an event type or your time zone in Cal.com, press Reload event types on the card. Without a day named, the chatbot looks at the next 7 days; a visitor can ask for any day up to 60 days ahead.

In a workflow, the ready-made path Book a meeting first says when you are free, a line a day (“Fri 2 Oct: 09:00–17:00 CEST”), and asks which day and time suit the visitor. They answer in their own words, such as “after 4”, and the times that fit come as buttons, each with its time zone; when nothing fits, the nearest free times do, and the chatbot says so. A visitor who names another day instead of tapping gets that day's times. Then it asks for their name, their email and what they would like to talk about, which they may skip and which Cal.com keeps as the booking's notes, and books the time, the way Call-back booking does. A booking cannot be changed or added to in the chat afterwards. When an event type you ticked needs the visitor's phone number, the path asks for it too; tick one later and the editor tells you to add the path again so it asks. Reading their answer is one short call on your chatbot's model. The path adds ten steps; a workflow can have 40. A Tool Call step can name cal_hours or cal_slots itself.

What stays safe

  • Your key is stored encrypted and is never shown again, to you or anyone else.
  • The chatbot can only book the event types you ticked, at times Cal.com itself says are free.
  • Nobody can move or cancel someone else's appointment through the chatbot: it cannot do either.
  • One conversation can book 2 appointments an hour, one email address can be booked 3, and your chatbot 30 an hour and 100 a day, which keeps anyone from filling your calendar or a stranger's inbox through the chatbot.

To stop, switch Booking tools off, or press Disconnect to delete the stored key; then delete the key in Cal.com too. Appointments already booked stay. What else a chatbot can connect to is on the Connections page.