Troubleshooting
The agent does not book, or the times are wrong
What to check when your agent offers no appointments, takes a note instead of booking, hides a free time, offers a busy one, or an appointment is missing from Google Calendar.
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- 8 min read
In this article
It is nearly always one of three things: booking is not fully on (a service or the hours are missing), a rule leaves out the time you expected, or Google Calendar is not connected the way you think. Start in the agent’s Appointments tab: the label next to The agent can book appointments and the Preview section tell you what is going on.
The agent offers no appointments or says it cannot book
Open Agents › your agent › Appointments and look at the status label.
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Booking is switched off | Switch on The agent can book appointments and press Save changes |
| Cannot book yet, with “At least one active service is missing” | No service has Can be booked switched on | Add a service or switch on one of the hidden ones |
| Cannot book yet, with “The hours in which appointments are given are missing” | The appointment hours follow the profile, and the profile says Always open or has no hours | Choose Separate hours for appointments and set when you take them |
| Not saved | You changed the switch and have not saved | Press Save changes |
| “The agent is not active, so it answers no conversations and books nothing” | The agent is a Draft or is Paused | Press Activate or Resume on the agent’s page |
| “Your plan does not include appointments” | Your plan does not include them | Press View plans |
| “Appointments are switched off for now” | iAgentify has switched them off temporarily. The ones that exist can still be read and cancelled | It does not depend on you. If it goes on, write to us from Support |
If the label says Booking and the agent still answers nobody, the problem is not in appointments: see your agent is not replying.
The agent takes a note of the appointment but does not book it
It can happen when the agent was created from a sector template. Several templates tell it to take an appointment request and not to treat it as confirmed, and that instruction is still there after you switch booking on.
Open Agents › your agent › Behaviour › Instructions.
Under Sales instructions and Support instructions, look for the sentences about appointment or booking requests.
Change them to what you want now, for example: “When they ask for an appointment, offer the free times and book it”.
Press Save changes and run the test again in the Playground tab.
Check Conversation rules too: a rule such as “do not confirm appointments” is always obeyed.
It does not offer a time you see as free
Open Preview, in the Appointments tab, and choose the service: it shows the times the agent would offer right now. If the time is not there, one of these rules leaves it out.
- The appointment does not fit before closing. A time is only offered if the whole service ends before the slot does.
- It is not on the grid. With An appointment can start every 30 minutes and opening at 9:00, 9:15 is not offered.
- It is too soon. Minimum notice starts at 2 hours: at 10:00, 11:00 is not offered.
- It is too far ahead. Can be booked up to sets the last day. When you pick a day outside the window, the preview says so: “This day is outside the booking window”.
- The break between appointments. With Free time between two appointments, the times right next to another appointment disappear.
- It is already full. The number of Appointments at once has been reached.
- It is a special date. Look at Closed days and special hours.
- You are busy in Google Calendar. Under the times, the preview says “The busy times in Google Calendar are already taken out”.
- You have not saved. The preview works from what is saved: “Save the changes and the preview updates with the new rules”.
If you need to give that time anyway, your team can add it with New appointment › Use another time: see add an appointment.
It offers a time when you cannot see anyone
- A public holiday or time off. The agent does not know about them unless they are under Closed days and special hours.
- The appointment hours are the business hours. If you open 9:00 to 20:00 but only take appointments in the morning, choose Separate hours for appointments.
- You have something written down elsewhere. Without Google Calendar connected, the agent only knows iAgentify’s appointments. With it connected, only the calendar chosen for that agent counts: an event in another calendar does not block the time.
- The connection with Google has failed. If you see “Availability is now based on iAgentify’s own appointments only” or, under the times, “Google Calendar could not be read”, the agent is not seeing your events. See if the connection stops working.
- Appointments at once is higher than 1. Then two overlapping appointments are normal.
A customer says they have an appointment and it is not there
The rule is the one on the screen itself: “If an appointment is not on this page, it does not exist”.
Under Appointments › List, search by their name, phone, email address or the Reference from the confirmation message. The list includes cancelled ones.
If the reference starts with
TEST-, it is a simulation made in the Playground tab, not a real appointment.Open Appointments › Stopped replies. If the agent tried to tell them they had an appointment without having booked it, you will see there what it tried to say and what the customer received instead.
Read the conversation under Conversations. If the customer never received a message that starts with “Your appointment is confirmed”, there is no appointment.
If the appointment does not exist, add it yourself with New appointment.
The customer wants to change or cancel and the agent does not do it
That is by design: the agent does not change or cancel appointments. When the customer asks, it hands the conversation to your team, which receives the A customer asks for a person notification; if handoff is off, it gives them your contact details. Change or cancel the appointment under Appointments: see change the time of an appointment and cancel an appointment.
The appointment does not show up in Google Calendar
Open the appointment and look at the Google Calendar section.
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No calendar | No calendar was connected when the appointment was made. It is only in iAgentify | Nothing. Appointments from before the connection are not written |
| Waiting to be written | It is being written. It usually takes a few seconds | Wait. If Google does not answer, it is retried automatically |
| “Google did not answer. It is retried automatically every hour” | A temporary failure on Google’s side | Wait |
| “The Google account has stopped giving access” | The permission was removed or expired | Press Check the connection and connect the same account again. The appointment is written then |
| “The chosen calendar no longer exists in that account” | Somebody deleted that calendar in Google | Choose another one in the agent’s Appointments tab |
| “The connected account is not allowed to write to that calendar” | The account can see that calendar but cannot write to it | Choose another calendar, or ask its owner for permission to edit it |
| “Somebody deleted the event by hand in Google Calendar. The appointment still stands here” | The event was removed in Google | The appointment is still valid. If it should not be, cancel it under Appointments |
In every case the appointment is valid and holds its time in iAgentify. Problems when connecting the account are in messages when connecting.
The customer has not received the confirmation email
- They gave no email address. The email is only sent if the appointment has one. If you want everyone to get it, choose Email or Phone and email under What the customer is asked for.
- It is in their junk folder. Ask them to look.
- The box was unticked. When adding, moving or cancelling an appointment, your team can untick the email notice.
- They expected a reminder. iAgentify sends no reminders before the appointment.
The confirmation in the conversation always arrives when the agent books: it is the message that starts with “Your appointment is confirmed”.
What to send to support
Open a ticket from Support with the name of the agent, the reference of the appointment if there is one, the service, the day and time you expected, and what happened instead. If it is a problem with Google Calendar, copy the text shown in the Google Calendar section of the appointment or next to the connected account.
Related articles
- Appointments: what your agent can and cannot doYour agent offers the free times and books the appointment in the conversation. What it does on its own, what is left to your team and where Google Calendar fits.
- Switch on appointment booking for your agentAdd your services, the hours you take appointments in and the rules in your agent’s Appointments tab, switch booking on and check it with a test appointment.
- Connect Google Calendar to appointmentsConnect your Google account so the agent stops offering times you are already busy and every appointment shows up in your calendar. What syncs and what does not.
- Run your appointments day to day: agenda, changes, cancellationsWhat the Appointments screen shows, how to add one that comes in by phone, change its time, cancel it and mark whether the customer came. And what the customer gets.