How the AI Checks Staff and Service Availability
For service businesses, your AI receptionist checks staff and service availability before offering any appointment slot. This ensures callers can only book times when both the right staff and the right service are actually available.
What the AI checks
To find an available appointment slot, the AI considers:
- Location operating hours — the outer boundary for all bookings. No slot outside business hours is ever offered.
- The requested service — the AI uses the service's duration to determine how much time to block.
- Staff availability — which team members are working on the requested day and time.
- Staff-service assignment — which staff members can perform the requested service.
- Existing bookings — already-booked slots for each staff member are excluded.
All of these factors combine to produce the available time slots offered to the caller.
Staff preference
If a customer requests a specific team member ("I'd like to book with Sarah"), the AI limits availability to that staff member's schedule. If the requested time is unavailable with that person, the AI will let the caller know and may suggest alternative times when that team member is free.
If no staff preference is stated, the AI finds the earliest available slot across all qualified staff members and proceeds with that.
Service duration and buffer time
Each service has a configured duration. The AI blocks that amount of time in the staff member's schedule. If your services have buffer or gap times configured, those are factored in too — no back-to-back appointments without the required gap.
Multiple staff members
If multiple staff members can perform the requested service, the AI picks availability from whichever has an open slot at the requested time. If the customer has no preference, this makes the most efficient use of your team's capacity.
⚠️ Important: For a staff member to appear available to the AI, they need to have availability configured in the Staff Roster section, and be assigned to the relevant service. If staff are unavailable even though they should be, check both their roster and their service assignments.
💡 Tip: If you want customers to always book with a specific default staff member for a service, ensure that person's availability is well-configured and they are the primary or only assignee for that service.