Service Types

Service types define what your business offers and control how appointments are scheduled. Each service type has its own duration, pricing, availability, and booking rules.

What Are Service Types?

A service type represents something a customer can book — a consultation, a cleaning, a repair visit, or any other service. When your AI agent books an appointment, it uses the service type’s rules to find available time slots.

Creating a Service Type

Go to Dashboard > Business and open the Appointment Settings section.

Field	Description	Default
Name	Service name (e.g., “Initial Consultation”)	Required
Description	What the service includes	Optional
Duration	How long the service takes (5–480 minutes)	30 min
Price	Cost of the service	Optional
Color	Color for calendar display	Optional

Scheduling Rules

Each service type has rules that control when and how it can be booked.

Buffer Times

Setting	Description	Default
Buffer before	Prep time before the appointment starts	0 min
Buffer after	Cleanup or transition time after the appointment ends	0 min

Buffers block off time around the appointment so your schedule isn’t back-to-back.

Example: A 45-minute dental cleaning with 15 minutes buffer before and after blocks a total of 75 minutes on the calendar.

Booking Limits

Setting	Description	Default
Max per day	Maximum appointments of this type per day	Unlimited
Advance booking days	How far in the future customers can book	30 days
Min advance hours	Minimum notice required to book	1 hour

Availability Window

Setting	Description	Default
Available days	Days of the week the service is offered	Monday–Friday
Start time	Earliest time the service is available	Not set
End time	Latest time the service is available	Not set

If start and end times are not set, the service follows your general business hours.

How Availability Works

When a caller asks to book an appointment, the AI agent checks all of these before offering a time slot:

Available days — Is the requested day one of the service’s available days?
Time window — Is the requested time within the start and end times?
Advance booking — Is the date within the advance booking window?
Minimum notice — Is there enough lead time before the appointment?
Max per day — Has the daily limit been reached?
Existing appointments — Are there any conflicts including buffer times?
Time slots — Is the slot available, blocked, on break, or reserved?

Time Slot Types

Time slots on the calendar have different types that affect availability:

Type	Description
Available	Open for booking
Blocked	Manually blocked off
Break	Staff break time
Meeting	Internal meeting
Reserved	Held for a specific purpose

Only Available slots can be booked by the AI agent.

Industry Examples

Industry	Service	Duration	Buffer	Max/Day	Advance
Dental	Cleaning	45 min	15 min before/after	8	90 days
Legal	Initial consultation	60 min	10 min after	6	30 days
Salon	Haircut	30 min	5 min after	16	14 days
Healthcare	Follow-up visit	15 min	5 min before	20	60 days
Real Estate	Property showing	30 min	15 min after	8	7 days
Auto Shop	Oil change	30 min	10 min after	12	14 days

Managing Service Types

Edit — Update any setting at any time
Reorder — Change the display order
Deactivate — Hide a service without deleting it (existing appointments are unaffected)
Delete — Remove a service type (existing appointments keep the service name but lose the link)

Deleting a service type does not cancel existing appointments. They retain the service name but are no longer linked to the service type’s rules.

Tips

Set realistic buffers — Account for prep and cleanup time so your schedule stays manageable
Use max per day limits — Prevent overbooking for demanding services
Match advance booking to your business — Restaurants may need 7 days, healthcare may need 90 days
Set minimum notice — Avoid same-hour bookings if you need preparation time