Confirmed · Thu 9:00 AMAdded to Mike's calendar · reminder set
Reminder: your free estimate with Mike is tomorrow at 9:00 AM. Reply C to cancel.
The customer asks for Tuesday, you offer Thursday, and they can only do after 2. Then you still have to check who on the team is actually free. Pantora books from your team’s connected Google Calendars, so everyone sees the same appointment.
Offer open times, assign the visit, and send the reminders
The customer picks Free estimate, sees only times your team is actually free, and confirms. Pantora writes the event to the assigned calendar and attaches the booking to the lead, so the visit and the request live together.
Confirmed for Thu 10:00 amWritten to the crew calendar
Assigned to whoever should take it
Each booking type knows who can take it and how to share the work: spread evenly, take turns, or whoever is free first. Hours, buffers, and minimum notice are set per person, so an early slot never lands on the late starter.
3
ways to share bookings across a team
Free estimateLeast busy first
MI
Mike
8 this wk
DA
Dana
4 this wk
LU
Luis
7 this wk
Assigned to Danny · Spread evenly
The day before and the hour before
Pantora watches every booking and fires a reminder 24 hours out and an hour out, by text or email, in your words. A cancel link is right there if plans change. Fewer no-shows, and when one happens, the follow-up goes out too.
24h
and 1h before, on their own
PS
Priya S.(770) 555-0148
Reminder sent
Hi, is my estimate still on for tomorrow?
Yes, Danny will be there Thursday at 10 am. Reply if you need another time.
Perfect, thanks.
Confirmed · Thu 10 amFree estimate · Danny
~$240
What's included
Scheduling that runs from the calendars you keep
Each person on your team connects their Google Calendar. Pantora checks availability before every booking, so you keep using the calendars you already have.
Google Calendar, per person
Each team member connects their own calendar, picks which calendars count as busy, and where confirmed bookings get written.
Hours, buffers, and notice
Working hours per day, buffers before and after each visit, minimum notice, and how far ahead customers can book.
Booking types you define
Free estimate, 45 minutes. Service call, 90. Each with its own team, its own assignment rule, and the timezone customers see.
Fair assignment across the team
Spread evenly, take turns, or whoever is free first. Pantora picks the person on confirmation and writes the event to their calendar.
Reminders that reduce no-shows
Text or email reminders 24 hours and 1 hour before, in your words, with a cancel link so plans can change cleanly.
Every booking on its lead
The appointment sits on the pipeline lead with the request, and completed or no-show can start a follow-up.
app.pantora.aiLive
Scheduling
Who takes bookings, what customers can book, and what is coming up.
New booking type
Team members
MR
Mike RamirezMon–Fri · 8 AM–5 PM · Google Calendar
Active
DL
Dana LeeTue–Sat · 9 AM–6 PM · Google Calendar
Active
LO
Luis OrtegaMon–Fri · 7 AM–4 PM · Google Calendar
No calendar
Booking types
Free estimate
45 min · Mike, Dana · Spread evenly
Design consultation
60 min · Dana · Whoever is free first
Final walkthrough
30 min · Any · Take turns
Upcoming
CustomerBookingWhenWithStatus
MRMike R.Free estimateThu, Mar 6 · 9:00 AMDanaConfirmed
SPSarah P.Free estimateThu, Mar 6 · 1:00 PMMikeConfirmed
ALAna L.Design consultationFri, Mar 7 · 10:00 AMDanaReminder sent
Appointment scheduling for local businesses, done right
How online booking works, what to set up, and how to use appointment reminders.
Why customers want to book without calling
Scheduling can take several calls or texts before both sides agree on a time. Letting customers pick an open time on your website makes that step easier. They book when it suits them, and your team gets a confirmed event on its calendar.
Local service appointments need room for travel, paperwork, and whatever else is already on the schedule. Pantora checks connected Google Calendars and applies the working hours and buffers you set. Your team keeps using its calendar while customers book through Pantora.
book a plumber online
schedule a free estimate near me
how to let customers book appointments on my website
What to decide before you turn booking on
Choose what customers can book, how long each visit takes, and who can handle it. Then set working hours, travel buffers, minimum notice, and how far ahead appointments can be booked. These settings keep the times you offer practical for your team.
In Pantora each team member connects their own Google Calendar, chooses which of their calendars should count as busy (work, personal, the shared crew calendar), and chooses where confirmed bookings get written. The booking type carries the rest: duration, who is eligible, the assignment method, and the timezone shown to customers. Availability is computed from all of that at the moment the customer is looking, so a slot that was open at 8 am and got taken by a phone booking at 8:30 isn’t offered at 9. Google Calendar is the only calendar Pantora reads today, so a team on Outlook would need to move first.
A customer may be ready to book while reading a service page, finishing a quote form, or texting your business. Offering booking in those places puts the next step right in front of them. Each option should use the same availability and team rules.
Pantora offers all three. Drop a booking section or button onto any page of your website. Add a Booking field to a multi-step form, and the submission arrives as a confirmed appointment on the lead instead of a request to call back. Turn on the texting agent and it can offer open times and confirm the visit inside the conversation. What Pantora doesn’t have today is a separate booking-link page to paste into an email signature or a social profile; booking happens through your website, your forms, and your texts. Every confirmed booking is written to the assigned calendar and attached to the pipeline lead.
An appointment reminder gives customers the time, the person they’ll meet, and a way to make a change. It can cut down on forgotten visits and give your team more notice when someone needs to cancel. Keep the message short and specific.
Pantora checks every upcoming booking and raises two events, 24 hours before and 1 hour before, that your automations can act on. The usual setup sends a text with the time and the technician, and an email for customers who prefer it. Both respect your messaging hours. If the customer cancels through the link, the booking shows as cancelled on the lead, and that can start a follow-up of its own. When the visit is marked completed, that can start the next step, often a review request, and a no-show can start a reschedule nudge. The messages are yours to word; Pantora just makes sure they go out.
When several people take appointments, decide how new bookings get shared. You might rotate through the team, give the next booking to the person with the fewest, or offer the earliest open time. The best choice can vary by appointment type.
Pantora sets the assignment method per booking type, so estimates can rotate while emergency calls go to whoever is free first. The assignment happens at confirmation: Pantora picks the person, writes the event to that person's calendar, and records who has it on the booking and on the lead. Each person's own working hours, buffers, and busy calendars are honored, so nobody gets a slot they can't make. The texting agent uses the same rules when it books, and so does a booking step inside a form. Each confirmed, rescheduled, cancelled, completed, or no-show status is tracked, and every one of them can start an automation.
Google Calendar, and only Google Calendar today. Each person on your team connects their own account, picks which of their calendars should count as busy, and chooses the calendar confirmed bookings are written to. If your team runs on Outlook or a paper book, you’d need to move to Google Calendar first; once you have, nothing else changes about how you use it.
Through your website, your forms, or a text. Add a booking section or button to any page, put a Booking step at the end of a quote form, or let the texting agent offer times in the conversation. There’s no separate booking-link page to share on its own today, so the booking always sits inside something that already belongs to you.
It reads your connected Google Calendars the moment the customer is looking. It offers only time that's genuinely open across the people eligible for that booking type, after applying each person's working hours, buffers before and after visits, minimum notice, and booking window. Anything on a calendar you marked as busy blocks the slot, including personal appointments if you chose to count them.
You decide per booking type. Spread evenly sends the next booking to the person with the fewest, take turns rotates in order, and whoever is free first offers the earliest open slot. Pantora assigns the person when the booking is confirmed, writes the event to that person's calendar, and shows the assignment on the booking and on the lead, so the office and the crew see the same thing.
Pantora raises an event 24 hours before and 1 hour before every booking, and your automations decide what to send: a text, an email, or both, in your own words with the customer's name and your business number filled in. Sends respect your messaging hours. Completed and no-show bookings raise events too, so a review request or a reschedule nudge can follow without anyone remembering.
Cancel, yes: there is a self-service cancel link, and a cancelled booking shows on the lead and can start a follow-up. Rescheduling points the customer back to booking a new time from your live availability rather than editing the old one, which keeps the calendar honest. The old booking is marked and the new one is assigned like any other.
