Setup guides
Booking rules
Sentence-style rules that decide who gets booked, for how long and with whom, with a Try it panel and worked examples.
Booking rules decide what happens at the end of a call. They read as sentences, you build them from dropdowns, and you never see code.
The first rule that matches wins. Rules are checked from the top down, and the last rule is a catch-all that cannot be deleted, so every caller gets an outcome.
Info
Code evaluates these rules, not the language model. When a rule says no, the booking is never attempted, so the assistant cannot book against your policy even if a caller talks it into agreeing.
Build a rule#
Open the Booking rules tab
In your playbook, choose Booking rules. If you are new to this, press Start from a template first: one click adds a working rule you can adjust.
Template What it does Book everyone Books every caller a 45-minute tour with the community's team, within the next 14 days. This is the catch-all. Urgent callers go to a person When the timeline is now or within 30 days and it is inside staffed hours, hands the caller straight to a person. After-hours callback Outside staffed hours, takes a callback instead of booking. Existing tour gets rescheduled When the caller already has a tour booked, offers to move it instead of adding a second. Vendors are redirected Gives the vendor message and ends the call politely. Job seekers are redirected Gives the job seeker message and ends the call politely. Write the WHEN half
Each condition is three dropdowns: a Detail, a Comparison and a Value.
Add a second condition with Add condition, and choose AND or OR between them. You cannot nest groups: rules stay readable on purpose.
Comparisons depend on the kind of detail:
Detail is Comparisons offered Yes or no is, is not known yet A choice is, is not, is one of, is none of, is not known yet, is known A number is, is more than, is less than, is between, is not known yet, is known Words is, is not, is not known yet, is known A time of day offers is later than and is earlier than instead. Words and choices are compared without regard to capital letters or extra spaces.
Write the THEN half
Pick one Outcome.
Outcome What the assistant does You also choose Book a tour Offers times and books. Length, who gives it, the kind of tour, and how many days ahead to look Ask for details first Asks for the answers you name, then checks the rules again. Which answers Move their existing tour Offers to move the tour the caller already has instead of adding a second. — Hand to a person now Transfers, or takes a callback outside staffed hours. An optional reason the person taking the call hears. Left empty, they hear "Booking rule:" and the rule's name Offer a callback Captures a callback window. An optional reason Send information instead Offers to email information and captures an address. No booking. — Give a set message Says the redirect line for wrong numbers, existing customers, vendors, job seekers or the family of a current prospect, then ends politely. Which message For Book a tour, With offers each staff job title you have set up on your community profiles, The community's team, The next person in the rotation, or Whoever handles a service, for communities whose reps specialize by service (see below).
Book through a page books through one of your community booking pages instead: the assistant offers that page's times, people and length, and the page chooses who takes the tour, exactly as when someone books it online. Change who takes tours on the page, and calls, the web chat and the page all follow. A rule With a particular person or role only offers the people on the page who match it, and never someone switched off Gives tours. On another community's calls, or if the page is paused, removed or has nobody who matches and can be booked, the rule's own length and person are used.
Note
Returning callers get their own rep. When a caller confirms who they are and their CRM record has a sales counselor on this community's staff, the assistant offers that person's times first. A rule that names a particular role or person is followed as written.
Read it back
Every rule shows a plain-words summary that updates as you edit:
In plain words: When the care type is memory care, book a 60-minute tour with the memory care director.
If that sentence does not say what you meant, the rule does not either.
Put the rules in the right order
Drag a rule by its handle, or use the up and down arrows. The number on each card is the order it is checked in. The catch-all stays pinned at the bottom.
Tip
Specific rules go above general ones. A rule that never fires is almost always sitting below a broader rule that matches first, and the builder warns you when that happens.
Try it
The Try it panel describes a caller with the same dropdowns and shows which rule matches.
Every rule tells you why it did or did not match. Nothing here is saved. Set a detail to Not known yet to test what happens before the caller has answered. Test this rule on any card fills the panel with a caller that rule would match.
Under it, Test with real calls replays a past call's answers against your draft rules, so you can see what a change would have done to calls you have already had.
What "good" looks like#
- The last rule is the catch-all and every caller reaches an outcome.
- Every rule's plain-words sentence says what you meant.
- The builder shows no warnings.
- Try it gives the answer you expect for your three or four most common callers.
Rules on care types and options#
When a question takes its choices from your prices, a rule on it offers your account's care types as the values, or the options of that set: Care type is Memory care, Apartment is one of Studio, One bedroom. They are the same names as under Pricing → Care types and options, so one rule works at every community.
A community that does not offer memory care never records it as an answer, so a memory care rule simply never fires there. Rename a care type in the catalog and the rules follow it: they point at the care type, not at its old name.
Worked examples#
Memory care gets a longer tour with the right person#
WHEN Care type is Memory care THEN Book a tour for 60 min with Memory care director
Put it above the catch-all. Any caller who says memory care gets an hour with the specialist; everyone else falls through to the catch-all's 45 minutes with the community team.
This needs two things in place: a Care type question with Memory care as one of its choices, and somebody on each community profile whose role is Memory care director. Without the second, the assistant has nobody to book with.
Urgent callers go to a person#
WHEN Timeline is one of Now, Within 30 days AND Inside staffed hours is Yes THEN Hand to a person now, reason Urgent caller
Put it near the top, above your booking rules. Inside staffed hours the caller is transferred straight away; outside them the human backup plan takes a callback instead, so nobody is left hanging.
Add this as the Urgent callers go to a person template and adjust the timeline values to match your own question.
An existing tour gets rescheduled, not duplicated#
WHEN Has an upcoming tour is Yes THEN Move their existing tour
Put it first. A family calling back to change a time gets their tour moved instead of a second one on the calendar, and your counselor's day stays sane.
This uses the caller's CRM record, so it only works once a CRM is connected and the caller is recognised.
Ask for the basics before deciding anything#
WHEN Care type is not known yet OR Timeline is not known yet THEN Ask for details first: Care type, Timeline
Put it above the rules that depend on those answers. The assistant asks for what is missing, then checks the rules again from the top.
The catch-all#
WHEN no rule above matches (the catch-all, always last) THEN Book a tour for 45 min with The community's team
You cannot delete it, because every caller needs an outcome. You can change what it does: some accounts book everyone, others prefer Offer a callback so a person always makes the appointment.
Warnings you may see#
The builder checks your rules as you type and explains problems in plain language, with a button that fixes each one.
| Warning | What it means |
|---|---|
| Rule 4 can never run because rule 2 always matches first | A broader rule sits above a narrower one. Move it. |
| Rule 3 can never run because rule 1 checks exactly the same thing first | Two rules with identical conditions. Change or turn one off. |
| Rule 2 checks care type for "assisted", which is not one of its choices | The value does not match the question's choices. Pick one from the list. |
| No rule covers callers with no timeline yet | Nothing says what to do before that answer arrives. Add an Ask for details first rule. |
| Add a catch-all rule at the end so every caller has an outcome | The last rule is not a catch-all. This one blocks publishing. |
| Rule 5 asks for budget, but no question collects it | The rule names an answer none of your questions produce. This one blocks publishing. |
| Rule 2 checks care type, which no question collects and the system does not know | The question was deleted. Change the condition or add the question back. Blocks publishing. |
Settings that apply to every rule#
At the bottom of the tab, More booking settings:
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Times offered at once | 2 | Two works best: one morning, one afternoon. |
| Tours allowed per call | 2 | A ceiling, so one call cannot fill a calendar. |
| Minimum notice | 60 minutes | The assistant never offers a tour that starts sooner than this. |
| Book callers who are not a fit | Off | Callers who hit a not-a-fit rule are not booked. |
What is recorded#
Every call stores the details the rules saw, the rule that fired and what it did. You can see it on the call record, and the call metrics give booking rate per rule (booked ÷ connected conversations) through the API and MCP.
Warning
Keep rules about fit, urgency and logistics. Have your counsel review any rule that turns callers away, because housing and consumer protection laws apply to senior living sales.