This article explains what a RIKO booking enquiry is, how the bot collects it, what happens next with and without an integration, the emails sent to you and to the visitor, and how to use the Bookings tab. Booking handling is available on the Booking and Pro plans.
What a booking enquiry is
A booking enquiry is a set of details the bot collects from a visitor who wants an appointment: by default their full name, email, phone number, the service they want and a preferred date or time. RIKO cannot see your calendar, so it does not promise a time. Unless a booking integration takes it further (see below), your clinic confirms the actual time with the visitor afterwards. The visitor is told exactly that.
How the bot recognises a booking request
The bot starts the booking flow when a visitor says they want to book, for example "I'd like to book an appointment", "can I make a booking", "I need a session" or "book now". General questions about booking ("how do I book?", "do you take online bookings?") are answered from the knowledge base instead. Safety and escalation checks always run first, so a distressed or angry message is never pulled into a booking.
The booking flow only starts if Booking collection is switched on under Booking in the Settings tab.
How the questions are asked
The bot asks for one thing at a time, in a friendly tone, and does not repeat questions for details already given. It understands relative dates such as "next Tuesday afternoon" and works them out against the current date in Melbourne time. The list of things it asks for comes from Information to collect in the Settings tab: each field is marked Needed or Optional, and the bot moves on if the visitor does not have an optional item. If your practice has more than one practitioner listed under Practitioners, the bot also asks which one the visitor would like to see, accepting "No preference".
When every needed item is collected the enquiry is complete and the steps below happen at once.
What happens when an enquiry is complete
- The enquiry is saved to the Bookings tab with status Pending.
- A "New Booking Request" email goes to the Notification email under Booking in Settings (or to your Contact Email if that is blank). It lists the visitor's name, email, phone, preferred date, reason, and any custom fields you asked for.
- If the visitor gave an email address, they receive a "Booking Request Received" email saying their request has been passed to your clinic and someone will be in touch shortly to confirm the details.
- On Pro, your Webhook endpoint receives the booking details.
- If a booking integration is connected, it runs as described in the next section.
What each integration does
Set these up under Booking integrations in the Settings tab. Details of every field: RIKO settings explained.
No integration
The bot collects the details and your clinic makes the booking in your own system. The visitor is told your team will be in touch to confirm.
Calendly (Booking and Pro)
When the enquiry is complete, RIKO creates a single-use Calendly scheduling link for your chosen event type and adds it to the bot's final message: "You can pick your time here: [link]". The visitor chooses a time in Calendly, and Calendly handles the confirmation. The enquiry is still saved to the Bookings tab and emailed to you.
Cliniko (Pro)
When the enquiry is complete, RIKO creates the patient in your Cliniko account (name, email, mobile) and then creates an appointment for them under your Business ID, with the practitioner and appointment type if you configured them. The visitor's preferred date, reason and a summary are written into the appointment notes. If the bot could work out a date and time from what the visitor said, the appointment is placed there; if not, it is placed at 9:00 am the next day as a placeholder. Appointments are created 50 minutes long. RIKO does not check availability, so your team should review and move the appointment in Cliniko and confirm with the patient.
Zanda (Pro)
When the enquiry is complete, RIKO creates a client profile in Zanda with the visitor's name, email and phone. Zanda does not let RIKO create appointments, so your team books the time in Zanda using the details from the booking email or the Bookings tab and confirms it with the visitor.
The Bookings tab
In the RIKO dashboard, open the Bookings tab. Each row shows Time, Name, Email, Summary (the enquiry in one sentence plus any custom fields) and Status.
- Click the status button to switch a booking between Pending and Confirmed once your clinic has booked it in.
- Use Filter by name or email to find a booking.
- Click Export CSV to download the list.
- Use Previous and Next to page through older bookings.
- Click the reload icon next to the title to fetch new bookings.
Recent bookings also appear under Recent Bookings on the Home tab.
What RIKO does not collect
RIKO will not collect card or bank details in chat, and it rejects any custom field label that asks for them. Keep payments in your practice-management system or your own payment page.
Turning bookings off
Switch off Booking collection under Booking in the Settings tab. The bot will still answer questions about booking from your knowledge base, but will not start collecting details.