Creating a Scheduling Flow

A Scheduling Flow presents a calendar to a visitor on your website so a high-intent visitor can book a meeting on the spot, without filling in a form first. It is one of the Web Experience Flow types – see Creating a Web Experience Flow for how Flows are built, triggered, and previewed. This article covers what is specific to Scheduling.

Table of Contents

• Before you begin
• Building the Flow
• The Show Scheduling Widget node
• Qualifying before the calendar
• The Display Calendar node
• Handling the other paths
• How it appears to the visitor
• How Scheduling interacts with other Experiences
• Limitations

Before you begin

You need:

• The Chili Piper install snippet on the pages where the calendar should appear;
• A Meeting Type to book against, and a way to route the meeting – an owner (from a preceding rule), an individual, or a Team via round robin. Most workspaces already have these, especially if you use Chat;
• Familiarity with the Flow Builder. The Trigger, the frequency limits, previewing, and publishing are the same across all Web Experience Flows and are covered in Creating a Web Experience Flow.

Building the Flow

Create the Flow from Flows → Web Experience → Create New Flow → Scheduling, then build the path. A Scheduling Flow has two nodes that are specific to it: Show Scheduling Widget and Display Calendar.

The Show Scheduling Widget node

This is the first node after the Trigger. It presents the scheduling prompt – a small card with your message, an email field, and a call-to-action. Configure the Content:

• Headline – for example, "Want to discuss pricing on a call?";
• Body – optional supporting text;
• Pre-populate email when known – when enabled, fills the email field for a visitor whose email is already known;
• Call to Action – the button label, for example "Book a call".

You can also set Styling – background, headline, body, and call-to-action colors – to match your site.

The node branches on how the visitor responds:

• CTA Engaged – the visitor submits an email and clicks the call-to-action. Continue toward the Display Calendar node;
• Dismissed – the visitor closes the card without engaging. See Handling the other paths.

The branch is named for engagement, not booking – at this point the visitor has shown interest but has not yet picked a time.

Qualifying before the calendar

You do not have to send every engaged visitor straight to the calendar. Between the Show Scheduling Widget node and the Display Calendar node, you can add Routing Rules and Data Field nodes to route or qualify first. For example:

• On CTA Engaged, add a Routing Rule that checks whether the visitor is already owned;
• If there is an owner, route the meeting to them;
• If there is no owner, add a Send Data Field node to ask a qualifying question – for example Company Size – before showing the calendar.

Data Fields are configured in the Command Center and are shared across Chili Piper, so the same fields you use in Chat and Concierge are available here.

The Display Calendar node

After the visitor engages, show the calendar with the Display Calendar node. This is the same meeting-routing node used in Chat Journeys, so it will be familiar if you route meetings in Chat. You do not have to place it directly on the CTA Engaged branch – you can add a Routing Rule first, for example to check whether the visitor is already owned, and then display the calendar.

Configure:

• Meeting Type – the meeting template to book, for example "Inbound Demo". The Meeting Type sets the length, the location (such as Zoom), and the confirmation screens, reminders, and calendar invite;
• Route to – who takes the meeting: the Owner (identified by a preceding rule), an Individual, or a Team or Team Member via Round Robin (choose the Meeting Distribution to round-robin across);
• Wait for Visitor – how long to give the visitor to book before the Flow continues down the Not Scheduled path, for example five minutes.

The node branches on the outcome:

• Scheduled – the visitor booked a time. Continue with follow-up nodes, such as Update or Create Record to write the booking to the CRM;
• Not Scheduled – the wait elapsed without a booking.

Note: The Display Calendar node is specific to Scheduling Flows. You cannot add it to an Offer or Announcement Flow.

Handling the other paths

Design what happens when the visitor does not book, so a warm visitor is not lost:

• Not Scheduled – the visitor engaged and gave an email but did not pick a time. You have their email, so you can update the CRM record, route it with an Assign To node, or send a Slack notification for follow-up;
• Dismissed – the visitor closed the card without engaging. What you can do here depends on whether you already know who they are. If the visitor is de-anonymized or their email is already known, you can send a Slack notification – for example, alerting a channel that someone from a named company is on the page. If the visitor is not identified, there is little to act on.

The shared follow-up nodes (Send a Slack Notification, Assign To, and the CRM nodes) are described in Creating a Chat Journey.

How it appears to the visitor

The Scheduling Experience appears as a modal centered on the page. The visitor sees the prompt, and after engaging the call-to-action, the calendar opens in the same modal to pick a time.

Note: The visitor closes the card with the X button only. Clicking outside it does not dismiss it, so a visitor cannot lose the calendar by accidentally clicking away – for example while checking their own calendar for availability.

How Scheduling interacts with other Experiences

More than one Web Experience can run on the same page. Two rules matter for Scheduling:

• When a visitor is eligible for both a Scheduling and an Offer Experience, the Scheduling Experience is shown – Scheduling takes precedence over Offer;
• When a visitor is actively using Chat, the Scheduling Experience does not appear.

The full set of rules is in Creating a Web Experience Flow.

Viewing logs

Each time a Scheduling Flow runs for a visitor, it is recorded in Logs, alongside your Chat logs – including whether the visitor engaged, booked, or dismissed.

Limitations

• The Display Calendar node is available only in Scheduling Flows;
• On the Dismissed path, follow-up depends on the visitor being identified (de-anonymized or a known email).