A free consultation booking process that fills your diary with the right calls
A free consultation is worth offering only if the people who book it could become clients. The process that gets you there has four parts: a page that says who the call is for, a way to pick a time, two or three intake questions, and a confirmation that you send personally with the video link. Anticode handles the page and the booking request; the diary and the call stay in your own tools.
Decide what the call is, before the page
- Who it's for
- "Owners of small physiotherapy clinics planning a second site" filters better than "anyone who wants to chat". Put this on the page so the wrong people self-select out.
- Length
- Twenty or thirty minutes is common. Long enough to understand the problem; short enough that it isn't free consulting.
- Outcome
- Say what they'll leave with: a clear next step, a rough scope, or an honest "I'm not the right fit".
- What it isn't
- No detailed advice, no audit. Saying so prevents the call that's really a request for free work.
Two ways to take the booking
Anticode's booking calendar is a form on your page. It shows the coming days (Mondays skipped) and six fixed times on each, 09:00, 10:30, 12:00, 14:30, 16:00 and 17:30, which you can't change. It asks for the service, day, time, name, phone and email, and refuses any slot that someone else has already taken for that service. It doesn't read your own calendar, so it can't hide times you're already busy. In practice every booking is a request you confirm by email, which suits a consultant who'd rather approve each call anyway. Anticode doesn't email the person booking, so edit any generated thank-you or FAQ wording that promises a confirmation email.
If you need people to see only your real free time, use a dedicated scheduling tool and put a link to it on the page as the main button. Published Anticode pages can't embed outside widgets, so it opens on the scheduler's own site. That's a fair trade if your diary is busy and changes daily.
| Booking calendar on the page | Link to a scheduling tool | |
|---|---|---|
| Visitor stays on your site | Yes | No, it opens the scheduler |
| Knows when you're busy | No: you confirm each request | Yes, if connected to your calendar |
| Calendar entry and video link | You add them | The scheduler usually adds them |
| Where requests land | Anticode submissions, email, connectors | The scheduler and your calendar |
The process with Anticode's calendar
- Build the page. Describe it in a sentence: "a consultant's site with a services page and a booking calendar for a free 30-minute discovery call". The Architect will ask a few questions and show the plan. Check that the booking form's service menu lists the discovery call and nothing you don't offer.
- Write the qualifying copy. Above the calendar: who the call is for, what happens in it, and what to prepare. This is the cheapest filter you have.
- Add an intake step. The booking form can't take extra questions. Either ask people to use the contact form to send two or three lines about their situation when they book, add a separate intake form (a custom form tied to a site function, with up to 30 plain-text fields), or ask those questions in your confirmation email. Keep it to the questions you'd otherwise spend the first ten minutes asking.
- Send requests where you'll see them. Each booking is saved and can be emailed to you. A connector to Slack, Telegram or a Google Sheet puts it in front of you faster.
- Confirm personally, the same day. Reply to the booker with the time in their time zone, a calendar invitation from your own calendar, and the video link. If the time doesn't suit, offer two alternatives.
- Remind the day before, from your calendar tool or by hand. Most no-shows are people who forgot.
- After the call, send what you promised: a next step, a proposal date, or a referral elsewhere.
What can go wrong
- A booking for a time you're not free. Expected with this setup. Reply quickly with alternatives; the speed of your reply matters more than the clash.
- Time zone confusion. Say on the page which time zone the times are in, and repeat it in every confirmation.
- Calls with people who were never going to buy. Tighten the "who it's for" copy and the intake questions before you shorten the call.
- Requests nobody sees. Each submission goes to a connector once, without retries. Test the form after any change.
How you know it works
Count, each month, how many calls were booked, how many happened, and how many became paid work. If plenty are booked but few convert, the page is attracting the wrong people; if few are booked, the offer or its visibility needs work. The dashboard's page views by source show which channels send people to the booking page.
Limits
Anticode's calendar has no calendar sync, deposits, staff rotas or recurring bookings, can't hide times you're busy, and doesn't send confirmations, invitations or reminders to the person booking. The calendar always shows the coming days at six fixed times, skips Mondays, and refuses past dates or dates more than 120 days out; you can't set your own hours, slot lengths or closed days. Video links, calendar entries and reminders are yours. More on the trade-offs in adding a booking calendar and the booking calendar feature; for a request-first approach without a calendar, see the consultation request page.
Questions people ask
Does Anticode's booking calendar sync with Google Calendar or Outlook?
No. Bookings are saved in Anticode and can be emailed or sent to a connector; you add the calendar entry yourself.
Can two people book the same consultation slot?
No. Once a day, time and service is taken, the next request for it is refused.
Can I ask intake questions in the booking form?
Not in the built-in booking form, which has fixed fields. Ask them through the contact form or in your confirmation email.