Google Calendar logo

Block time for the calls customers ask for

Someone asks for a call, and a block appears on the rep's calendar with the customer invited and their question attached.

When this happens

New submission on your "schedule a call" form

Do this

Create a timed event with the requester invited and their question in the description

One-directional. A submission triggers the action — nothing is written back into your form.

Requests for time arrive in a dozen places — live chat, a reply to an onboarding email, a comment on a renewal thread. One short form collects them in a single place: who is asking, what it is about, and when they can talk.

Customer success and support teams use it to protect the calendar rather than the inbox. Each request becomes a block with the customer invited and their question already in the details, so the rep opens the call knowing the answer instead of asking what this is regarding.

Setting it up

  1. 1

    Publish the schedule a call form from the callback request template, and make Email Address (optional) a required question in your copy — an invitation needs somewhere to go.

  2. 2

    Use conditional logic so an account number question appears only when Reason for Call is billing, keeping the form short for everyone else.

  3. 3

    Create a Zap on New Submission for that form and add Google Calendar's Create Detailed Event action on the rep's own calendar.

  4. 4

    Turn Best Time to Call into a real start with a Formatter lookup — morning to 09:30, afternoon to 14:00 — set against the next working day, then end it thirty minutes later.

  5. 5

    Write the summary as Reason for Call plus Your Name, so a glance at the day says what each block is for.

  6. 6

    Map Email Address (optional) to attendees with Send updates on, so the customer receives the invitation and the reminder rather than a separate confirmation email.

  7. 7

    Send What's This About? and Phone Number to the description, so the rep reads the question and has a number if the video call fails.

  8. 8

    Test one submission per Best Time to Call option, confirm each lands in the right window, then switch the Zap on.

What maps where

Using the Callback Request Form as the starting point. These are its real fields — swap in your own and the mapping works the same way.

Form fieldGoogle Calendar
Best Time to CallConverted by a Formatter lookup into the event start time
Your NameSecond half of the event summary on the rep's calendar
Reason for CallFirst half of the summary, so the queue is readable at a glance
Email Address (optional)Guest on the event, which is what sends the invitation
What's This About?Event description, so the rep prepares before dialling
Phone NumberEvent description, as the number to ring if nobody joins

Variations worth knowing

Onboarding calls on the success calendar

Filter on Reason for Call and send onboarding requests to the shared customer success calendar with a sixty-minute block instead of thirty. The rest of the queue stays on the support rota, and new accounts get the longer session they need.

Round-robin between reps

Use a Zapier paths step keyed on a rotating value — day of week works — to write the event to a different rep's calendar each time. The customer sees one form, and the team shares the load without a scheduling tool between them.

If something isn't arriving

Events are created with no guest on them

Email Address (optional) is optional in the template, so blank submissions create an event nobody is invited to. Make it required in your published form, and add a Zapier filter so an empty address stops the run and alerts the rep instead.

Every morning request stacks on the same 09:30 slot

The Formatter lookup returns one fixed time. Split the queue across reps with paths, or vary the lookup by weekday — nothing checks who is already booked, since the connection only runs from the submission outwards.

Frequently asked questions

How do I stop calls being booked outside working hours?

Limit Best Time to Call to the windows you actually staff, and add a Zapier filter that holds anything else. The form is the only place slots are offered, so shortening that list is what controls the calendar.

Can the customer reschedule from the invitation?

They can propose a new time in Google Calendar, and the rep accepts or declines it there. That exchange stays in the calendar — the original submission keeps the window they first asked for, since nothing writes back to the form.

Does the customer see everything they typed?

They see whatever is in the event description, which here is their own question and phone number. Internal account notes should stay in formformform responses, where the team can filter and search them without a guest reading along.

Related automations

Build the form first

The automation needs somewhere to fire from. Publish a form, connect it once, and every submission from then on runs this flow.

Start free