How to Set Up WhatsApp Appointment Booking for Your Clinic, Step by Step

Step 1: Decide which doctors take appointments

Appointments suit visits of a known length: a dentist doing cleanings and root canals, a physiotherapist with thirty-minute sessions, a scan room, an antenatal session. A general OPD where one patient takes three minutes and the next takes twenty is better on tokens, because a slot grid would be wrong by mid-morning.

You do not have to choose for the whole clinic. In TOKENN each department runs one way or the other, so the GP keeps a token line and the dentist runs a day book on the same WhatsApp number and the same account. A good rule of thumb: if the doctor could write tomorrow's list on paper today, they are on appointments.

Step 2: Set the slot length, hours and reminder

On the Departments page, open the department's settings and choose Appointments under "How patients join". Four settings decide everything patients see: the slot length (5 to 60 minutes), the hours the doctor is available, how far ahead patients may book (1 to 30 days), and when the reminder goes out (1 to 3 hours before the slot).

Hours are required, because the slots are cut from them: a 9:00 to 1:00 session with 15-minute slots gives 16 slots, and the settings panel shows the count as you type. Closed days take no bookings. A department with upcoming bookings cannot be switched back to tokens until they are finished or cancelled, so nobody is left holding a slot that vanished.

Step 3: Print the department's QR poster

Every appointment department gets its own QR on the Clinic QR page, with a short link such as tokenn.live/q/your-clinic/dental. Put it at the reception desk, on the door of that doctor's room and on your Google listing. Scanning it opens WhatsApp with the booking message ready, so the patient only presses send.

Patients who message the clinic without the QR are shown a list of departments and pick one, so the poster is a shortcut, not a requirement.

Step 4: What the patient does on WhatsApp

The patient gets a list of the coming days with free slots, taps one, then taps a free time. They send the patient's name the first time, then what the visit is for: typed, or as a voice note in any language. The doctor sees one short English line, and the patient's own words are kept beside it.

The confirmation carries the day, the time and an appointment number, with Reschedule and Cancel buttons. Before the slot a reminder arrives with I'll come and Cancel, in the patient's language when they have written in the last day. A patient who already has a booking can tap Book another for a second day or a family member.

Step 5: Run the day book at reception

On the dashboard, an appointment department shows the day in time order: each booking with the patient, the reason, and the patient's own words under it, free slots marked, and the day's counts on top. A phone caller is booked by tapping a free slot and typing the name; adding their WhatsApp number sends them the same confirmation and reminder.

When the patient arrives, reception taps Check in and the booking joins the queue, so calling, the waiting-room TV and Done work exactly as they do for tokens, with the fee noted at Done if you keep a collection log. A slot nobody turned up for is marked a no-show, from the row or automatically once it has passed.

What it costs, and the limits that protect the clinic

Each booking uses one token from the same prepaid balance as the token queue, ₹1, with the confirmation and reminder messages included. Moving a booking is free; a cancelled or missed booking is not refunded. One number books one appointment per day at a clinic, and at most three bookings a day in all, so a single phone cannot fill the book. WhatsApp appointment booking describes the whole feature.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

Doctor Appointment Message on WhatsApp: Samples That Get You Booked →

How to Reduce No-Shows at Your Clinic with WhatsApp Reminders →

Patient Reminder Software for Clinics: Why Timing Beats Frequency →