Google Calendar (Tutorial Series #4): Change Calendar Event Color Based on Response

Table of Contents

This tutorial is part of our "Sending Reminders Through Google Calendar" tutorial series.
Previous Tutorial Required

This tutorial is part of our "Sending Reminders Through Google Calendar" tutorial series. #

Previous Tutorial Required #

This tutorial relies on what we set up in the Google Calendar : First Steps to Integrate Google Calendar Tutorial.

Where we covered:

Linking a Google Calendar
Setting up a Reminder Type

In this tutorial I will walk you through changing the Google Calendar Event Color based on your customer’s response to the reminder.

The first step is to open up 2 browser tabs. One with your appointmentreminders.com account and the other with your Google Calendar.

Check or Add a Reminder Type #

Then I am going to check that I have a text message reminder set up and that it is my default.

I am also going to click on settings and make sure this reminder type is set up to go out 2 days prior to the appointment date.

I am also going to add 2 responses to the text. 1 (confirm) and 2 (cancel).

Now lets make sure we are prompting the customer with the 1 and 2 options correctly.

You may need to modify your Reminder Content. In my reminder type you can see that I have “To confirm this appointment please text 1” and “To cancel text 2”.

Also I have added responses to both 1 and 2 that will send a text back to let them know that the appointment was confirmed or canceled.

Check Your Google Calendar Settings #

I am going to go to the Google Calendars page and click “Edit” for the calendar I want to use.

I am just verifying that “Read Tags” and “Match Name” are both selected. Also I want to “User Company Default” as my Default Reminder Type.

Also check the Google Calendar’s Write Settings and make sure Change Event Color is checked and then choose the appropriate colors. I will choose Blue for Confirm and Red for Cancel.

Check or Add a Customer/Patient #

If you already have a test patient in here from a previous tutorial, you can skip this…

I am going to add a new customer/patient by going to the Customers page and then clicking on “Add New Customer/Patient”.

I’ll just enter Bob Tester and enter my phone number and email address.

Now that the customer exists I’ll open up the Google Calendar tab and schedule an appointment.

Schedule a Google Calendar Appointment That Sends the Text Reminder #

Then I’ll schedule an appointment in Google Calendar. I will go ahead and schedule it for tomorrow. This is within the timeframe for the reminder to go out.

I will make sure to put the customer First and Last Name in the appointment title.

A couple of notes… I could have also put the first and last name into the appointment description in a TAG like this <Bob Tester>. Also, keep in mind this technique only works if all of your customers/patients have unique first and last names. In other words, if you have more than on patient named Bob Tester, then you should use a calendar TAG and specify phone number like this <Bob Tester 3035551212>.

Reply to The Text Reminder and View the Calendar Color Changes #

Once I get the reminder, I will reply with a 1 to confirm the appointment. This will result in the Google Calendar Event turning blue (this may take a few minutes to change). If I would have replied with a 2 to cancel, the Google Calendar Event would have turned red. We read from the calendars once per hour so if you want to push them sooner you can go to the calendar and press “Refresh Calendar Events”.