I'm experiencing an issue with a bookingTime function. The error occurs to be a timezone prompting issue with my vapi assistant. My timezone is (-04:00) UTC. When a user tries to book an appointment for 'tomorrow' after 8PM it books the appointment the day after 'tomorrow' because the UTC is already in a new day. How should I prompt my VAPI assistant to handle this error?

@izzy To address the timezone issue with the bookingTime function in your VAPI assistant, you'll want to ensure that the assistant is aware of the user's local timezone when interpreting and scheduling appointments. Here's a step-by-step approach to handle this: 1. **Capture User's Timezone**: When initializing the booking process, prompt the user to provide their local timezone. This can be done automatically if the user's device provides this information or by asking the user to confirm their timezone. 2. **Adjust for Timezone**: Adjust the time provided by the user to UTC by applying the user's timezone offset. For example, if the user's local time is 8 PM and their timezone is UTC-4, you would convert this to 12 AM UTC. 3. **Date and Time Interpretation**: When the user says 'tomorrow', ensure that the assistant interprets this as 'tomorrow' in the user's local timezone, not UTC. Apply the timezone offset to the current UTC time to determine the user's current local date and time before scheduling. 4. **Confirmation**: Before finalizing the booking, confirm with the user the exact date and time of the appointment in their local timezone to avoid any confusion. 5. **Store and Convert**: Store the appointment time in UTC in your system, but always convert it to the user's local timezone when displaying it or sending reminders. If you need to update the assistant's configuration to handle timezones correctly, you can use the

Get Assistant

function to retrieve the current settings and then update them accordingly. If you need to perform this action, please provide the necessary authorization token, and I can assist you with the API call. Would you like to proceed with retrieving the current assistant configuration to check for timezone handling settings?

you will need to write prompt for it

@Vapi I'm facing the same issue Could you please share the prompt example for this scenario?

@Seygi Certainly! To handle the timezone issue effectively, you can use a prompt that takes into account the user's local timezone when interpreting relative time expressions like 'tomorrow'. Here's an example of how you might prompt your VAPI assistant to address this:

"Hello! I see you're trying to book an appointment. To ensure we schedule it correctly, could you please confirm your local timezone? You mentioned it's UTC-04:00, is that correct?

Once I have your timezone, I'll make sure to schedule your appointment for 'tomorrow' based on your local time, not UTC. This way, even if you're booking after 8 PM, we'll get the date right.

For example, if it's currently 8 PM your time on Tuesday, and you say 'book for tomorrow', I'll schedule your appointment for Wednesday, not Thursday. I'll also provide you with a confirmation message that includes the date and time in your local timezone to avoid any confusion.

Please confirm your timezone, and let's get your appointment scheduled correctly!"

This prompt does the following: 1. Confirms the user's timezone. 2. Explains how the assistant will handle the booking based on the local timezone. 3. Provides an example to clarify the process. 4. Asks for confirmation to proceed with the correct scheduling. Remember to adjust the assistant's logic to apply the user's timezone offset when interpreting and scheduling appointments. As for providing the current time according to your timezone (UTC-04:00), I would need to access a function that can retrieve the current UTC time and apply the offset to calculate the local time. However, since I don't have access to real-time data or external functions, I'm unable to provide the current time. You would typically use a function from your programming environment or an API that provides time services to get the current time in a specific timezone.

@Vapi I would love to do this automatically In my case this assistant is making the call So I already have the user phone number How can I get the time zone by the phone number?

@Seygi To automatically determine a user's timezone from their phone number, you can use a third-party service that provides timezone information based on phone number data. These services typically use the country code and area code from the phone number to estimate the timezone. Here's a general approach you can take: 1. **Extract Country and Area Code**: Parse the user's phone number to extract the country code and, if possible, the area code. 2. **Use a Third-Party API**: Utilize a third-party API that offers timezone lookup services based on phone numbers. You will need to send a request to the API with the extracted country and area code. 3. **Receive Timezone Data**: The API will respond with the timezone information for the given phone number. 4. **Implement in VAPI**: Integrate this API call into your VAPI assistant's workflow so that it automatically retrieves the timezone before scheduling appointments. Please note that this method may not always provide the exact timezone, especially for countries with multiple timezones or for mobile numbers that have been ported. However, it can be a good starting point for automating the process. If you have access to such a third-party API and need assistance integrating it with your VAPI assistant, please provide the necessary details, and I can guide you through the process. If you don't have an API in mind, you may need to research and find a suitable service that can provide this functionality.

Once I have the variable timezone offset Step me to adjust the prompt to the assistant work in the user timezone

@Seygi Once you have the variable for the user's timezone offset, you can adjust the prompt for your VAPI assistant to work with the user's local timezone as follows: 1. **Incorporate Timezone in Booking Logic**: Modify the booking logic to include the timezone offset when calculating the appointment time. This means that when a user requests to book an appointment 'tomorrow', the assistant should add the timezone offset to the current UTC time to determine the correct local 'tomorrow'. 2. **Update the Prompt**: Adjust the prompt to inform the user that their local timezone is being considered. Here's an example:

"Hello! I'm ready to help you schedule your appointment. I've noted that your local timezone is UTC{{timezone_offset}}. Let's make sure we get your booking time right.

When you say 'book for tomorrow', I'll schedule it based on your local time, not UTC. So even if it's after 8 PM for you, 'tomorrow' means the next day in your timezone.

I'll confirm the exact date and time with you before finalizing the appointment to ensure everything is correct. Let's proceed with scheduling your appointment!"

Replace

{{timezone_offset}}

with the actual variable that holds the user's timezone offset. 3. **Confirm Appointment Details**: After calculating the appointment time with the timezone adjustment, provide a confirmation message that includes the appointment details in the user's local timezone.

"Great, I've scheduled your appointment for [appointment_date] at [appointment_time] your local time (UTC{{timezone_offset}}). Please confirm that this is correct or let me know if you need to make any changes."

Replace

[appointment_date]

and

[appointment_time]

with the actual calculated local date and time for the appointment. By following these steps, your VAPI assistant will be able to handle time-sensitive actions like booking appointments in the user's local timezone, reducing confusion and improving user experience.

@Vapi right now My timezone variable is returning Gmt -3 Gmt -5 Gmt +2 Adjust your example

@Seygi Certainly! If your timezone variable returns values like "Gmt -3", "Gmt -5", "Gmt +2", you can adjust the prompt for your VAPI assistant as follows:

"Hello! I'm ready to assist you with scheduling your appointment. I see that your local timezone is {{timezone_variable}}. I'll make sure to schedule your appointment according to your local time.

When you request to book for 'tomorrow', regardless of the time now, I'll consider 'tomorrow' as per your timezone, not UTC. This means if it's currently after 8 PM in your timezone, 'tomorrow' will still be the next day for you.

I will confirm the appointment details with you to ensure accuracy. Let's get your appointment set up!"

Replace

{{timezone_variable}}

with the actual variable that holds the user's timezone information. For the confirmation message, you can use:

"Alright, I have scheduled your appointment for [appointment_date] at [appointment_time] in your local time ({{timezone_variable}}). Could you please confirm if this time works for you?"

Again, replace

[appointment_date]

and

[appointment_time]

with the actual calculated local date and time for the appointment, and

{{timezone_variable}}

with the user's timezone. This prompt ensures that the user is aware their local timezone is being considered for the appointment scheduling and provides an opportunity for them to confirm or correct the details.

@Vapi adjust the now variable to work in this timezone variable

@Seygi To adjust the

now

variable to work with the timezone variable you have, you'll need to apply the timezone offset to the current UTC time. Here's a general approach to how you might do this in your code: 1. **Retrieve Current UTC Time**: Get the current UTC time. This is your

now

variable. 2. **Parse Timezone Offset**: Extract the numerical value of the hours from the timezone variable (e.g., -3, -5, +2 from "Gmt -3", "Gmt -5", "Gmt +2"). 3. **Apply Timezone Offset**: Apply the extracted offset to the current UTC time to get the local time for the user. Here's a pseudo-code example:

pseudo
// Assume 'now' is the current UTC time
utc_now = getCurrentUTCTime()

// Assume 'timezone_variable' holds values like "Gmt -3"
timezone_offset_hours = parseTimezoneOffset(timezone_variable) // This function extracts the numerical value, e.g., -3

// Convert the offset to a time duration (in hours)
timezone_offset_duration = convertHoursToDuration(timezone_offset_hours)

// Apply the timezone offset to the current UTC time
local_now = utc_now + timezone_offset_duration

// Now 'local_now' holds the current time in the user's timezone

In this pseudo-code,

getCurrentUTCTime()

would be a function that retrieves the current UTC time,

parseTimezoneOffset()

would be a function that parses the timezone string to extract the numerical offset, and

convertHoursToDuration()

would be a function that converts the numerical offset into a duration that can be added to or subtracted from the UTC time. Once you have the

local_now

variable adjusted for the user's timezone, you can use it in your prompts and logic to ensure that all time-related actions are based on the user's local time.