Overview
By default, a Waillo chatbot is scoped to a single location. When the chatbot is embedded on that location's customer-facing site, it can only offer appointments and queue joining for that one site.
For organizations running a central or umbrella website — for example, a state agency homepage, a school district portal, or a healthcare system's main page — a one-to-one bot-to-location setup forces visitors to first figure out which location they want, then leave to visit that site before they can book. That adds friction and leads to drop-off.
The Linked Locations feature solves this. A single chatbot can be linked to any number of locations in your database. When deployed in Standalone (External Website) mode, the bot surfaces booking and queue-join options across every linked location, letting the end user pick the site that works best for them inside a single conversation.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure:
Waillo is included in your license. This feature is only available to accounts whose license includes Waillo.
You have admin-level access to the Waillo settings for the parent location that owns the chatbot.
The locations you want to link already exist in your Waillo database and are fully configured (services, hours, staff, etc.).
Each location you plan to link has the relevant service types configured — the bot can only offer services that the selected location actually supports.
You have a plan for where the bot will be embedded (the external/umbrella website URL).
You have access to a sandbox location or test environment for QA before going live.
How to Link a Chatbot to Multiple Locations
The full configuration is done from the Waillo settings interface — no development work is required.
Step 1 — Open the Manage Chatbots menu
Navigate to Settings > Location > Tools > Manage Chatbots.
The Manage Chatbots screen lists every chatbot configured for this location.
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Step 2 — Edit the target chatbot
Find the chatbot you want to configure in the list.
Click the Edit icon next to it (it appears directly to the left of the red delete icon).
The Edit Settings panel will open.
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Step 3 — Enable Standalone (External Website) mode
This is the critical step. The Linked Locations field does not appear until the bot is switched into Standalone mode.
Scroll to the bottom of the Edit Settings panel.
Toggle on Standalone (External Website).
A new field labeled Linked Locations will appear immediately below the toggle.
Why this toggle matters A chatbot that is not in Standalone mode is assumed to be serving only the location it belongs to, so it has no need for a location picker. Standalone mode tells Waillo the bot is deployed on an external umbrella website and should expose a location-selection flow to the end user. |
Step 4 — Select the locations you want to link
Click into the Linked Locations dropdown to open the selection menu.
Use the search bar to find specific locations, or scroll through the full list.
Check every location you want this bot to offer bookings / queue joining for. Use Select All to add all locations in your database at once, or Clear to reset the selection.
Click Apply to confirm your selection and close the location picker.
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Step 5 — Save your changes
Back on the Edit Settings panel, click Save in the bottom-right corner.
The chatbot is now linked to every location you selected and will surface them to end users when deployed.
End User Experience
Once the bot is linked to multiple locations and deployed on your external site, the typical flow is:
Visitor opens the chatbot on the umbrella website.
Visitor requests a booking or asks to join a queue for a given service.
The bot presents the list of linked locations that support that service.
Visitor selects their preferred location.
The bot completes the booking or queue-join at the selected location.
Important behavioral notes
Manual location selection. The bot does not auto-detect the visitor's physical location or filter the list by proximity or radius. The visitor picks their preferred site manually from the list of linked locations. Because of this, naming conventions matter — location names that are easy to scan and geographically recognizable will produce a better experience.
Service-type filtering is automatic. The bot only offers services that the selected location actually supports. A visitor cannot book a service at a site where that service is not configured. This is driven by each location's existing service configuration — no extra setup in the chatbot itself.
Imported documentation strengthens responses. If the bot has imported documentation that includes notes about location-specific offerings, programs, or eligibility details, the bot will use that context in its responses. Rich imported documentation leads to more accurate and helpful answers.
Best Practices — Test in a Sandbox Location First
Before deploying a multi-location chatbot to a live customer-facing website, we recommend testing the configuration against a sandbox location first. This lets you confirm that the expected locations appear to end users, that booking and queue-join flows complete correctly, and that the end-user experience matches what you want before real visitors encounter it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a single chatbot serve all of my locations?
Yes. There is no hard cap enforced by the Linked Locations selector — you can use Select All to link every location in your database to a single bot.
Does the bot know where the visitor is?
No. The bot does not use geolocation, IP-based location, or any form of proximity detection. Visitors choose their preferred location manually from the list.
Can I change the set of linked locations later?
Yes. Re-open Edit Settings on the chatbot, modify the Linked Locations selection, click Apply, and Save. Changes take effect immediately for new conversations. New locations added to your database later are not auto-linked — you will need to add them here manually.
Can I link different location sets to different chatbots?
Yes. Linked Locations is configured per chatbot. You can, for example, have a "North Region" bot linked to the northern locations and a "South Region" bot linked to the southern ones, each embedded on the appropriate page.
Does this work with queue joining, or only appointment booking?
Both. Any WaitWell capability the linked location supports — appointment booking, queue joining, service lookup — is surfaced through the chatbot for that location.