Setting up appointments
Use the Appointments page to create appointment schedules for the current project.
An appointment schedule can be used to specify the interviewer shifts and holidays, ensuring that appointments can be made when interviewers are working. There can be multiple appointment schedules for a distributed site.
Appointment schedules might differ between projects and are therefore project specific. For example, interviewers might be scheduled to call business projects during the day and consumer projects in the evening.
To use the Appointments page options in the Phone Survey activity, you must first assign one time zone and one appointment schedule to at least one applicable user.
Appointment Schedule
Click New Schedule to clear any currently defined sub-schedules.
Click Load Template to load an existing appointment schedule template. Templates are stored in the Distributed Property Management (DPM).
Click Save As to save the current schedule settings as a template in DPM. The Save As dialog displays, allowing you to specify a schedule template name. Enter an schedule template name, and then click Save.
Sub Schedule
You can define specific shift parameters and date overrides for each sub-schedule. For example, the sub-schedule Weekdays could include the shift 08:00 - 17:00 for Mon;Tue;Wed;Thu;Fri while the sub-schedule Weekends could include the shift 12:00 - 19:00 for Sat;Sun.
To create a new sub-schedule
Click New Sub Schedule to open the New Sub Schedule dialog. Enter a name, and then click OK.
To delete a sub-schedule
Select a sub-schedule from the list, and then click Delete Sub Schedule.
Regular Shifts
The table lists all shifts defined for the selected sub-schedule.
To create new shifts for a subschedule
1 Select a subschedule from the list. If no subschedules exist, you must either create a new subschedule or load an appointment schedule template.
2 Click the
Add button
in the Regular Shifts table. The Regular Shift dialog opens.
Start time: The earliest time at which participants can be called.
End time: The latest time at which participants can be called.
Days: Select the days of the week to contact participants.
3 Click OK.
To edit a shift
Select a shift in the Regular Shifts table, and then click the
Edit regular shift button
.
To delete a shift
Select a shift in the Regular Shifts table, and then click the
Delete regular shift button
.
Date overrides: The table lists all date override shifts defined for the selected subschedule. Date overrides allow you to specify specific dates and/or times where appointments are not allowed, and define specific dates and times that override the shifts defined in the Regular Shifts table.
To create new date override shifts for a subschedule
1 Select a subschedule from the field. If no subschedules exist, you must either create a new sub-schedule or load an appointment schedule template.
2 Click the
Add button
in the Date Overrides table.
The Date Override dialog opens.
No appointment. Select this option when you want to define specific dates where no appointments are allowed.
Date override. Select this option when you want to define specific dates and times that override the shifts defined in the Regular Shifts table.
Start time: When No appointment is selected, specify the starting time at which participants can not be called. When Date override is selected, specify the earliest time at which participants can be called.
End time: When No appointment is selected, specify the end time at which participants can not be called. When Date override is selected, specify the latest time at which participants can be called.
Date. Select specific No appointment or Date override dates.
3 Click OK.
To edit a date override
Select a shift in the Date Overrides table, and then click the
Edit overrided date button
.
To delete a date override
Select a shift in the Date Overrides table, and then click the
Delete overrided date button
.
See also