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Scheduling suggestions for improvement
Idea shared by Jaime Alvarez - 1/6/2024 at 8:51 PM
Completed
J
I have been using harmonizely and then simplymeet for Scheduling and I truly appreciate the fact that SM now includes Scheduling into its product.  However, there are a few features that are very helpful and it would be great if you add them:

a) Text to include in the invitation (ics) with information or link to the zoom meeting. 
I see that SM has an option to select Online Meeting or not.  When not selected, you can include a text, but it sorta takes it as a real location to map in Google Maps or so.  But if selected Online Meeting it does not give an option to add a text.  Please add text field to both Online  and offline Meetings to add something like: "Please connect to my zoom meeting room: https://us02web.zoom.us/personalink " It is not a "location" per se, but a description text to add to the invite.  
This for me is the most important request for you! 

b) Min and max time before booking.  In my case I have 2 days before any booking and up to 14 days max for booking, but SM has the max to 12 hours for min booking and no option for max booking. If you divide this into two fields: one for a number, the other for Minutes, Hours, Days, it would be awesome.

d) Different available time frames for each day.  Example: Monday from 1pm to 2:30 pm and from 4:30pm to 5pm. (Because we all need some time to eat, right? ;)  )

d) Description.  For instance, I have a description text for each type of meeting like: 

Hello.

All meetings are held virtually using Zoom. Please make sure you have the app downloaded and your microphone and camera ready. If you rather join a telephone conference bridge number, please let me know in advance.

This helps a lot.

e) Short scheduling links
If possible something like:

I understand that Scheduling is a new feature for SM and I truly appreciate it. These are just some things that could make it more awesome, thanks! 
Would like to see the ability to have a number of time slots per time. For Instance to be able to schedule 3 appointments at 1pm, 3 at 2 pm, etc. For Context, the blood drive could schedule 8 people per every 20 minutes to donate blood. It does not need to be 1 at a time.  We can schedule 15 volunteers at the same start time, and 4 donations drop offs every 15 minutes.

www.HawaiianHope.org - Providing technology services to non profit organizations, low income families, homeless shelters, clean and sober houses and prisoner reentry programs. Since 2015, We have refurbished over 11,000 Computers !
J
Any comments from ST team?  Are you considering these as improvements of the Scheduling feature?
Came here to suggest some of these very things.  I am expressly supporting:

  1. Exclusion periods from scheduling times.
    1. I recommend a box-table, graduated by the shortest appointment type, where we can click on a box to activate that time period, or clear a box to deactivate that time period.
  2. Longer lead-times, customizable rather than just the drop-down.
  3. Shorter URLs (need a lot of this all around SmarterMail.)
All of these have also been pointed out to me as "must haves" by customers.
J
ST team, any comments on these suggestions? 
Zach Sylvester Replied
7/29/2024 at 3:19 PM
Employee Post
Hello Everyone, 

We are currently reviewing your suggestions and working to find what would be feasible for us to implement within our current time frame. But I would like to bounce some of my ideas/clarifications off you guys and see what you think before I talk to my team. 

  1. When scheduling multiple people within the same time frame.
    1. Would this mean that it would add the recipients to the same calendar appointment or should it create separate appointments for each person that schedules? 
  2. Different available time frames for each day.
    1. I believe creating a recurring appointment on your calendar and assigning it to the calendars to check for conflicts would be more effective. If you mark yourself as busy during an appointment, it won't let anyone schedule anything at that time.
  3. Max Booking lead time. 
    1. I think this is a must-have. 
  4. Description 
    1. When adding a description would you want that description to be sent along with the ICS? Like the location? 
    2. If the above is true then could we kill two birds with one stone by allowing the zoom link to be sent in the description? 
  5. Short Links
    1. This is not feasible at the moment but I will add it to our list of future improvements. 

Looking forward to your feedback. 

Kind Regards, 

Zach Sylvester

Software Developer
SmarterTools Inc.
J
Thanks for following up Zach.  Great news!
Responses.

1. Scheduling multiple people within the same time frame.
I didnt give this suggestion, but in my case, if you have multiple people in the same time slot it means a single event for everyone.  The example given of multiple spots for a blood drive does not apply to our clients.

2. Available time frames per day. It is not about having another appointment or recurring appointment added to check for conflicts. It is a feature that is used in case you want to ONLY have certain time frames for your appointments so you can use your free time for other activities.  It does not mean that you have something else already scheduled. Example:  I only go to my office certain times of day, so I want to have sales presentations only during those times.   I attach an image of how I see this working. 



3.  Min and max booking time. Thanks! both options are very important. 

4. Descriptions.  There are two types of descriptions I was referring to. (See items a and d on my initial post). 
The first description is the one that is included in the ICS file. This is the super important one.
A text field in which we can add a description, instructions and also the Zoom link.  and this would be included in the ics. 

The second would be added when you create the appointment type to show the person the description of the appointment when they are visiting the Scheduling page.  Example:  Appointment type: Interview.  Description: For the interview, you need to send your resume ahead of time and a computer with speakers,webcam and microphone during the meeting 
This description will not be included in the ICS file it is just a general text for the appointment.  
I mean this is not that important, but it would be nice.

5. Short links... Thanks! 
Great ideas
Zach Sylvester Replied
8/1/2024 at 8:25 AM
Employee Post
Hey everyone,

Just wanted to give you all an update. I've implemented a new feature called "Booking Horizon Limit" that sets the maximum booking time. Additionally, I've added the option to include a description for an appointment type and a separate description for the calendar ICS invitation if needed. If you add a description without specifying a different one for the calendar invite, the same description will be sent with the invite. Currently, I'm looking into the feasibility of Curtis's request to allow multiple people to schedule at the same time.

Best regards,

Zach Sylvester

Software Developer
SmarterTools Inc.
J
Thanks Zach. Great news!

Any comments on the " Available time frames per day" request? 
Thanks Zach !
Yes, the multiple people per time slot, that is something we use/do in a variety of ways. Here at our tech center, we typically have volunteers scheduled on Fridays and Saturdays - Anywhere from 10 am till 6 pm.  We may have 3 different groups (maybe 6 people) all scheduled at 10 am till 1pm. So It would be nice if each person (group) scheduling was treated independently, because they could potentially change their time from Start at 10 am to start at 1pm.  If they were part of a single larger event, I think it would make it harder to reschedule them. 
I built a scheduling system like this years ago for doing blood drives for the blood bank, and what i ended up having to do was create a table of "available slots per time."  so a start time of 10am might have 6 slots available. 10:30 am might have 8 slots available.  then as someone scheduled and picked that time slot, it would add in another column of how many were scheduled for that time.
One of my questions would be, how does the regular calendar handle it right now, because we can schedule 5 different things to start at the same time, and they can all overlap.

www.HawaiianHope.org - Providing technology services to non profit organizations, low income families, homeless shelters, clean and sober houses and prisoner reentry programs. Since 2015, We have refurbished over 11,000 Computers !
Zach Sylvester Replied
8/1/2024 at 10:57 AM
Employee Post
Hey Jaime,

I'm glad I could help. In terms of the multiple time frames, it's actually already possible using conflict calendars. If you reach out to our support team, they can walk you through the setup process. However, if there's significant demand for this feature, we can consider implementing it in the future.

Best regards,

Zach Sylvester

Software Developer
SmarterTools Inc.
Zach Sylvester Replied
8/1/2024 at 12:18 PM
Employee Post
Hey Curtis,

The calendar can handle scheduling multiple appointments simultaneously without any issues. However, after looking into this, I found that implementing this feature would require significant changes. Unfortunately, it's not possible to add this feature within our current sprint. I will add this to the backlog for when we revisit this area.

Kind Regards,
 

Zach Sylvester

Software Developer
SmarterTools Inc.
J
Thanks Zach... I understand the feature of checking conflict calendars, and it is a workaround, but as I mentioned before, the feature is not because the user already has another appointment to check conflict against, but because its convenient to only select certain time frames for specific days to be available for scheduling.  I gave the example of a person who only goes to the office certain times a day for certain days and he can only schedule "in person meetings" during those periods of time. 
Sure, he could have another calendar to define what days he is at the office, but its not very convenient.
Instead, if he can just add to the scheduling to have certain times/days slots available, thats better :) 
I Hope you can reconsider for a future release.
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