Time Slot Capacity Management is a tool to help you better manage the scheduling of appointments. From both Call Taking and Dispatch, you can easily see how many appointments are booked versus your capacity. This allows call takers and dispatchers to find open slots quickly. This also helps fill open slots created when calls are canceled or rescheduled and helps you stay scheduled to capacity. Some benefits of using this tool include:
- Help maximize daily appointments.
- Reduce overbooking.
- Real time display of slots showing which are open for new appointments.
Time Slot Capacity Management must be configured and enabled in the application before it can be used. Prior to configuring, visualize your organization’s typical workday and how it might best be broken down into time periods (i.e. do install jobs normally start at 8:00 am and 2:00 pm).
For example, install jobs could be broken down into 2 six-hour windows (8 am to 2 pm and 2 pm to 8 pm), whereas service jobs could be broken down into 6 two-hour windows. You can then assign different capacities to each slot depending upon the number of technicians working.
Configuring Time Slot Capacity Management is available from the Setup module of the Main Menu.
Configuration
There are many different configuration options available for Time Slot Capacity Management as detailed below:
Our Time Slot Hours and Capacities will:
- Be the same for each day of the week – choose this method if you are normally open the same hours every day and have the same number of technicians available every day.
- Be the same for weekdays but differ on weekends - choose this method if you are normally open the same hours each weekday, but your times and/or number of technicians vary on weekends.
- Differ depending upon the day of the week – choose this method if the time you are open and/or the number of available technicians varies by the day of the week.
Counting Appointments:
When it comes to how appointments are counted within a particular time slot, you can choose from one of two methods:
- Only once, for the time slot they start in – with this method an appointment is only included in the time slot in which it starts in. If it overlaps into other time slots it will not be counted in those.
- Once for each time slot that they span – with this method an appointment is included in every time slot that it spans, regardless of whether it covers the whole slot of just a few minutes of it.
Manage Time Slots on Saturdays:
Check this box if you are open on Saturdays and want to manage time slots on this day.
Manage Time Slots on Sundays:
Check this box if you are open on Sundays and want to manage time slots on this day.
Display Daily Totals
Check this box if you want to see daily totals when viewing time slot data from Call Handling or the Dispatch Board.
Allow Overbooking by Default
Check this box if you want to allow time slots to be overbooked by default. Overbooking can be configured for each individual time slot, this is just a means of capturing the default value. If overbooking is allowed, then when an appointment is being scheduled into a time slot that is already filled, the user will be asked to confirm that they want to book into this time slot. If overbooking is not allowed, then no additional appointments can be booked into that time slot.
Time Slot Groups
On this page you will combine your active job classes into Time Slot Groups.
A few things to keep in mind when grouping:
- A group can consist of any number of jobs.
- It is not necessary to assign each job class to a group.
Default Slots
Default time slots are at the core of Time Slot Capacity Management, they indicate to the system the default maximum capacity for this day of the week for this time period. You will create default time slots for each group you previously defined, and for all appropriate days of the week based on how you configured Time Slot Capacity Management.
To simplify the creation of time slots you can simply enter your daily start and end time, and how long you would like each time slot to encompass (i.e. 2 hours), the application will then plot out the slots for you.
For each time slot, indicate the maximum number of appointments and whether or not overbooking is allowed. Overbooking is defined as scheduling more appointments in a slot than its capacity. If allowed, the user will be asked to confirm that they want to schedule an appointment in an overbooked slot.
Default Time Slot Display
Your default time slots are displayed sequentially in a horizontal row across the screen, like this:
Tips when Editing Time Slots
- If a time slot begins at the same time that the previous slot ends, changing the start time will also update the end time of the previous slot.
- If a time slot ends at the same time that the next slot begins, changing the end time will also update the start time of the next slot.
- Slots can only be added to the beginning or the end, you’ll then have to adjust the start and end times as needed.
Create Daily Slots
Once you have your default slots set up, the final step is to copy those defaults for each of the next several days.
On this page you choose a date in the near future and the system will create the daily slots for every day up to that date. These daily slots are what is used to compare the number of booked appointments to capacity. You can modify the maximum capacity for individual daily slots to accommodate holidays, employee vacation, etc.
Each Time Slot Group is listed in the grid, along with each day of the selected week (calendar). If a group/day is filled in with a green background, that indicates that daily time slots have been created for that group/day. Double-click on a day/group to edit the daily slots. Editing daily slots is done in the same manner as editing default slots.
NOTE: It is not a requirement that you create daily time slots. The entire system, including reporting, can function based on default time slots only. Daily slots give you the ability to tweak the maximum capacity based on employee availability.
Time Slot Capacity Form
This form is used to view time slot capacity in real-time for one or more days.
- Choose a date from the calendar.
- The time slot that the appointment is currently scheduled for will be highlighted in blue for quick reference.
Call Handling - Schedule a Call into a Time Slot
Once Time Slot Capacity Management is configured and enabled, when you schedule a call in Call Handling, the Time Slot Capacity Form will appear with it. Simply click on the time slot you want to schedule the appointment in.
Looking for a more interactive course on Time Slot Capacity Management? Check out our Learning Management System (LMS)! Our courses are available to all Successware users. If you don't have a sign-in for our LMS, contact us at training@successware.com for a free account.