Understanding Unassigned vs. Assigned Calendars
Understanding the difference between Unassigned and Assigned Calendars is crucial for optimising your appointment scheduling process. Unassigned Calendars are ideal for handling general or one-off appointments, providing flexibility for centralised registration or pre-screening before assignments. On the other hand, Assigned Calendars are perfect for managing appointments across teams or departments, ensuring even distribution and specialised service through features like round-robin assignments.
Unassigned Calendars
Unassigned calendars are intended for scheduling 1-on-1 appointments with a specific user. These calendars can be synced with a preferred calendar, allowing the system to automatically identify and show available time slots based on current commitments.
Key Features:
Syncs with the connected Calendar.
Automatically updates available slots based on the synced calendar.
Ideal for 1-on-1 appointment scheduling.
Practical Examples:
A sales department can use an Unassigned Calendar to manage registrations for a webinar. The calendar serves as a single point for tracking attendees, streamlining the registration process, and automatically sending reminders or confirmations. By keeping everything organized in one place, the sales team can focus on delivering the webinar rather than manually managing registrants.
A company could use the Unassigned Calendar to triage incoming appointments. The calendar is linked to a coordinator's email, who reviews the appointments and assigns them to the relevant persons based on their expertise.
Assigned Calendars
Assigned calendars, on the other hand, are designed to facilitate scheduling appointments with multiple users. This feature is particularly useful for teams or departments where appointments can be assigned to any available member, often utilising a round-robin assignment method. Assigned calendars include Round-Robin, Class Booking, Collective Booking, and Service calendars.
Key Features:
Allows dedicated users to be assigned to a calendar.
Supports round-robin appointment assignments.
Can be used to categorise appointments by type or purpose.
Automatically syncs appointments to the assigned user's calendar and checks for conflicts on each calendar selected in their calendar configuration.
Practical Example:
A company can create a Round-Robin calendar for consultations. Staff members can be assigned to the calendar, allowing appointments to be distributed between them based on availability and priority.
In a customer success team, each account manager has an assigned calendar for regular check-ins or strategy sessions with their assigned clients. Clients can easily schedule recurring or one-time meetings directly with their account manager, improving communication and ongoing support.
Connecting Calendars
To ensure seamless scheduling and avoid conflicts, it's crucial to connect users' Calendars with the CRM. This allows the platform to check for available slots in real time, preventing double bookings and ensuring efficient appointment management.
Benefits:
Prevents scheduling conflicts by checking for existing commitments.
Updates availability in real-time, ensuring accurate scheduling.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What if an appointment is scheduled during an already booked time slot?
A: Ensure that the user's calendar is correctly synced. The CRM should automatically avoid scheduling conflicts by only displaying available slots.
Q: Can I change the priority of users within a calendar group?
A: Yes, users' priorities within a calendar group can be adjusted to control the order in which they receive appointments.