Managing Team Member Assignments in Round Robin Calendars
Properly assigning team members in Round Robin Calendars ensures fair and efficient appointment distribution. This feature allows businesses to automate scheduling while maintaining the flexibility to assign appointments based on specific preferences.
Table of Contents
- Understanding Key Terms
- Configuring Reschedule Preferences
- Setting New Appointment Preferences
- Additional Settings
- Best Practices
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Related Articles
Understanding Key Terms
To effectively manage Round Robin Calendars, it’s essential to understand key terms that influence team member assignment. These definitions will help you configure the settings correctly and ensure seamless appointment distribution.
- Appointment Owner: The user assigned to a specific appointment when booked.
- Assigned User: The contact's designated user within the system, often used for managing ongoing interactions.
Configuring Reschedule Preferences
Reschedule preferences determine how appointments are reassigned when clients modify their bookings. These settings ensure flexibility while maintaining efficiency in appointment allocation.
Step 1: Accessing Advanced Settings
- Navigate to Settings > Calendars and select your Round Robin Calendar.
- Click on Meeting Details and select Team Members.
Step 2: Selecting Reschedule Options
- Reassign Through Round Robin: If you choose this option, the rescheduled appointment will be assigned to any team member based on the round-robin algorithm.
- Keep Same Appointment Owner: If you configure this setting, when a contact reschedules an appointment using the reschedule link, only the original appointment owner's slots will be shown on the booking widget.
Example: If User A was the original appointment owner and the contact reschedules the appointment, only User A's available slots will be displayed for rescheduling.
Note: You can turn off 'Allow Staff Selection' to prevent bookers from changing the staff member on the booking widget.
Setting New Appointment Preferences
New appointment preferences allow businesses to automate staff assignments based on predefined conditions, ensuring that clients book with the appropriate team member when necessary.
Step 1: Enabling "Always Book with Assigned User"
This feature lets you choose whether new appointments should always be booked with the contact's assigned user. If a contact has an assigned user, that user will be given preference; otherwise, it will be a round-robin assignment.
Tip: Turn off 'Allow Staff Selection' to prevent bookers from changing the staff member on the booking widget.
Step 2: Configuration Steps
- Go to Meeting Details > Team Members > Advanced Settings.
- Toggle Always Book with Assigned User to enable this feature.
How New Appointment Preferences Work
When the form is first, the contact fills out their information. Based on the contact's email or phone number, the system checks who the contact's assigned user is. There are three possible scenarios:
- No Assigned User: The appointment is assigned through round-robin scheduling.
- Assigned User not part of the Calendar: The appointment is assigned through round-robin scheduling among the calendar team members.
- Assigned User part of the Calendar: The assigned user's slots are shown in the booking widget, and the appointment is booked with them.
Note: If this setting is turned off, every new appointment will be scheduled through round-robin scheduling.
Additional Settings
To further refine the appointment booking experience, you can enable specific settings that impact how contacts are assigned to team members within the Round Robin Calendar.
- Assign Contacts to Their Respective Calendar Team Members: This ensures that when an appointment is booked, the contact is automatically assigned to the team member they scheduled with.
- Automatically Assign a Contact’s Future Appointments to the Same Team Member: This maintains continuity and improves customer relationships by allowing clients to work with the same staff member over time.
Best Practices
Implement these recommendations to avoid scheduling conflicts and improve operational flow:
- Ensure team availability is up to date for accurate appointment distribution.
- Regularly check Advanced Settings to align with business needs.
- Maintain consistent settings across all calendars to prevent conflicts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What happens if a customer does not have an assigned user?
A: The Round Robin logic will automatically assign an available team member.
Q: Can I manually assign an appointment to a specific team member?
A: Yes, appointments can be manually reassigned within the calendar settings.
Q: How does rescheduling work with this feature?
A: Depending on the selected settings, the appointment can either remain with the original owner or be reassigned through Round Robin logic.