Many teams have similar goals when it comes to scheduling. Surfboard's Activity Plans offer endless combinations to find the right rule for the task, but it can be overwhelming to decide.

We've put together a list of some of the most common use cases for activities that we've heard from our customers, as well as tips on how to best configure them within Surfboard.

Popular activities and how to schedule them

💬 Live chat

👉 How to create the rule:

New activity rule
Select the 'set number of surfers' option
Enter the operating hours for this activity, then enter the coverage you need across different hours of the day.

💡 Top tips

You can use the 'Set coverage every' stepper to define how granular you want to be with coverage.
- The higher the increments, the more broad your coverage will be.
- The smaller the increments, the more specific you can get.
You can add multiple windows if you need drastically different coverage on different days of the week.

📞 Phone and voice

👉 How to create the rule:

New activity rule
Select the 'set number of surfers' option
Enter the operating hours for this activity, then enter the coverage you need across different hours of the day.

💡 Top tips

You can use the 'Set coverage every' stepper to define how granular you want to be with coverage.
- The higher the increments, the more broad your coverage will be.
- The smaller the increments, the more specific you can get.
You can add multiple windows if you need drastically different coverage on different days of the week.

📚 Development or training

👉 How to create the rule:

New activity rule
Select the 'set the amount of time' option
Enter the amount of time needed then, select 'per week' and 'for each surfer' - this means that the time will be scheduled for each selected surfer.
Don’t add any scheduling windows! This means Surfboard will look for available slots in the surfer's weeks to schedule this activity.
Once your rule is saved, change the priority of the activity to be low down on your list. Ensure your high-priority activities like live channels are higher. This means that they'll always be scheduled first, leaving you true 'quiet time' slots.

💡 Top tips

If you want to ensure this activity doesn't happen on your busiest days or times, you can add scheduling windows.

📧 Emails

You can schedule email in a couple of ways depending how tight your SLA's are.

⏲ If you have tight SLAs:

New activity rule
Select the 'set number of surfers' option
Enter the operating hours for this activity, then enter the coverage you need across different hours of the day.

🕰 If you have longer SLAs:

New activity rule
Select the 'set the amount of time' option
Enter the amount of time needed then, select 'per week' or 'per day' as needed by this task.
Then select 'shared between surfers' - this means that the total time will be shared by the team.
Under the scheduling window header, click 'add time'. You can then choose the specific days and/or times that you want this activity to happen.

💡 Top tips

You can schedule different inboxes differently depending on how high priority they are.

🗂 Admin

👉 How to create the rule:

New activity rule
Select the 'set the amount of time' option
Enter the amount of time needed then, select 'per week' or 'per day' as needed by this task.
Then select 'shared between surfers' - this means that the total time will be shared by the team.
Under the scheduling window header, click 'add time'. You can then choose the specific days and/or times that you want this activity to happen.
- If it needs to happen at a specific time, use the 'at' option, if you have a window use the 'between' option.

💡 Top tips

If you want to ensure this activity happens at quieter times, don't add a scheduling window.

Other common use cases

I always need a specific number of surfers to be working on an activity between certain times

👉 How to create the rule:

New activity rule
Select the 'set number of surfers' option
Enter the operating hours for this activity, then enter the coverage you need across different hours of the day.

💡 Top tips

You can use the 'Set coverage every' stepper to define how granular you want to be with coverage.
- The higher the increments, the more broad your coverage will be.
- The smaller the increments, the more specific you can get.
You can add multiple windows if you need drastically different coverage on different days of the week.

Surfers need a set amount of time on an activity every week, but I want it to happen at the quietest times

👉 How to create the rule:

New activity rule
Select the 'set the amount of time' option
Enter the amount of time needed then, select 'per week' and 'for each surfer' - this means that the time will be scheduled for each selected surfer.
Don’t add any scheduling windows! This means Surfboard will look for available slots in the surfer's weeks to schedule this activity.
Once your rule is saved, change the priority of the activity to be low down on your list. Ensure your high-priority activities like live channels are higher. This means that they'll always be scheduled first, leaving you true 'quiet time' slots.

I have a task which needs to be completed at specific times of the day or week but it can be done by anyone

👉 How to create the rule:

New activity rule
Select the 'set the amount of time' option
Enter the amount of time needed then, select 'per week' or 'per day' as needed by this task.
Then select 'shared between surfers' - this means that the total time will be shared by the team.
Under the scheduling window header, click 'add time'. You can then choose the specific days and/or times that you want this activity to happen at.
- If it needs to happen at a specific time, use the 'at' option, if you have a window use the 'between' option.
Once your rule is saved, change the priority of this activity to be very high, or highest to ensure it always happens at your desired time.

I have a task which needs to be completed at specific times of the day or week AND by a specific number of surfers too. This task can be done by anyone.

This one's a little creative, so bear with us 😎

👉 How to create the rule:

New activity rule
Select the 'set the amount of time' option
When you're entering the amount of time needed, you can add a multiplier to ensure you get the right number of surfers every time.
- For example, if you need 3 surfers to do 1 hour of refunds every weekday, then you would set the total time to 15 hours (3 surfers x 1hr = 3hrs x 5 days = 15hrs).
Then select 'shared between surfers' - this means that the total time will be shared by the team.
Under the scheduling window header, click 'add time'. You can then choose the specific days and/or times that you want this activity to happen at.
- If it needs to happen at a specific time, use the 'at' option, if you have a window use the 'between' option.
Once your rule is saved, change the priority of this activity to be very high, or highest to ensure it always happens at your desired time.

💡 Top tips

Make sure that the session length, "How long do you want surfers to work on this activity in one go?" fits in with the amount of time you need.

Surfers need to complete a task at the start or end of every shift

👉 How to create the rule:

New activity rule
Select the 'set the amount of time' option
Enter the amount of time needed then, select 'per day' and 'for each surfer' - this means that the time will be scheduled for each selected surfer.
Under the scheduling window header, click 'add time'. You can then the 'at start of shift' or 'at end of shift' as needed.
Once your rule is saved, change the priority of this activity to be very high, or highest to ensure it always happens at your desired time.

💡 Top tips

This will mean that surfers do this task at the start of every shift, no matter what time it starts!
Many teams use 'at start of shift' to give their surfers time to go through their replies and personal inboxes when they begin work.