Overview
Availability and unavailability are blocks of time staff may input to tell WaitWell when customers may or may not book appointments. There are three types of availability - Ongoing, Specific Date(s), and Unavailability, which are described below.
Ongoing Availability
If a staff member's availability is consistent (i.e. hours and breaks for workdays are the same for long periods of time), it is best to create ongoing availability. A common example is to have one 9am-12pm ongoing availability, and one 1pm-4pm ongoing availability, both set to repeat Monday-Friday. This creates a typical 40 hour work week including weekends and and lunchbreaks.
Create an Ongoing Availability
Navigate to Appointments on the left-hand navigation menu
Select Availability at the top right corner of the screen
Select the + button in the top left corner of the screen to open the availability edit window
Enter a title for the availability
Specify queues and service types for the availability
Optionally, choose a color for the availability
Select Ongoing
Specify the daily start and end times, and which days of the week to which the availability applies
Optionally, assign a staff member to the availability. Only one staff member may be assigned per availability. If a staff member is not assigned, the availability will apply to all staff at that location who don't already have an assigned availability within the same time period.
Specify how many tickets the availability allows to be booked at the same time. The common configuration is that one staff member can be assigned one ticket. Therefore, an assigned availability is typically set to "1", and an unassigned availability is typically set to however many staff members at the location are able to take appointments during that time.
Specify the appointment priority. If multiple availabilities exist for a given timeslot, the one with the highest priority is booked first. This should almost always stay at it's default value of "0".
Optionally, override the meeting methods chosen if Specify Methods to Serve Customer is enabled for the Service Type. This would be useful if a particular staff member doesn't have the ability to, say, take phone calls, but the rest of the staff at the location can.
Select Save. The availability should now be visible in the Availability Calendar
Specific Date(s) Availability
Overview
Specific date availability is availability that do not repeat ad infinitum and may be set up as either one-time or recurring. The difference between ongoing availability and recurring availability is that the latter has a definitive end date.
Create Specific Date(s) Availability
Navigate to Appointments on the left-hand navigation menu
Select Availabilities at the top right corner of the screen
Select the + button in the top left corner of the screen to open the availability edit window
Enter a title for the availability
Specify the queues and service types for the availability
Optionally, choose a color for the availability
Select Specific Date(s)
Specify the start and end dates for the availability
Specify queues and service types for the availability
Specify the recurrence frequency for the availability
Specify the days of the week for the availability
All subsequent settings may be configured exactly the same as outlined above, for ongoing availability.
Unavailability
Overview
Unavailability always override availability, which makes unavailability useful for blocking off small chunks of an ongoing availability (e.g. for a doctor's appointment) without having to alter or delete it.
Create Ongoing/Specific Date(s) Unavailability
Follow the same steps for creating either Ongoing Availability or Specific Date(s) Availability but select Unavailability at the top of the window instead of Availability
Optionally, choose to have the unavailability appear in the Appointments Calendar in addition to the Availability Calendar.
Edit or Delete an Availability/Unavailability
To edit or delete availability, select it on the availability calendar and the availability edit window will open.
Important Note: Deleting availability does not delete corresponding appointments. A common user error is to delete an availability that already has appointments booked against it and then create new availability that fully or partially overlaps with the deleted availability time slot, which opens up the potential for double bookings.
Ensure existing appointments are either, canceled, rescheduled, or otherwise accounted for before creating new availability where old availability once existed.
Extend Availability Beyond Business Hours
Availability can optionally be extended beyond the location's regular business hours from the Appointment Settings Page.
Filters
The appointment calendar has two filters that can be used to show or hide specific appointments.
Queues/Service Types - Located at the top centre of the page, this filter allows availability to be filtered by specific queues or specific service types
Staff - Located at the top right of the page, this filter allows availability to be filtered by assigned staff
Additional Functions
Select the vertical ellipses button to find additional functions, including
Search Appointments - View appointments as a searchable, sortable, and filterable report
List Availability - View availability as a searchable, sortable, and filterable report
Send Alert to Upcoming Appointments - Send a bulk message to customers with upcoming appointments
Print Appointments - Opens a print-friendly view of appointments