How to Use the Appointment Center
The Slug Success Appointment Center allows users to view staff availability in the selected location, schedule students for future appointments, and check students in to scheduled and drop-in appointments.
This feature is primarily used by staff, especially employees who work at a front desk or others who help to manage appointment scheduling at a specific location.
IMPORTANT: Staff members will need to set up their calendar sync and availability to make Appointment Center’s features useful.
To enter Appointment Center mode, use the Additional Modes selection grid, found in the top right of the Slug Success window, and select Appointment Center.
Feature Overview
The Appointment Center allows staff at a location (for example, a front desk worker in an Advising office) to manage appointments for that location. That includes managing the scheduling grid, scheduling appointments, editing appointment details, and canceling appointments. Staff can also view a list of drop-in and scheduled appointments for the day or week. More information about the aspects of the Appointment Center are covered below.
Location List
Once you open the Appointment Center using the link in the menu, you will be taken to a screen where you can select the appropriate location.
Scheduling Grid
After choosing a location, you will be taken to a Scheduling Grid. This grid can be narrowed down by Care Unit, Service, Staff Member and/or Date and Time. Whenever you add or remove a selection in one of the filters, the options available in the other filters will be narrowed or widened based on that selection.
The Appointment Center has a calendar interface where available time for appointments are shown as white blocks and unavailable times as grey blocks.
If you click the Vertical Orientation button on the top right of the screen, you will be able to change the orientation of the staff and times if you would prefer one to be the column header over the other. The default orientation (above) is vertical.
When horizontal orientation is selected it looks like this:
Using the Service Name menu on the right side of the screen, you can choose to see appointments based on attendees or by the service the attendees are scheduled under.
It is also possible to filter who appears on the grid by using the Scheduling Grid dropdown filter, letting you see drop-in appointments and scheduled appointments.
You can schedule appointments from the screen by clicking on an open slot on the scheduling grid.
Once you select a slot, a pop-up window will open letting you set the details of the appointment.
You can also click on an existing appointment and see the details of the appointment.
Drop-In Appointments Screen
Staff may use the Appointment Center to manage drop-in appointments. In the ‘Drop-In Appointments’ screen, you can view all of the students who have checked in for a drop-in appointment in that location, and take additional action from the available lists. You can find this screen by clicking the drop-down above the filters at the top part of the screen.
Scheduled Appointments Screen
With the ‘Scheduled Appointment List’ tab in Appointment Center, users can view all of the appointments for the current day and take action from the list.
Actions users can take on appointments include:
- Send Message to Attendee (Student)
- Send Message to Organizer(s) (Staff)
- View Appointment Details
- Check In
- Check Out
- Mark No-Show
- Cancel Appointments
When choosing multiple appointments, actions are limited to sending messages and canceling appointments. This gives users the ability to cancel all appointments for a given day in a particular location.
Users also have the ability to select any date and see appointments on the selected day.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is that link in Appointment Details?
The link in Appointment Details is for virtual or phone appointments and is set up in the Availability Setup window.
How far into the future do appointments appear in the Appointment Center when you search for a student?
Scheduled appointments for the next six days will display for the student.
Does the ‘In Progress Appointments’ list that displays in the ‘Scheduled Appointments’ tab in the Appointment Center display only scheduled appointments, or does it also include drop-in appointments?
It only displays scheduled appointments. To view information about drop-in appointments, you must navigate to the Drop-In Appointments tab.
If appointments are being scheduled by front desk staff, will those individuals be listed as the ‘Organizer’ of the appointment?
No, the staff member who is leading the appointment will be listed as the ‘Organizer.’ Think of ‘Organizer’ more as the appointment facilitator, rather than the individual who originally scheduled the appointment.
Is there any way for a student to schedule an appointment during a time they have class, if that class is cancelled for that specific day?
A student can only override a course conflict when scheduling a new appointment IF they’ve been invited to an appointment campaign, AND if the staff running that appointment campaign has allowed students to schedule over class times. If that setting is not in place then students will not be permitted to schedule an appointment for themselves during a time in which they have classes scheduled. However, staff using Slug Success are able to override course conflicts and schedule on students’ behalf. Within the Appointment Center, for example, any staff member can click a time on the scheduling grid to schedule the appointment, even if the student has a course conflict.
Is there a way to change the default hours that show in the scheduling grid of Appointment Center?
No, it is not possible to change the default hours from 8am to 5pm. However, an individual user can adjust the scheduling grid hours by selecting drop downs from the menu above the grid. These hour changes will default back to 8am to 5pm whenever the user exits and re-launches the Appointment Center.
Is it possible to change the orientation of the scheduling grid?
Yes! You can shift the orientation of the staff names and times in the scheduling grid between vertical or horizontal. The orientation will switch back to the default (vertical) whenever you exit and re-launch the Appointment Center.
Is it possible for the Appointment Center to be set as the platform homepage for our front desk staff?
No, it is not possible for the Appointment Center to be a user’s homepage in the platform.
When I look at the scheduling grid, I see little white space to the side of staff members’ Busy blocks and when the scheduler pauses over them in Appointment Center, it shows that the staff is available to make an appointment even though they are busy. Why is that?
That is because that user is “available” at that time. Gray is “no availability”, white is “has availability” – neither change with appointments or busy blocks overlaying. Front desk staff should avoid scheduling where there are overlaying blocks, however.
Why don’t I see a staff member in Appointment Center that has availability for today?
Staff members who only have Campaign Availability for a day will not show up in the Appointment Center. Only Staff who have either Appointment or Drop-in Availabilities for today will show in the Appointment Center.