My Business Scheduler — Support

1. I have an available time slot, but can't schedule an inspection in that time. What is going on?

   Be sure the available time is equal to or longer than the appointment time. For example, a 3 hour inspection requires a 3 hour time slot.

2. How can I keep track of what times I have available?

   In the Hours of Operation Configuration, you can set Hours of Operation for each day of the week. For a specific day, you can also click the House of Operation link from the My Business Scheduler page and see your Hours for that specific day

3. Why do my customer's see my list of services first? They want to know when I am available

   The Business Scheduler allows you to set up Hours of Operation and also specify the length of times that you expect your services will take. Because of the flexibility in inspection services time, we do not know what available times will be until we know the service(s) the customer wants. For example you might want to work just a few hours on Friday afternoon so you can specify your hours of operation from 1 till 3. If all of your home inspection services are for 3 hours long then one will never get scheduled during that time because it wont fit. But if you setup services like a short radon test that takes an hour, or a 2 hour condo inspection, then this space will now be shown as available for your customer when they choose those services.

4. Normally, I book appointments at 9 am, 1 pm and 4pm. How is the HG Business Scheduler different from the old Calendar? Why is this more efficient?

   Now, instead of setting up inflexible time slots for appointments, you can set your Hours of Operation from 9 am – 7 pm. This is more efficient since you do not have time slots that don't match your Inspection Services. For instance, you may have been using a three-hour slot for an Inspection Service that only took two hours. Now, instead of that entire three-hour slot being used up, your two hour inspection will only use those two hours and leave the rest of your schedule free for other appointments.

5. Can you set appointments to start on the hour (or other times) only?

   Yes! You can set your appointments to start on the hour, half-hour, or quarter-hour. You will need to use your Hours of Operation page to change these settings.

6. How do you save information for other email besides Outlook?

   If you want to save calendar information for other email programs besides Outlook (Vista Mail for example), you can go to My Computer → Tools → Folder Options and click “File Types”. Choose the “ics” extension and change the program you wish to handle the downloaded information from the Business Scheduler.

7. I notice that as the inspector, I see the start and stop times for each appointment. Does that customer see that as well?

   No, the customer only sees a start time, and a note detailing the approximate expected time that the appointment will take to complete.

8. Should I setup all my services (even small ones)?

   Yes, we recommend that each inspector sets up all their services. The more choices and information you can provide to your customers, the more accurate your appointment details.

9. Am I required to set Geographic Areas? Is it recommended?

   No, you are not required to set up Geographic Areas. For team-inspector firms and for single-person firms that cover many different areas, we do recommend that you try out the Geographic Areas feature. The flexibility that is provided with Geographic Areas may be very useful to having an efficient scheduling system.

10. Can I block out Lunch from 12:00 – 1 pm?

    Yes, you can do this two different ways:
    a) In the Hours of Operation, make sure that you have one Hour of Operation that ends at 12 noon and another that starts at 1 pm
    b) If you would like to set specific days in a month off for lunch, you can click the Mark Unavailable button from the My Business Scheduler page to setup a time when you are unavailable on a specific day from 12:00 – 1 pm.

11. Can I setup certain days for specific services?

    Yes, when you add (or edit) services, you can choose which days those services are available.

12. Can I devote a particular day for a particular Geographic Area? If so, how will my customers know that I have that one day available for that Area?

    Yes, you may devote a particular day for a particular Geographic Area. To do so, you can set all the Inspection Services for that Geographic Area to be available on a particular day only. When your customers choose that Geographic Area, the times they will have to choose from will only be on that specified day.

13. I seem to be unable to schedule an appointment even though I know all my Services and Hours of Operation are correct?

    There is a known issue when an inspector has multiple services with the same Service Name. Try checking and seeing if you have multiple services with the same name. If you do, click the Edit button for those services and give each one a unique name. That should help with this problem.

14. Does the HG Business Scheduler support multi-inspector firms? Can I setup teams? Why or why not?

    The Business Scheduler does support multi-inspector firms (teams). The Team Leader and Team Members have a variety of ways that they work together and this can all be configured in the Business Scheduler. However, you must contact HomeGauge to arrange the initial team setup. Because teams are tied to HomeGauge Services, HomeGauge has to make sure that all the other details are configured properly in order to activate teams for your Business Scheduler.

15. What fields can I use in my appointment notification messages?

    The following information can be placed into your appointment notification messages: Street, City, State, Zip, County, Country and Driving Directions for the Appointment Location. Appointment Time and Date, as well as Agreement Location are supported. Inspector First Name, Last Name, Full Name, Company, Workphone and Email are also supported. You can also display the Total Price of all the services, and you may also display Services Information and Price. Directions for use are available on the Business Scheduler General Options page.

16. Does the Business Scheduler interact with Microsoft Outlook?

    Yes, the Business Scheduler can be used with Outlook. Every event can be "Saved" to your local computer by clicking the "Save Event" icon. Once you click the "Save Event" icon, Outlook will open automatically and you can import the event information.

17. Does the Business Scheduler support Time Zones and Daylight Savings?

    Yes, the Business Scheduler supports Time Zones and Daylight Savings customization. To change your Time Zone and Daylight Savings settings, go to the General Business Scheduler Options page and choose your correct settings.