My Business Scheduler — frequently asked questions

What if I want to use the Business Scheduler myself and not let my customers see see it?
By default your Business Scheduler is set as private. You can leave it as private and only you and your office staff can access it. After you have set up your Business Scheduler and you want to have customers book appointments you will need to make it public.

What if I am in my truck scheduling an appointment and someone is overlapping me on the internet scheduling one at the same time?
This will not happen often because My Business Scheduler has an option that will allow you to not show times available within a configurable number of days from today’s date. This takes care of last minute appointments. Now for the client calling in for next weeks appointment, you can refer her to your Business Scheduler online (a good practice) or you can go ahead and book it but call her back if you find out about a conflict when ever you get a chance to look at your online Business Scheduler. You can also set up a second email notification for new appointments that can go to your mobile phone using text messaging or sms. Most mobile phones also have an email address like 8285551212@sprintpcsmessaging.com but it might depend on your service plan with the mobile phone provider.

What if I travel long distances and don’t want to have someone scheduling me across town that day when I could arrange them more effectively making better use of my driving time?
My Business Scheduler is a managing calendar. You need to manage your Business Scheduler on a daily basis. By allowing your customers to see your schedule and book it now, stops the customer from searching for another professional. This allows you an advantage over your competitors. In most cases the time the customer books will work for you, but when it doesn't you can call her and move the time. This technique will gain more business for you.

What if I have multiple employees?
We have "Team" support that we can setup for you - just call HomeGauge toll-free at 877-274-4299 and we'll help you setup your Business Scheduler for Teams.

What if I am not busy but I don’t want the public to know that?
You can set My Business Scheduler to limit the number of days a client can look ahead in your schedule. Also, you can randomly block a few days to give a feeling of activity.

Can the customers see the details of other appointments?
No. My Business Scheduler will only show the client the times that you are available and not display any information about any of the other times you are not available or already booked. This keeps them from knowing whether you are doing another job or maybe just taking time off for some fishing or golf.

My Business Scheduler — FAQs

1. I have an available time slot, but can't schedule an appointment 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 job 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 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 services are for 3 hours long then one will never get scheduled during that time because it wont fit. But if you setup services that takes an hour or 2, 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 Services. For instance, you may have been using a three-hour slot for a Service that only took two hours. Now, instead of that entire three-hour slot being used up, your two hour service 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 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 user 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 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 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 a user 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-person firms? Can I setup teams? Why or why not?

    The Business Scheduler does support multi-person 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. User's 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.