Help CenterWhat are appointment blocks?
Appointment blocks allow easier scheduling with variable time slots. Within each block, appointment types define the different topics/types to be scheduled with defined parameters. Blocks are set up per Advisor.
Note: The Appointment Blocks feature must be configured by the GradLeaders Support team prior to school set up and usage. Contact support@gradleaders.com.
What you need before you get started with this guide:
- A staff profile first and foremost
Getting setup for the first time
there are 2 key items you need to setup before you start using blocks (don't worry, we'll cover them all here)
- Appointment types
- Appointment blocks
Adding Appointment types:
Navigation can differ slightly but typically you can access appointment types by going to 'Other activities' > 'Advising' > 'Appointment types'
From here you click on 'Next Actions' > 'Add Appointment type' and complete the form here with what you desire (note: appointment types can be edited after they are created as well). If you aren't sure what a particular question does or means, click on the "?" bubble next to it to get a popup that will let you know what that setting is for:
Confirmation, Reminder, and Follow-up Emails:
Important to note is that for each appointment type, you can customize an email template for that appointment type or advisor. These are all automatic emails that will be sent off during the process of signing up for appointments and give you the flexibility between different appointment types.
You can set the subject and use variables within the email body to automatically populate data such as candidate/intern names, programs/class years and timezone data just as an example.
Eligibility Filters and saving:
The last step when adding the appointment type will be selecting your eligbility filters which will control which population any available appointments under this type will be visible to. These are customizable and should you want any changes shoot us an email at support@gradleaders.com with your request and we will be more than happy to assist.
Appointment Blocks:
Once you have appointment types setup, the blocks are what allow you to actually make appointments visible to your candidate/interns. While navigation can differ, appointment blocks will typically be under the 'Advising' heading (Ex: Other activities > Advising > Appointment blocks)
From there you can go to 'Next Actions' > 'Add appointment block' in order to get started:
(Note: If you get the message to "Make an advisor selection before creating a block" make sure you have your name or the name of the advisor on whose behalf you are creating the block)
You'll arrive at the Appointment block setup page below, and you'll have a few important options here:
Day(s) of the week, Appointment types and Range of Recurrence:
Here you can select what days you are available to take appointments as well as what type and the time range within the day (Block Start/End). Appointment type is where the block will inherit timeslot length, eligbility and signup settings.
Range of Recurrence is how long this block will be active. For example if I'm available only on Mondays and Fridays for appointments for the month of January, I can set the range of recurrence to be from 1/1/2022 to 1/31/2022. Doing this will mean that for the date range (the entire month of January in this case), every Monday and Friday will have appointment slots available to candidates.
(Note: Candidates can only view appointments a maximum of 14 days in the future, this is a setting that can be changed upon request to support@gradleaders.com or via our LiveChat)
On the appointment block, you will only be setting what days you want the blocks to run and what Appointment types they will be using. The timeslots, eligbility and signup settings will be inherited from the selected appointment types (note: selecting multiple appointment types with different eligbility isn't advised as it can result in issues with visibility).
How does this all look to Candidates?
Lets say I'm available to take phone appointments on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10:45am to 3pm. When setting up the block I would choose these 3 days, the appointment type (By phone in this case) and set the block start from 10:45am and block end to 3pm. When a student goes to schedule a phone appointment and they look at the calender, they can click into the day in question and this is what they see:
