Scheduling Workflow

Here's how it all works, and keep in mind there are a ton of intricate settings and options to match the intricacy and reality of research scheduling.

Key aspects to keep in mind in the scheduling workflow:

• Consent - centralized module in Home › Consent
• Study Sidebar - everything from study details to observers is now to the left of  the calendar
• Facilitators - from the study sidebar to have up to 6 facilitators on one study
• Observers 
• Collaborators
• Availability - check for conflicts automatically 
• Outlook integration
• Quotas
• SMS scheduling invites & details

Step 1: Add a Scheduling Question

Head to any Study › Editor › Questions, and add a question of the type "Scheduling." You also have to have both an email and a phone question. This is so our automated emails and texts can work. Note that you can hide the scheduling question if you're planning on relying on the Invite to schedule feature.

Step 2: Add Open Interview Spots

Head to "Scheduling" in the top nav and click anywhere on the calendar to add Interview Spots that you want to have available for participants to choose for an interview time. Or click Create Schedule › Add interview spots.

Step 3: Autofill Sample Participant to test

To understand the workflow for participants, we have a nifty testing feature that generates a make-believe potential participant and helps you understand the scheduling workflow. Real potential participants have to pick a time in your screener or scheduling questions, and are required to choose their timezone. We always calculate the timezone difference.

Step 4: Customize Emails, Landing Pages, & Reminders

The core of scheduling is Ethnio sending emails and invites to your potential participants. You can customize the sender, from, and all the text. Edit the content from Scheduling › Emails, paying close attention to the Details Email, including Location. Most often, this contains a Zoom link or address.

You can use your own Zoom account to integrate with Ethnio and have Ethnio automatically create unique Zoom meetings or Webinars. Read more here on the Zoom Integration. Or enter any static information such as an NDA link or steps they should complete before the interview. You can include images but no attachments.

Landing Pages 

After each action in a scheduling email, say when someone clicks the confirm button, there's an associated landing page. You can customize every word and button on those pages, but most customers use the default language.

Reminders 

Optional step to remind participants about their selected interview. You can turn on one type of reminder, like texts, or disable them all. Super helpful in making sure people actually remember their times.

Step 5: Invite or Confirm Potential Recruits

As respondents sign up for date/time slots, you will notice the interview spot changes colors and shows how many potential recruits you have for that time. Click on any teal box marked Potential Recruits to Invite. 

If you fill out a preview, you will see yourself appear as a potential recruit. This is also where you'll see prospective real participants. Now click the green "Invite" button next to any participant you wish to invite to that time (below). Note: This will send them an email so they can confirm their interview.

Confirm from Email or Feed

This is what your participant will then see - first an email:

Then you can either click Confirm My Interview or, if you're on the Scheduling › Calendar page, open up any invited participant and click Confirm. This is especially helpful if you had direct communication with the participant and know they are good for a given time, so you don't need them to click the link in their email.

One thing to keep in mind if you require consent: when the participant clicks the confirm link in their invite email, that's the point where they're asked to review and sign the consent form. So if you confirm someone yourself from the calendar instead, they never get to that page, and no signature is collected.

Confirmed Page 

Either way, they will now receive the details email, and if they click the confirm link, then they will see this page if their time is still open.  If you invited multiple people to the same time, the first person to confirm gets the spot. Read on for what happens to the other invited participants for that time. If you invited five people to a 2 pm interview, and the first respondent confirmed, the other four will get a customizable page called "Oops, Time No Longer Available"  (which you can of course customize).

You're done! Confirmed participants show as green boxes

That's it! Now that time is no longer available for other respondents. It will no longer show up in your screener. Once a box turns green, your participant is scheduled for that time slot. Feel free to ask if you have any other questions regarding this, or if you think a particular feature might be beneficial for using this 'scheduling' we have created.

Optional Settings

To go a bit further with customization, here are some optional settings:

• Email Alerts for Collaborators: Go to Scheduling › Settings and turn on alerts to receive an email when someone cancels, confirms, etc. You can add emails for collaborators on your team who can automatically be notified when there's a scheduling participant as well. 
• Rescheduling: Set a window, use two types of rescheduling (open and closed), and much more. Pro tip: always make sure to use an incognito window to test rescheduling as if you were a participant
• Backups / Alternates: You can add backup/alternate spots that are either one for the whole day or one backup for a specific spot. Just hit the Backups toggle to turn on that mode and click to add backup spots.
• Sharing Scheduled Participants - using a link you send, calendar integration, and more