Forum Discussion
Microsoft Bookings-Availability dependent on multiple staff member schedules
Is there a way to make service available date/times dependent on multiple staff members' schedules instead of 1 person? We have 2 staff members setup in Microsoft Booking Both staff members hav...
Everyone,
For what it is worth, here is what I have discovered as of 10/7/2021. When you create a “Service(s)” in Bookings, the application views it much like a haircut. So if a haircut takes 30 minutes and you have five people added as assigned staff for that service, it presents to the “Customer(s)” availability of any of those five staff members to perform the 30 minute haircut. The application does not take into consideration that all five staff members may be required simultaneously for the haircut. This would be a nice, and I assume fairly obvious feature that should be added to the services page.
In my particular use case, I am trying to display my availability in conjunction with my team members so that external Customers can book consultation meetings with me and my team. Unfortunately if I have a prior obligation but one of my team members is free, it shows the Customer that the time block is free. You can test these assumptions out by adding and removing people from Services and monitoring how the availability changes.
Want to see this product enhanced? While inside the bookings application, go to the help section (?) and click on “Give feedback.” Type something to the effect of…
“Dear Microsoft,
On the “Services” section of Microsoft Bookings, please add a toggle button that requires all “Assigned staff” for that service have calendar availability before Customers time slots are presented as available to a customer. Currently Customers can select a timeslot if any given member of the Service’s assigned staff are available.”
CRITICAL LIMITATION IN AN OTHERWISE EXCELLENT APP
I have observed the same problem. It looks like it uses assigned users as an inventory of options. This is great in some cases. But in others, a COMBINATION of resources is required. Another good example of this would be a conference room that's required. They should specify resources as "Required" or "Selectable" meaning pick at least one selection. Anything required would be require availability on the calendar. Anything Selectable would make a slot available it at least one of the selectable options was available. As a bonus they could have "Optional" resources which are not needed at all but which could be added if available.