I am sorry to disappoint you, but unfortunately something like this is not possible with the plugin's built-in features.
At the moment, employees can work on multiple locations only per time slots. So, if you have multiple locations set up, you can have Employee 1 work on Location 1 from 09 - 10, on Location 2 from 10 - 11, and on Location 3 from 11 - 12.
My advice would be to create 3 different services - "Phone Call", "In-Office Appointment" and "3rd Party Location". Then, you can assign the same employee to all these services, so when one of them is booked, the same time slot is not available for other two services. My advice, though, would be to configure buffer times before and after "3rd Party Location" service, so your employee actually has the time to make it to and from the custom location. You can enable a mandatory custom field, where your customers can enter the address.
The problem is that, as far as I can tell, I had to choose a location when I created the employee. And if I can't set a different location for each of the 3 services you suggested (phone call, 3rd party location, my office), then each customer who signs up for each of the 3 services will actually be assigned the one location assigned to the single employee (which was assigned when that employees account was created).
Yes, that helps. Thanks. I didn't notice that feature before.
I have made one other "hack" that helps me for not, but isn't ideal. It might be worth noting for your ability to help others with my situation.
Since each employee must be assigned to a single location at any given moment, there is no flexibility to account for "phone call", "office 1" and "office 2" to be flexibly used without a set schedule. So my workaround is to
1) make 3 different employee accounts for each employee, one for each meeting location type (phone, office 1, office 2).
2) link all 3 to the same employees Gmail calendar account.
3) As you suggested, I then created each service with a reference to that "Meet at Office 1", "Phone call". etc.
4) Create a "category" that links together all of these 3 employee accounts.
5) Then embed the catalog-shortcode into the website page for that employee using the "category" from #4 above
These steps present what appears to be one employee to the customer, but it allows that customer the flexibility to choose which location (based on the service) they need to meet at.
For gig-economy professionals on the move, this location flexibility is a standard use case. You'll see similar features in Doodle Meet Me and Calendly. So I submit that you might consider adding location flexibility directly to the service. And even consider allowing me to control if I am willing to let the customer suggest the location (ie, service=lunch meeting and the customer suggests the location).
I need to have the meeting location be configurable based on the meeting type, not based on the employee.
In other words, our employees can book a phone call, an in-office appointment or at some 3rd party location.
How can I do this?
Hello Justin.
Thank you for your purchase.
I am sorry to disappoint you, but unfortunately something like this is not possible with the plugin's built-in features.
At the moment, employees can work on multiple locations only per time slots. So, if you have multiple locations set up, you can have Employee 1 work on Location 1 from 09 - 10, on Location 2 from 10 - 11, and on Location 3 from 11 - 12.
My advice would be to create 3 different services - "Phone Call", "In-Office Appointment" and "3rd Party Location". Then, you can assign the same employee to all these services, so when one of them is booked, the same time slot is not available for other two services. My advice, though, would be to configure buffer times before and after "3rd Party Location" service, so your employee actually has the time to make it to and from the custom location. You can enable a mandatory custom field, where your customers can enter the address.
Kind Regards,
Aleksandar Vuković
[email protected]
Rate my support
wpDataTables: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Front-end and back-end demo | Docs
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You can try wpDataTables add-ons before purchasing on these sandbox sites:
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The problem is that, as far as I can tell, I had to choose a location when I created the employee. And if I can't set a different location for each of the 3 services you suggested (phone call, 3rd party location, my office), then each customer who signs up for each of the 3 services will actually be assigned the one location assigned to the single employee (which was assigned when that employees account was created).
Am I missing something?
Hi again Justin.
Your employees do need to have one default location, but you can change that in the working hours of that employee:
If you leave that blank, the employee will be assigned to all three locations. Would that work?
Kind Regards,
Aleksandar Vuković
[email protected]
Rate my support
wpDataTables: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Front-end and back-end demo | Docs
Amelia: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Amelia demo sites | Docs | Discord Community
You can try wpDataTables add-ons before purchasing on these sandbox sites:
Powerful Filters | Gravity Forms Integration for wpDataTables | Formidable Forms Integration for wpDataTables | Master-Detail Tables
Yes, that helps. Thanks. I didn't notice that feature before.
I have made one other "hack" that helps me for not, but isn't ideal. It might be worth noting for your ability to help others with my situation.
Since each employee must be assigned to a single location at any given moment, there is no flexibility to account for "phone call", "office 1" and "office 2" to be flexibly used without a set schedule. So my workaround is to
1) make 3 different employee accounts for each employee, one for each meeting location type (phone, office 1, office 2).
2) link all 3 to the same employees Gmail calendar account.
3) As you suggested, I then created each service with a reference to that "Meet at Office 1", "Phone call". etc.
4) Create a "category" that links together all of these 3 employee accounts.
5) Then embed the catalog-shortcode into the website page for that employee using the "category" from #4 above
These steps present what appears to be one employee to the customer, but it allows that customer the flexibility to choose which location (based on the service) they need to meet at.
For gig-economy professionals on the move, this location flexibility is a standard use case. You'll see similar features in Doodle Meet Me and Calendly. So I submit that you might consider adding location flexibility directly to the service. And even consider allowing me to control if I am willing to let the customer suggest the location (ie, service=lunch meeting and the customer suggests the location).
Hey Justin
Thank you very much for this detailed explanation. I'm sure it will help other people as well!
I have forwarded your idea about multiple locations to our development team, so hopefully they'll be able to do something about that soon.
Kind Regards,
Aleksandar Vuković
[email protected]
Rate my support
wpDataTables: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Front-end and back-end demo | Docs
Amelia: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Amelia demo sites | Docs | Discord Community
You can try wpDataTables add-ons before purchasing on these sandbox sites:
Powerful Filters | Gravity Forms Integration for wpDataTables | Formidable Forms Integration for wpDataTables | Master-Detail Tables