• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

DayBack

The Calendar You've Been Waiting For

  • Calendar
    • For Salesforce
      • DayBack Calendar for Salesforce
      • Field Service
      • Calendar Sharing in Salesforce
    • FileMaker Calendar
    • For Google Calendar
    • For Google Sheets
    • For Microsoft 365
    • For Basecamp
    • Integrations
  • Extensions
  • Pricing
  • Blog
  • Support
    • Support Options
    • Documentation
    • Documentation for DayBack Classic (older)
    • Implementation Packages
  • Contact
    • Our Mission
    • Team & Community
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
    • +1 (855) 733-3263
  • Timelines
    • Overview
    • History of the polio vaccine
    • Women’s Suffrage
    • Science Fiction
    • Your Vote in Context: the 2020 US Elections
    • History of Claris FileMaker
  • Sign In

Jun 04 2022

Automated Reminders Part 2

In November, we demonstrated how you could use DayBack’s custom actions to integrate your calendar with 3rd party apps outside of FileMaker and Salesforce. We showcased an app action that integrates Helpscout, our customer service system. When we want to follow up on an email or an issue, our team members can press a button in Helpscout and schedule a reminder in DayBack.

This illustrates the power of creating custom forms in your calendar. Check it out here.

Now for Part 2: Enhanced Reminders

Reminders were a great way to ensure we followed up on time, but since all reminders looked the same on the calendar, it was tough to know precisely how much time following up on reminders would take and what type of work would be involved. 

We needed a way to color-code our reminders to show the approximate time the follow-up would require. We also wanted to display the reminders in sequential order so that it was easy to see how much time an employee would be spending on reminders on any given day.

DayBack calendar custom form

Color-Coded Reminder Types

We created four new reminder types: Check-ins, Troubleshooting, Estimates, and Other. The reminder type is saved in a custom field when a reminder is created. This field controls the initial duration and visual style of the event and allows us to see at a glance the number of events in each category.

We didn’t need durations to be exact, but we estimated that most of our simple email follow-ups are best booked in 30 minutes slots, while estimates could take 75 minutes, and troubleshooting could take as much as 90 minutes. Slightly overestimating reminders would allow our team to have enough time to complete follow-ups and not get overbooked on any given day.

Reminder Comments

Our customer service team also wanted to add a brief description of the follow-up to know more about the issue without opening the case in Helpscout and reading the whole thread. So we added an optional description to the form for making reminders.

Vertical Stacking

The team also wanted to stack these events from 4:30pm onwards rather than booking them all at the same time. A little automation in our custom action now places each new reminder after the person’s last reminder event. This way, when a team member opens the schedule on any given day, they can see they have 3 hours of follow-ups on a given day. They can move follow-ups around on their schedule into the most convenient times or finish some quick reminders in the free time between other scheduled events.

Here’s what the result looks like:

DayBack Automated Reminders

As you can see, it’s now straightforward to see each type of reminder and how many of each type we have booked on a given day. 

(Here’s the code for creating the same left-hand border color for your events using a custom field, some CSS, and an app action.)

Hope this gives you a few ideas for enhancing your workflow with custom actions. Please get in touch if you have questions about how to implement a similar popup form or how to integrate DayBack with 3rd party apps outside of Salesforce or FileMaker.

Written by Michael Dabrowski · Categorized: Dev, Integrations · Tagged: Custom Actions, Project Management

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Search

Latest Posts

  • Memory is Making
  • Add Notes and Comments to Events
  • Closed Through the New Year
  • Background Gradients on Horizon View
  • Cut and Paste Rescheduling

Pinned Posts

  • Scarcity: the Science of Resource Scheduling
  • Calendars Tell Stories
  • Time Shame – Plan Your Day Like a Road Trip
  • We Can’t See Late
  • You’re Calendar’s Not a Poster

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo

© SeedCode, Inc. 2013–2023
+1 (855) 733-3263
who shot this?

X

View Details
Keep me informed
Which calendar sources interest you?
Interested in a calendar source we haven't listed? Have a question for us? Please let us know.
Loading