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I am having a bit of a challenge with my stakeholders in helping them understand my point of view on how to handle our appointments for workshops and product-driven/assistance questions.

My company is a telecomm. business. We have quite a number of stores nationwide. The workshops are for educating users on different operating systems and how to use the devices to their fullest potential. The other set of appointments are for billing, tech support, upgrade, etc.

My thought process is that both fall under the category of "Appointments" so the appt. module would have sub-sets of that category-1 workshops & 2 assistance. Each sub-set has filters by which a User gets to choose. There are different types of workshops as there are diff. reasons for assistance.

I wonder if some of you share my view in keeping them both under one huddle/module oppose to two separate entities as some stakeholders propose. I am also open to other views that supports the contrary.

I think by Users being exposed to the diff. categories of appointments they will become aware/informed of the other options available to them.

I appreciate your feedback/comments.

ZF

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  • Why do you want to keep them together ?
    – Mervin
    Apr 21, 2015 at 19:20
  • What do you mean by "module" here? Do you mean a section of your site? For example, users might set up appointments using different sections (or entirely different sites) but still see a unified calendar.
    – tohster
    Apr 21, 2015 at 19:26
  • Mervin by module I am referring to the actual Appointment Locator/Selector...so Users get to select from the options under "Workshops" or "Assistance" when making the appointment. The other proposal is to have two separate selector/calendars instead of a unified one. My thought process is that both fall under the parent category of "Appointments" at the store so is just a matter of enhancing the selector with the different filters/sub-filters. Thanks.
    – ezinteraction-ZF
    Apr 22, 2015 at 15:13

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I agree with the stakeholders based on how the Apple Store (physical locations) handle appointments. Their reasoning is simple: if you need support, you talk to this group. If you need sales, you take to that group. Segregate and conquer individually, in an organized fashion. That leads to greater productivity and more specialization, which on a large scale saves a lot of time, money, and effort.

Not separating the "groups", as you suggest, may be better shorter-term, but it also means that the individuals handling everything have a higher level of expertise with handling customers and answering customer questions. There's a fundamental problem with this (which isn't UX, but understanding employee morale and human psychology): the more often your employees have to answer questions that they don't care about or aren't part of their chosen job description, the less happy they'll be with their job, and the worse their job performance will be over time.

In the short time and/or if you have a relatively small organization/stores, you may be right. It depends on the scale. If you're large enough, then yes separating is better because it improves productivity, morale, and if one side has a lack of work while the other is overwhelmed, then you're opening up space for employees to step up and show that they're willing to do more and really grow in the organization. That's the best kind of problem to have.

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