Keywords:Appointment Matching, Pre-Scheduled/AME, Appointment Preferences, Form Setup, Attendee Types, More fields, Open date after registration closes
An Appointment Preferences section for a form is available only if Appointment Matching is turned on for the event in Plan > Configure > Options.
For Appointment Matching to be turned on for an event, the account must enable it first.
If you use Appointment Matching to generate Pre-Scheduled Appointments for attendees, you must collect their preferences.
You collect these preferences by adding an Appointment Preferences section to a form.
When to use the Appointment Preferences Form
It is recommended that the Appointment Preferences be set up in a separate Appointment Preferences form, not in the actual registration form.
The Appointment Preferences form should be restricted to people who have already registered.
The Appointment Preferences form should open after event registration closes, so that all attendees have completed their event registrations.
The Appointment Preferences form is used to collect selections of whom attendees want to have appointments with.
Where the available choices are constrained
The choices available in the Appointment Preferences form are determined and constrained by settings configured in:
Engage > Appointments > Configure
Engage > Appointments > Pre-Scheduled/AME
These settings include:
The minimum and maximum number of preferences an attendee may select
The Attendee Types that their own Attendee Type is permitted to select as preferences
Whether attendees can select names/organizations
Whether attendees can apply any filters
Appointment Preferences Form
The recommendation is to set up a dedicated Appointment Preferences form.
The Appointments section should come after the Attendee Type section (as configured in the Page Layout area of Plan > Forms > Setup).
In the Forms > Setup page, the Open date should be after event registration closes (on the separate event registration form). This ensures that all attendees have completed their event registrations before anyone selects their appointment preferences.
In the Forms > Setup page, any sections not directly related to Preferences (for example, Payments) are not required and can be removed.
In the Forms > Registrant Details page, it is not essential to have registrants confirm their profile details again; you could skip that confirmation by not selecting any fields to be displayed.
First Name and Last Name are both required fields for the Appointment Matching Engine; Best Practice is to include them as both "Required" and "Read Only" so registrants can enter a value if blank but cannot change them if values exist.
In the Forms > Entry page, the Form Entry Permissions should be set to "Restrict to registrations in this event," with Username and Password collection set to "Required." This ensures people will need to have registered first and been given their login.
In the Forms > Confirm page, the only confirmation section you need to include is Appointment Preferences. The other confirmation sections can be hidden by clearing their header names.
Section Header
A Section Header can be set on most pages that determine the appearance of the registration form.
The header is typically used to display additional instructions or event information related to the section being configured.
The text and HTML elements entered into the section header appear above the section elements themselves.
If the fields in the Section Header area are left blank, the header becomes inactive.
In the first three text fields, you can enter plain text, with or without HTML tags, or use the HTML EDITOR to edit content using the HTML/Web Content Editor described in Using the HTML Editor.
Text Above Header — Will appear above the header bar, at the top of the section; usually instructions.
Header Text — Will appear in the header bar; example: "Appointment Preferences".
Text Below Header — Will appear directly below the header and can include additional information.
Provide instructions for appointment preferences minimums/maximums — If the check box is selected by default, the Appointment Preferences page will include the instruction: "Your event coordinator requires that you select at least X and no more than Y people or organizations from the following list(s) that you would like to meet with during this event."
Show Attendees who selected me as an appointment preference — If selected, a corresponding checkbox appears on the form; if the attendee checks it, only attendees who have selected them as a preference are listed.
Do not show attendee types — If selected, the list of attendees is a single list rather than grouped by attendee type.
Select Fields for "More"
The fields selected here are displayed in a pop-up window of more information about an attendee when the attendee clicks the More icon after a name.
The icon is not shown on the form if no fields are selected here.
The available fields for inclusion are listed in the Available Fields box on the left (Profile fields and Profile Custom Questions).
To include a field: click it in the Available Fields box; an add icon is shown; this moves the field to the end of the Fields To Display box on the right.
Including a field also adds it to the Select Attendee Types Eligible for "More" section at the end of the page.
To determine the display order, drag fields up or down in the Fields To Display box.
To remove a field from the Fields To Display box: click the Delete icon; The field moves back to the Available Fields box; it also removes it from the Preference Fields to Show section at the end of the page.
Select Attendee Types Eligible for "More"
The fields to be shown in the pop-up More window are listed here dynamically as you add them to the Fields To Display box.
They are displayed in the order you set when dragging them in that box.
Row — Displays the number of the field, as set when you order the fields in Fields To Display.
Data Field — Displays the name of the field (for example, "FirstName").
Text to Display — Type the label to be displayed on-screen (for example, "First Name").
Attendee Types — Click to select the attendee types for whom the selected field will be displayed when More is clicked.
Tip: leaving the list of attendee types blank is the same as selecting all attendee types.
Save and Preview
Save to store changes.
Preview to open the form in a separate browser window.
How the Registrant Uses the Form
The registrant will select appointment preferences on the form.
On the left, attendee names appear with three icons next to each name:
Add that person to the list of My Preferences on the right.
Display More information about that person (the Preference Fields to Show for "More" selected above).
Add that person to the Exclusion List on the right (attendees with whom the registrant does not want appointments).
The registrant can limit names displayed using:
Attendee Type — If the registrant’s Attendee Type is limited to a single attendee type, only attendees of that type are displayed.
If the registrant can select preferences for more than one attendee type, collapsible lists by type are displayed.
Searching — If enabled in Appointments > Pre-Scheduled/AME, the registrant can search by fields such as First Name, Last Name, Title, Organization, City, and Country.
Filtering — If enabled, the registrant can apply filters by answering custom questions to limit displayed records.
Mutual Preferences — The registrant can show Attendees who selected the registrant as an appointment preference; this is controlled by a toggle that, when enabled, shows only attendees who selected the registrant.
When the Appointment Matching Engine runs, it is more likely to create appointments when mutual preferences exist (both attendees have selected the other as a preference).
The article notes that help topics may include features to be released.
Related notes:
The content above is presented for the purpose of configuring and using the Appointment Preferences feature in the Certain platform.