Quick Wins For Uncertain Times With Appointment Timeslots

We recently discussed how our PortalX solution supported users during COVID-19, where we saw several changes occurring at record speeds. Now, we’d like to delve deeper into our Appointments solution, showcasing the creative ways this solution has been used during COVID-19 by several of our customers.

“Thank you again for helping us with the appointments module!  It has been working great and has been a saving grace managing this emergency move-out. Thank you!” 

Paul Giberson, Western Colorado University

Appointments Solution

The StarRez Appointments solution provides residents with a seamless way to book and manage appointments for check-in, check-out, meetings, interviews, and more.

Key Benefits

• Centralize appointment management into one single online experience.
• Self-service solution for all residents, freeing up your time.
• Reduce excessive strain on staff resources during check-in and check-out processes.
• Manage employment processes. Allow staff to book interview appointments for individual and group interview processes.
• Reduce administrative scheduling efforts.
• Easily configure and control appointment availability.
• Administratively increase or decrease availability as needed.
• Automatically assign appointments to multiple residents at once.

Physical Distancing Using Appointments

From maintenance and dining to finding new ways to support Universities and Property Managers moving into a new era, let's look at how this solution truly supports physical distancing to ensure that residents are safe. William Lacava, Assistant Dean at Arkansas Tech University, had this to say:

“Using the Maintenance solution with Appointments, any student filing a Maintenance request will also have to file an Appointment stating when they will be out of their room so we can have maintenance go in when they are not there. We are also using Appointments for managing our move-in, by extending our move-in days earlier, starting in July to have students "Drop off" their belongings. It's amazing that you can plan to do something the traditional way, but find out the resources that you have in StarRez can be adapted for a smoother digital experience.”

Cassidy Nelson, Associate Director at the University of West Georgia, had one team member look at the time it took to create manual timeslots for move-in day in 2019 and discovered that staff resource was more costly than the annual cost of the Appointments solution.

“I had one of our team look at the amount of time he spent creating timeslots manually for move-in day 2019, and that was WAY more than the annual cost of the appointment module. You can also use timeslots in a COVID world for laundry facilities, dining halls, study spaces, to schedule time, and support social distancing."

Cassidy Nelson, Associate Director of Residence Life, University of West Georgia

While Leanne Ryan, Assistant Director at the University of South Carolina, took it one step further and designed a video demonstration to show senior leadership how a move-out process would work during the pandemic.

“I cannot imagine doing all that we do for residents without timeslots! This is a video I made for our senior leadership to give them an idea of how our expedited move out process would work for this spring since students left at spring break and had to come back and retrieve their items.”

Leanne Ryan, Assistant Director, Information Services in Housing, University of South Carolina

Touchless Move-in

Western Kentucky University is leveraging it's technology to facilitate a streamlined touchless move-in for the Fall semester. Watch the video below to see how staff members scan a student's move-in barcode and leverage appointment timeslots for elevator use during move-in.

Appointments for Reservations

As health and safety regulations get increasingly rigorous across campuses, measures are being implemented to ensure residents are safe at all times. One alternate way of using our Appointments module could include using this as a dine-in reservations system on campus. For example, meal period blocks or staggered timeslots enable all dining centers to be open during a busy period and with fewer people in dining halls at one given time, further allowing physical distancing.

Streamline Your Employment Process

Another great feature of this solution is the employment functionality. Students and staff can select, change, or cancel interview times within the employment application. Once a student chooses an appointment, staff can pair this with dynamic lists and email schedulers, allowing automatic reminders emails, which heavily reduces staff administration time.

“It has been such a great success on campus that many departments have opted to use PortalX for their employment processes. The true power of PortalX comes from the flexibility customers have to be creative and use tools like appointment times in new and innovative ways!”

Rona Skinner, Executive Director, Rochester Institute of Technology

Your Trusted Partner

StarRez helps to provide an excellent resident experience at the best of times, but it can prove crucial in an emergency. Our housing software has helped users respond to the COVID-19 crisis with maximum efficiency and maximum consideration for their staff and resident communities' safety and well-being. If you're keen to learn more about how we can streamline your housing management needs, in times of crisis and beyond, reach out to our team to find out how we can help.