When you create a service activity, the Service Calendar displays appointments and service activities based on the text typed in the Subject field of the Service Activity form. Therefore, to give your calendar more meaning, type descriptive information in the Subject field, using abbreviations or codes that are common to your scheduling environment. For example, you can abbreviate Maintenance to Maint. Type the service technician's initials along with a logical and clear abbreviation for the customer's name so that the who, where, and when for each call is immediately apparent. In this example, in the Subject column, the format is: service activity - technician - account/customer.
The following Service Calendar example illustrates the helpful effect that careful use of the Subject field can have on calendar usability:
Using abbreviations, this calendar displays three categories of service (maintenance are Maint, repairs are Repair, and service emergencies are Required). The initials of the assigned service technician are also provided. In this example, CD indicates the ficitious technician Clyde Davis. Finally, the abbreviation of the customer's name is Bank ABC. Once calendar terminology is decided upon and implemented, the calendar becomes a powerful tool that makes each day's service work immediately apparent to technicians, scheduler, and management alike.
Whatever service information is unique to your business, this tip encourages you to find a way to make that scheduling information visible, clear, and useful on your service calendar.
