Making an Appointment

In the event the respondent wishes to continue the interview at a later time, the interviewer can postpone the interview and make an appointment. A reminder is then created in the CATI Console, which will activate and start the postponed interview when the time specified in the appointment is due. The appointment is not automatically assigned to the same interviewer who created it - all appointments are assigned to the interviewers by the Supervisor. An appointment can be made only for a started interview.

A situation may arise when the Create Appointment dialog is displayed while an interview is in progress. When the appointment was not created by the interviewer, then it was designed to be suggested in a certain situation by the person who created the survey.

Note: All appointment times are set for the respondent's time zone – not the interviewer's.

To make an appointment as an interviewer:

1. If the respondent states that they wish to postpone the interview, agree a time then click the Create Appointment button .

The Create Appointment dialog opens.



The Create Appointment dialog allows a date and time to be entered in the respondent's timezone. The equivalent time for the interviewer is also shown (which may be different if the interview and respondent are in differing time zones)

2. Click the Date field and use the pop-up date picker to select an appropriate date (or type a date directly into the field) for when the interview is to be rescheduled.

To select the month or year different from today, use the arrow buttons at the top of the date picker, or click on the month name to quickly change the month or year.

The Time drop-down field allows you to choose from the list of predefined times in 30-minute increments.

3. Check the respondent's time zone is correct. If it is not, click the Adjust button next to the Time zone and choose the correct respondent time zone from the drop-down list. This may be necessary if the respondent is located in a time zone that is different to the one which is indicated by the original sample data. The list of time zones that can be selected corresponds to the currently activated list of time zones. Future call attempts will be scheduled according to the newly specified time zone.
4. If desired, you can set an expiry date and time for the scheduled call. When the expiration date and time are set, the appointed interview will be started only if the set date and time do not exceed the current date and time. If the expiry date and time passes, the interview is no longer scheduled and it will not appear in the list of assigned interviews until the supervisor reschedules and assigns it. If no expiration date and time is set, when the appointed interview is due it will be delivered to the interviewer irrespective of the time and date he/she logs into the system.

To specify an expiration date and time, click the Set expiration date and time toggle, and select the date and time for which the appointment will expire in the respondent's local time zone.

5. You can create an appointment outside of the boundaries of the permitted shift. To do so, click the Allow appointments outside of the permitted shift toggle.

If the Allow appointments outside of the permitted shift toggle is not displayed, this means that the supervisor has prevented the interviewer from creating such appointments.

6. You can select to log out of the CATI Console after the appointment is made. If you wish to log out, click the Log out toggle at the bottom of the Appointment dialog. You will then be logged out immediately after you click Add in the dialog.
7. You can view the list of appointments that were assigned to you by the supervisor. Click the Show my appointments link in the bottom of the Appointment dialog to display the Interviewer Appointments dialog containing all the appointments you have made (go to Viewing the List of Appointments for more information).

Note: If the supervisor disables the Show my appointments button in the Interviewer Console, the Show My Appointments link in the Create Appointment dialog will also be hidden (go to Interviewer Console Settings for more information).

8. Finally, click Add in the Appointment dialog to confirm the appointment time and close the dialog.

The CATI Interviewer Console will then be ready to start the next available interview. If no interviews are assigned then the console will display a message suggesting you wait for the next one to be assigned.

To handle an appointment forced in the course of an interview:

When the Appointment dialog is displayed automatically in the course of an interview then it was planned to be displayed by the person who designed the survey.

This is a regular Appointment window. In this situation, treat it as if you are going to create an appointment yourself. You may create the appointment, in which case the interview will finish as an appointment, or you may cancel this appointment, in which case the appointment window will close and the interview will continue.