There are a variety of reasons why a scheduler may wait to assign an open job. I can only speak for myself and my company.
Many of our projects have several shops at the same location and we have to keep a specific number of days between shops. The dates that a shopper has requested may not fit into the schedule. The more dates a shopper requests, the easier it is to schedule them. Those who are available earlier in the month are usually given preference, though, as we like to have time to find someone else if the current shopper cancels, reschedules, flakes, never submits the report or submits a report that isn't usable.
We also factor in a shopper's grade and history. When assigning our ticketed amusement park shops, I don't schedule new shoppers to our company early on, those who haven't done a similar shop with that level of difficulty/length of report or who have lower grades. Since we send some of the admission tickets in advance, essentially partially pre-paying, it's just not smart to schedule someone we haven't yet established a relationship with. I reserve those shops for my highest graded/proven shoppers, since they've established a level of trust...trust that they're not going to run off (steal) the tickets and not submit a report. A lot of times shops sit open because I'm waiting to hear back from my experienced shoppers about alternate dates to see if I can fit them into the aforementioned schedule of other shops at that same location. If I'm having difficulty scheduling an experienced shopper, then I will reach out to lower graded and less experienced shoppers who have requested it.
Something else we also have to consider is shop rotation. We try our best to stick to the client's rotation period. As the month goes on, if we're having difficulty finding someone in rotation, we may decide that it's time to break rotation by a bit.
However, in all of these situations, if a request is more than a few days old, I will almost always reach out to that shopper to see if they're still available for the shop BEFORE just assigning it to them, as I realize that their schedule may have changed in that amount of time.
I hope this helps answer some questions. :-)
Thanks,
Jen Slyter
Scheduling Manager
Amusement Advantage, Inc.
Guest Experience Solutions | Measurement Analysis Action
800-362-9946, ext. 124 |
Jen@amusementadvantage.com | www.amusementadvantage.com
$20 Referral Bonus - Refer friends, family, co-workers and earn $20 for any new shopper who completes a bowling or skating assignment ($10 for all other shops)!