Playbook, recruitment agency
Two things called an appointment, one of them not yours
A candidate asking to book means one of two things and the difference decides the reply. A registration slot is the agency's own appointment, run at set times in a branch, and everything about it can be explained except how to book it. An interview belongs to the client, arranged around a hiring manager's diary by a consultant, and no amount of published material makes that bookable from a website.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for appointment booking holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- Registration slots run in blocks rather than through the day, and the branch usually wants to know what kind of work somebody is after before it decides how long to allow for them.
- An interview is scheduled around a client's availability by a consultant holding two diaries together, so it is not a slot anybody picks and it never appears on the agency's own site.
- A candidate who needs work this week is asking how soon rather than when, and the honest answer is about how quickly a branch can fit somebody in, not about a form.
- Some agencies still take walk ins for registration and some have stopped, and getting that wrong sends somebody across town to a locked reception carrying a folder of original documents.
How it arrives
- can i book an appointment to register
- do i need an appointment or can i just walk in
- how soon can i come in
- can you book my interview with the employer
- which branch should i register at
- can i register at a different branch to my nearest one
What has to be indexed for this to work
| How registration appointments are made, and by whom | Whether it is by phone, by form or at the counter, who arranges it and how quickly. The assistant cannot book anything, so this route is the whole of the useful answer. |
|---|---|
| Whether you take walk ins, stated plainly | Yes, no, or only at certain times. An out of date answer here costs somebody a bus fare and a morning, and people who lose a morning to an agency do not come back to that agency. |
| Which branch handles which work | Whether branches specialise by sector, whether somebody can register at any of them, and what happens if they move. Candidates pick the nearest one, and the nearest one is often not the one that staffs their trade. |
| How interviews with clients are arranged | That a consultant sets them up, what notice is usual and how a candidate is told. Publishing this stops people believing the agency is sitting on interviews they could have booked themselves. |
The reply
I cannot book anything from here, but I can tell you how it works. Registration is by appointment and the branch arranges it, usually within a few days, and the route is on our registration page [1]. It is worth saying what kind of work you are after when you get in touch, because branches cover different sectors and it decides which one you should go to [2]. Interviews with employers are a different thing: a consultant sets those up around the client's diary, so they are never something you book yourself. Leave me your name, an email and the work you want and I will pass it to the branch.
It states the inability to book in the opening clause so nobody sits waiting for a confirmation, then gives something useful immediately so the refusal is not the entire reply. The sector point is there because registering at the wrong branch wastes the appointment. And separating the interview defuses the belief that candidates are being gatekept.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor asks for a time, a date or a slot, or asks about an interview with an employer.
I cannot book a slot or see a diary. Tell me your name, an email and the kind of work you are after, and the branch will contact you to arrange a time.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say an appointment has been booked or held, because nothing here writes to a diary and the candidate will turn up expecting to be seen.
- Never confirm that walk ins are accepted unless your material currently says so, since a wasted journey with a folder of documents ends the relationship on the spot.
- Never offer to arrange an interview with an employer, because that is a consultant's negotiation with a client and not a booking.
- Never say how quickly somebody will be placed once they have registered.
Questions
- Could it book a registration slot if we connected a calendar?
- No. It has no write access to any system and cannot be given any, so booking always ends with the branch. What it takes away is the message that was only ever asking whether an appointment is needed at all.
- Candidates ask us to book their interviews. What should it say?
- That a consultant arranges those with the employer. The belief that interviews are bookable is what makes candidates feel held back, and one sentence explaining who holds the diary defuses most of it.
- We have several branches. How does it get somebody to the right one?
- By publishing which sectors each covers rather than only the addresses. Somebody choosing on distance alone registers at a branch that does not staff the work they want, and neither side finds out for weeks.
Keep reading
- Everything for a recruitment agencyTwo audiences on one website. Process, payroll and compliance questions are answerable, application outcomes never are.
- Handling appointment booking in generalIt cannot write into a calendar. The job is removing every reason not to book, then handing over with the details already gathered.
- Application status questions, and the answer that is not a statusThe most asked question a consultancy gets and the one it cannot answer in a widget. What to say instead so the candidate stops chasing.
- Candidate registration, explained before anybody picks up the phoneRegistration steps, right to work documents and what happens before a first shift, answered at the hour candidates actually ask.
- Client billing questions, and the terms of business behind themTimesheet driven invoices, permanent fee triggers and rebate conditions. The client side billing questions with fixed, publishable answers.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.