Question handling
Handling a group enquiry so the reply back is actually useful
This intent is worth more per conversation than anything else in the family and it is usually handled worst. A group enquiry is a booking with a multiplier on it, the person asking is organising on behalf of other people and under mild social pressure, and they are almost certainly asking two other venues at the same time. Speed and completeness beat charm.
What they are really asking
They want to know quickly whether you are a realistic option for their date, their numbers and their budget, so they can stop looking.
- do you take large groups
- can we book for 20 people
- do you do private hire
- is there a minimum spend
- do we have to choose a set menu
- how much deposit do you need for a group
- can we bring our own cake
- do you have a private room
- can we split the bill on the night
- how far in advance do we need to book
The material that answers it
An assistant is only as good as the document behind it, and for this question the document usually exists but is written in the wrong shape. What each one has to contain to be answerable:
| The thresholds, and what changes at each one | The party size at which a deposit starts, at which a set menu becomes compulsory, at which the private room is required, at which you need pre-orders. Groups are governed by a staircase of rules and the enquirer is trying to work out which step they are on. |
|---|---|
| Package and set menu documents with prices and deadlines | Including when final numbers, pre-orders and dietary requirements are needed. The deadline is part of the offer and leaving it out generates a second exchange with every single enquirer. |
| Deposit and minimum spend terms | How much, when it is due, whether it comes off the bill, and whether it is refundable if numbers drop. Numbers always drop, and the terms for that are what the organiser is actually worried about. |
| Exclusive hire terms | What is included, the hours, whether staff are included, what is not permitted, and the difference between a private room and taking the whole place. These are frequently conflated in an enquiry and quoting the wrong one wastes a week. |
| What you need from an organiser, as a list | Date, approximate numbers, preferred time, occasion, and any fixed requirements. Publishing this list lets the assistant ask for it, which is the entire mechanism by which this intent stops being a waste of time. |
How to handle it
Answer the qualifying questions plainly and quickly
Do you take groups of this size, do you have a private space, is there a minimum spend. These are yes or no facts about your business and answering them immediately is what keeps you on the shortlist. An organiser who has to wait a day to find out you cannot seat twenty has already booked somewhere that answered.
State the thresholds where the terms change
Say that groups over a certain size move to a set menu, or require a deposit, or need the room. Organisers respond well to a clear rule and badly to discovering a condition after they have committed their friends. The rule also sorts out who is worth a reply from a person.
Collect the five facts before offering the form
Date, numbers, time, occasion, and any hard requirement. The assistant should ask for these in the conversation and prompt the visitor to put them in the message, because the enquiry form itself takes a name, an email and a message and nothing more.
This is the difference between an enquiry a person can quote against and one that starts with a request for information. On a booking worth several hundred, that saved round trip is the whole value of the intent.
Set a reply expectation you can actually meet
If group enquiries are answered by one manager who works Tuesday to Saturday, say that. An honest we will come back to you within two working days beats a vague shortly, because the organiser is comparing you against a venue that has already replied and they need to know whether to wait.
When it stops being an answer
Anything to do with the actual date
Availability, holding a provisional booking, whether the room is free. The assistant cannot see a diary and must not imply that it can. It should say so and take the enquiry, with the date included so the reply can confirm or offer alternatives in one message.
Any bespoke price or negotiated rate
Discounts for size, a package built for the occasion, a corporate rate. These are commercial decisions with margin attached, and an assistant quoting the standard package to somebody who was going to be offered something else has capped the deal before a person saw it.
Anything with a contract, a licence or a supplier attached
Exclusive hire, an extension to licensed hours, outside entertainment, external caterers, a marquee. These involve obligations beyond a booking and often somebody else's permissions, and none of it should be characterised by a support widget.
How this one goes wrong
The enquiry that arrives empty
A name, an email, and a message that says hi, do you do group bookings. The manager replies asking for the date and the numbers. The organiser replies two days later, by which point they have had a full quote from somewhere else with a room provisionally held.
The remarkable thing is that this failure costs more than any wrong answer in this whole family, and it is caused by the assistant being too polite to ask questions. Configure it to gather the specifics before offering the handover, and the same enquiry arrives ready to quote against.
The same question, trade by trade
The pattern above holds everywhere. The wording, the escalation line and the material behind it do not, so there is a page per trade.
- For a dental clinicFour people, one dentist and one chair. What can be explained about consecutive slots and the school holiday rush.
- For a medical practiceTravel courses need an assessment first and doses spaced over weeks. Why four passports is not one appointment at a surgery.
- For a garden centreForty people at once needs turning space, covers cooked to a number, and often a member of staff to walk them round and talk.
- For a restaurantParty thresholds, set menus, minimum spends and pre-order deadlines answer well. The date itself needs whoever holds the diary.
- For a hotelTen rooms and a function room is a contract, not a booking. Capture the dates, the numbers and the space, then get it to sales fast.
- For a holiday rentalTwelve across two properties, the noise clause, and the hen and stag position. The occupancy limit is a permission, not a preference.
- For a salon or spaA group takes the floor and the morning runs backwards from a ceremony time, so it is staffing and a trial before it is a booking.
- For a universityA teacher bringing a year group needs ratios, a risk assessment and a coach drop off. None of that lives on the open day page.
- For a private schoolA group visit needs ratios, a risk assessment and a date fitted round the timetable. None of that is settled from a chat window.
Questions
- Should the assistant try to handle group bookings at all?
- It should handle everything up to the date. Thresholds, packages, deposits, what is included, what you need and when. Then it should hand over with the details collected, because the date and the price are a person's decision.
- How do we stop it quoting a package to a corporate enquiry?
- Index the published packages and nothing about negotiated rates, and write the material so bespoke pricing is explicitly a conversation with the team. It answers only from what you give it, so what you leave out it cannot offer.
- What is the highest value sentence to publish here?
- The list of things you need from an organiser. It costs a line, the assistant will ask for all of it, and it converts a vague enquiry into one somebody can act on the same day.
Keep reading
- Handling appointment bookingIt cannot write into a calendar. The job is removing every reason not to book, then handing over with the details already gathered.
- Handling rescheduling and cancellingNotice periods and charges are answerable. A specific booking is not. Hiding the policy produces complaints, not fewer cancellations.
- Handling waiting listsExpectation setting is the whole job: how the list is ordered, how contact is made, and whether a short notice cancellation can reach them.
- Every question typeHandling patterns for the questions every support inbox gets.
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.