Sitting reminders and wedding callbacks for photographers

Tomorrow’s sitting, yesterday’s note, still uncalled

Tomorrow’s family sitting is on the diary. Four names, five o’clock, studio. Yesterday a couple asked about 14 June and left a number while you were at a christening. You will not ring them. Your hands are on a camera. You are halfway through a newborn set. Or you are still in a church. Or you have sat down with the cards and it is already late.

Tonight a family will not come at five if nobody confirmed the hour. A couple will book the next photographer if nobody returns the wedding note. A hold you gave for forty-eight hours will expire while you are editing.

These people already have an hour, or already left a name. They do not need a new “are you free” opened. They need a call that asks whether they still come, or takes the date back to the book, without inventing a Saturday or a package.

Answering the inbound line does not do that work. The person ringing in wants to know if Tuesday is free. This list is the people who already have Tuesday, and the people who asked about June while you could not pick up.

Why those calls never get made

Nobody rings them because the person who would has both hands on a camera. A newborn on the stool. A family already in the paper. The phone that would make the outbound call is the same phone already ringing with a new “are you free on the 14th”.

After this sitting you are not free. You are copying cards. You are in the car to a church. You are editing last Saturday. In the evening you have put the cameras down and you still do not ring, because the list looks like Monday’s work.

A second pair of hands does not appear in a studio this size. A call-centre shift does not know which Saturdays are whole days, whether you hold a date, or whether a wedding figure is allowed on the phone. A sheet they were sent in May will say a package price. You have not written one.

In the morning you find out who came. The family that did not arrive does not leave a note. The couple that booked someone else still have a line on the evening list.

A sitting reminder is not a new booking

The first fact on this call is the hour that already exists. Day. Time. What they booked. How many names are on it. The assistant names those facts and asks whether they still hold.

It does not open a fresh availability search. It does not ask “what day would you like?” as if this were a stranger. That question turns a family who is already on tomorrow’s stool into a second sitting, or it talks past the hour they have and into a new day.

It takes a headcount. Four became five. Two became the parents only. If they do not know yet, it writes that down. It does not invent a number that makes the hour look tidy.

If they say the day has changed, the call is no longer a confirm. It is a request. The assistant takes the new day and a number. It does not say another hour is free unless the book you connected shows one. You finish the change.

If they ask what the sitting costs, it may repeat a published studio price you gave it for that kind of work. It must not invent a figure, or slip into a wedding package because they also mentioned June. If you did not type a figure for that sitting, you give the price when you can see the book.

A family who already has Tuesday at five and a couple who only left a wedding note are not treated as people who still need an hour. The first needs the sitting that is already there. The second needs the date taken back to the book. Do not let it sell them a second stool.

A wedding callback is a different call

A name on yesterday’s list is not a sitting with a later clock. They asked whether you are free on 14 June. They may not have said whether it is a wedding, a christening, or a studio hour. They want a yes, or a no, or a time you will ring.

The first sentence back is still a question, even on a call you placed. Wedding, christening, or studio. Until that answer exists, a yes about the 14th of June does not mean anything.

Then the book. The assistant does not say yes from last week’s memory. It does not say “probably” to sound quick. If that Saturday is already booked, it says so. If it has not seen the book, it takes a time you will call. If the Saturday is marked free, that is still not a package and it is still not a contract.

An assistant that answers with “yes, June is open, the package is this” when you have not seen the brief has not heard the question. Write the callback rule in the words you already use: I have the date, I have the names, Maris will talk you through hours and the album once she has the day in front of her. If those lines are empty, it will invent a Saturday and a figure you then have to take back.

It confirms what kind of day they mean. Then it reads the book. Then it takes the next step you allow — a hold, a meeting, or a time you will ring. The text is the thing they will look at in the car, not the sentence they half-heard on speaker.

If they ask you to hold the date, the assistant does not decide. It follows the rule you wrote. A hopeful yes from the phone is a couple who stops ringing other photographers, and a Saturday you have not actually given.

If they are also asking about a family sitting next week, that is still two requests. Take both. Confirm neither until the right book has spoken. Do not open a new Saturday because the wedding callback was the call you thought you were making.

A Saturday it must not release

The hour stays theirs until a person who can see the book says otherwise. A missed outbound call is not a cancellation. A voicemail with no reply is not a cancellation. “We might be late” is not a cancellation.

If they answer and say they are not coming, the assistant writes the words they used and stops. It does not offer Tuesday at five to the next person who asked. It does not tell a walk-in the stool is free. Two families at the door for one hour is worse than an empty studio.

A hold that expires is a different job, and it is one of the calls that never gets made. Forty-eight hours is a short window. You gave it at the church car park on Saturday. Monday evening it is gone. Tuesday another couple asks about the same June Saturday. If nobody rang the first couple, you do not know whether they still want the day. The assistant can place that call on the morning the hold ends: you asked us to hold 14 June, do you still want it. Yes stays a hold until you mark the book. No puts the Saturday back. No answer is not a no. The date stays marked until you release it.

The assistant does not offer the Saturday to the next couple, or extend the hold, unless you wrote that down and a person has marked the hold as gone. Do not give it a sentence that sounds like permission. “We usually let it go after two days” will be read out.

A wedding that is still only a note is not something the assistant ends on the phone. Date changes, “can we do the 21st instead,” and “we will only take the engagement” are requests. You decide. A yes on your number for a Saturday you are already in a church is a fight in the inbox.

If another couple is waiting on the same date while the list is still uncalled, that is your decision, with the book open. It is not a decision for an outbound script.

The language on the enquiry

The note already has a language. English from a couple flying in for Glyfada. German from a mother after a venue visit. French, Italian, in the same month. Greek when a cousin reserved a sitting for someone else.

You are not free to ring them in that language at four, with a camera up, and you are not free at ten. The assistant starts in the language on the enquiry. If they switch mid-call, it follows. The SMS goes out in the language of the conversation. You do not set a language per sitting.

A hold rule in Greek, sent to a couple who enquired in English, will not keep them off the next name. They will ring the next photographer who answers in their language.

If a mother takes the phone and continues in German, it follows. The text still goes to the number on the note, in the language that just finished, unless they named a different number.

On a small Greek studio in spring, a lot of the outbound list is not in Greek. The call fails if the rule arrives in the wrong one.

Gallery, weather, and the questions that arrive on a confirm

A confirm call collects extra questions. When will the gallery be ready. Can we see a sneak peek. Is there parking. Can we come at four instead of five. Do you still have 14 June.

Those answers live in the studio facts you entered, or they are a new request. The assistant may repeat what you wrote. It may not invent a delivery day, a sneak peek you did not authorise, a parking space you do not have, or a yes about June.

If the studio is up a lane and not on the main street, put that in the first things it can say. A family arriving at five with the wrong facade will ring the next doorbell.

A complaint about last Saturday’s coverage, or about a photo a cousin cannot find, is a note. It is not a free reshoot, a new Saturday, or a refund from the phone. You look at the files. You decide.

Weather on an outdoor sitting tomorrow is a request to move, not a decision the assistant makes. It checks the next free hour and offers that, or it takes a callback if the week is tight. It does not decide the weather, and it does not invent a studio hour you do not have.

If they ask for a second shooter, an island, or a wedding package on a sitting reminder, the assistant takes the request. It does not say a Saturday is free, and it does not read out a figure, unless you wrote that down and the book shows the day.

How CITT handles it

1. You give it the lists you already have. Tomorrow’s sittings with no confirmation. Yesterday’s wedding and christening notes. Not last year’s couples, and not people who already sat.
2. It calls in the language on the enquiry — 70+ languages — and introduces itself as an assistant for the studio.
3. It names the sitting that already exists, then asks whether they still come and how many people.
4. On a wedding note it asks what the date is for, then reads the book, then takes a hold or a callback — never a package from a description.
5. It checks the book you already use before it agrees a move or a new Saturday. If the book does not show the hour or the day, it takes a request.
6. It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call, including the sitting time and, only after you have said the gallery is ready, a link you told it to send.
7. It escalates what cannot be finished on the call — a wedding date the book will not confirm, a “we are not coming,” a package, an island, a gallery complaint — as a tagged note.
8. You get the transcript, the summary, the headcount they gave, and whether the sitting text was sent.

What it will not do

It will not release an hour because nobody answered. It will not release a held Saturday. It will not offer the stool to the next family from this call.

It will not invent a Saturday, a wedding package, a travel fee, or a second photographer. A studio price is only a figure you typed in. A hold is only the rule you wrote.

It will not move a wedding that is still only a note. It will not invent a gallery day. It will not read a login into a voicemail. It will not offer a free reshoot because the caller is unhappy. It takes the request. A human decides.

What these calls sound like

The order is the sitting that already exists, then whether they still come, then a headcount — or the wedding note, then what the date is for, then the book. There is no new “are you free”. There is no invented Saturday. There is no package number from a description.

A late sitting goes on the hour you actually have. A “we are not coming” goes on a note you can act on with the book open. If they ask not to be called again, that sentence is honoured.

What you set up first

Give it tomorrow’s sittings with no confirmation, and yesterday’s wedding and christening notes. Connect the book you already use. Write the hold rule in the words you already send: forty-eight hours, or no hold, only a callback.

Give it only the published studio prices and studio facts it may repeat — address, parking, how a sitting is cancelled, the weather line. Write one line that forbids a released Saturday, a package price, a free reshoot, and a gallery login on a voicemail.

Set the hours it may ring, and how many times it tries. Then listen to three sitting reminders and one wedding callback before you add a gallery-ready call for every name on last month’s list.

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