Ferry-check callbacks and visit reminders

The pad from this morning, still uncalled

You came off the airline. The pad has three last-minute names from this morning. You opened the ferry system. One cabin is there. One sailing is gone. One row is still missing a child’s age.

You will not ring them. The next hold is already lighting. Or a couple is at the counter with passports open. Or you are printing tickets for the afternoon boats.

Meanwhile the couple who wanted Friday books at the next office on the street. The cabin you would have issued sits on your screen. Tomorrow’s package visit has not been reminded either. A family changes islands overnight and the chair sits empty at four.

These people already left you a request. They do not need a new enquiry opened. They need a call that reports what you found, or reminds the hour they already have.

Answering the inbound line does not do that work. The person ringing in wants a boat for Saturday. This list is the people who already asked for Friday.

Why those callbacks never get made

Nobody rings them because the person who would has both hands on the next job. The airline again. A quote at the counter. Tickets that have to be printed before the boat. The phone that would make the outbound call is the same phone already ringing with a new last-minute.

After this couple you are not free. You are back on hold. You are at lunch. You have locked the door at two on a Saturday in July because both of you are at the port with a group.

A second pair of hands does not appear in an office this size. A call-centre shift does not know which row you have checked, whether Friday is gone, or whether you will look at Saturday. A sheet they were sent in May will say a cabin is free. You opened the screen an hour ago and it is not.

In the afternoon you find out who came in. The ones who booked next door do not leave a note. The ones who never meant to come still have a line on the pad.

A callback is not a new enquiry

The first fact on this call is the request that already exists. Route. Date. How many people. Cabin or seats. Names as taken. The assistant names those facts and reports the outcome you marked.

It does not open a fresh availability search. It does not ask “what date would you like?” as if this were a stranger. That question turns a couple who are already on this morning’s pad into a second enquiry, or it talks past the Friday they asked for and into a new sailing they did not want.

It reports one of three things, and only if you marked the row:

• Come in to pay, before a time you set. The screen showed something you are willing to issue. The assistant does not name the cabin type or the fare unless you put that figure on the row and marked it live.
• Gone. You looked. Friday night is not there. The assistant says so, and offers only what you allowed — a callback if they want Saturday, or a time to come in and look at deck seats. It does not invent the next sailing.
• Still missing a fact. A passport name. A child’s age. The assistant asks for that fact and stops. It does not fill the quote to sound finished.

If they say the dates have changed, the call is no longer a report. It is a request. The assistant takes the new date and a number. It does not say another sailing is free unless you have marked that sailing live. You open the system. You finish the change.

If they ask what it costs, it may repeat a published fare you gave it for that row. It must not invent a figure, round an outside cabin down to a deck seat, or guess what Friday costs this week. If you did not type a figure on that row, the desk gives the price when they can see the screen.

A guest who already paid and a couple who only left names this morning are not treated as people who still need a new booking. They need the request that is already there. Ask which they are only if the list you gave the assistant is unclear. Do not let it sell them a second boat.

After you have looked at the system

The assistant rings only the rows you have marked as checked. A callback without a check is just another inbound with your number on the display. They will treat it as a yes. You have not earned that.

Mark the row the way you already talk at the desk. Come in before four. Gone, we can look at Saturday if they want. Need the child’s age. Those are short labels. They have to be true. “Something should be there” is not a label. It will be read out as a cabin.

If two of you check the same sailing and only one marks the row, the assistant must not ring. Two callbacks for one cabin is how two couples arrive with cash. Write who marks, and that a row is not live until it is marked.

A cabin you found at eleven can be gone at twelve. The mark is not a hold unless you already have a hold rule and you wrote it down. Some offices will look and ring back and still lose the bed while the couple walks over. Say that. “Come in before four, we cannot hold it” is an honest sentence. “The cabin is yours” is not, not from this call.

Do not let the assistant move them onto the next sailing from memory because Friday is gone. That sailing may be full. It may not exist. Take the request. You look again.

A cabin it must not invent on the way out

The inbound ban still holds. Fluency on a callback does not create inventory.

If you have not marked the row, it does not ring. If you marked gone, it does not soften that into a maybe. If you marked come in, it does not add a cabin type you did not write. If you marked need age, it does not skip to a price.

A missed outbound call is not a cancellation. The request stays on the pad until a person decides. Offering that cabin to the next walk-in from the same script is how two parties meet at the desk for one ticket.

A booking that already lives with an operator is not something the assistant ends on the phone. Date changes, “we will only take the ferry”, and “cancel the hotel” are requests. You or the operator decide. A yes on your number for a room the operator still holds is a fight at the counter in the morning.

If a walk-in is standing at the window while the pad is still uncalled, that is your decision, with the screen open. It is not a decision for an outbound script.

Do not paste last week’s fares onto the outbound notes. The assistant will read them as if they were still live, and it will read them to people who already trust you enough to have left a name.

Visit reminders and ticket collects

Tomorrow’s package visits are a second list. So are today’s ticket collects. Those people already have an hour. They need a reminder, not a new quote.

The assistant names the visit that already exists. Day. Time. Kind of visit. Names as taken. It asks whether they still come. That is the call.

It does not ask “would you like a cabin as well?” on a collect reminder. It does not rebuild the week in Crete on a “see you at four” call. Mix the lists and you ring people about a boat they already refused, or you sell a package into the hour you kept for tickets.

A collect reminder goes out only if the tickets are actually at the desk. “Tickets ready, come before two” is honest when they are printed. It is a lie when they are still in the operator queue. Write that mark the way you write the ferry check. No mark, no call.

If they say they cannot come, the call is a cancel. The assistant writes it back onto the calendar the same hour, so the next last-minute caller can be offered the chair. It does not describe a charge you will not make.

If they want to move the hour, that is one change: find the visit, free the old hour, write the new one, then text. If the new hour is gone, the old one stays until they agree to let it go.

A reminder at eight in the morning for a four o’clock visit is useful in July, when people change islands overnight. A reminder at nine at night is not, unless you chose that hour and the visit is tomorrow morning.

Missing names, missing ages

One letter off the passport and they will not board. A child with no age will not price. Those rows should not sit until they arrive.

The assistant calls to ask for the missing fact. It reads back what it already has. It spells what it is unsure of. It does not fill the name to sound finished. Kostas is not Costas until they say so.

If they do not have the passport in front of them, it takes a time they will ring back, or it leaves the row open. It does not invent an age to let the quote start.

A third person who was not on the first call is a new name, not a guess. Take it. Read it back. Put it on the row. Do not let the outbound script skip them because the first call already sounded complete.

The language on the request

The original call already has a language. English from the pavement. German from the hire car. French, Italian, Dutch, in the same week. Greek when a cousin reserved for someone else.

You are not free to ring them in that language at four, with a couple at the counter, and you are not free at two on a Saturday. The assistant starts in the language of the original request. If they switch mid-call, it follows. The SMS goes out in the language of the conversation. You do not set a language per screen.

A come-in time in Greek, sent to a couple who rang in English, will not get them through the door. They will stand on the street and dial the next office that answers in their language.

If a husband takes the phone and continues in German, it follows. The text still goes to the number on the request, in the language that just finished.

On a small Greek office in July, most of the outbound pad is not in Greek. The call fails if the hour arrives in the wrong one.

Changes the operator actually confirmed

Sometimes the outbound call is yours to make because the operator moved them. A morning flight cancelled. A sailing pulled. A hotel that will not take the new date.

The assistant may ring only if you have written the new facts on the row: new time, new reference, what you want them to do next. It reads those facts. It does not invent a replacement sailing. It does not promise a refund. It does not decide a change fee. Those sit with the airline, the ferry company, or the tour operator.

If they are angry, it takes what they said and puts it in front of you. It does not offer a free night from the phone.

If they ask about a visa, a child’s document, or insurance on this call, that is still a note. Fluency on a callback does not create advice. Repeat a line you wrote. Invent nothing.

How CITT handles it

1. You give it the lists you already have. Rows you have checked. Rows missing a name or an age. Tomorrow’s visits. Today’s collects. Not last year’s clients, and not people who already paid and left.
2. It calls in the language of the original request — 70+ languages — and introduces itself as an assistant for the office.
3. It names the request that already exists, then reports the outcome you marked, or reminds the hour they already have.
4. It does not invent a cabin or a fare. If you have not marked a figure live on that row, it does not speak one.
5. It checks the calendar you already use before it agrees a new hour. If that hour is not free, it takes a request.
6. It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call, including the come-in time, and never a fare on a recording.
7. It escalates what cannot be finished on the call — a new sailing, an operator change, a “we are not coming,” a complaint — as a tagged note.
8. You get the transcript, the summary, whether they will come in, and whether the reminder went.

What it will not do

It will not ring a row you have not checked. It will not invent a cabin on the way out. It will not speak a fare you did not mark live. It will not leave a price on a voicemail.

It will not release a request because nobody answered. It will not offer that cabin to a walk-in from this script.

It will not rebuild a package on a collect reminder. It will not sell a new boat on a visit reminder.

It will not move a booking that already lives with an operator. It will not decide a refund, a change fee, or a visa. It takes the request. A human decides.

It will not keep ringing after they asked to stop.

What these calls sound like

The order is the request that already exists, then the outcome you marked, then a time to come in or a missing fact. There is no new enquiry. There is no invented cabin. There is no fare on a tape.

A last-minute name goes on the mark you actually made. A “we are not coming” goes on a note you can act on with the calendar open. If they ask not to be called again, that sentence is honoured.

What you set up first

Give it this morning’s pad: rows you have checked, and rows still missing a name or an age. Connect the calendar you already use. Write the three marks in the words you already say: come in before this time; gone, we can look at another sailing; need this fact.

Give it only the published items it may repeat on a given row. Write one line that forbids a cabin, a fare, a visa answer, a refund, and a price on a voicemail.

Set the hours it may ring, and how many times it tries. Then listen to three callbacks before you add tomorrow’s visit reminders, and listen to those before you add ticket collects.

Rates for the service live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.