Book a group place at a tutoring centre

Three facts, then a list

The number on the door is one number. A parent who wants Γ Λυκείου maths for the exams and a parent who wants Thursday’s makeup both dial it. Before anyone says yes to a day, the assistant has to know which list this is.

A new place holds a counted seat in a group: subject, class year, exam programme or regular lesson, days, time, teacher, maximum. It cannot sit on top of a name that is already there.

A makeup holds a seat in another group of the same subject and year, for one lesson, in the window you already use. It is not a new enrolment.

A change of day is one child moving from one matching group to another. It is not two bookings.

Those are three requests. They do not use the same line on the roster. If the assistant treats every caller as a new enrolment, a parent who wants a makeup spends three minutes being offered a fresh group. If it treats every caller as a change of day, the parent who just picked up a flyer is asked which child to move.

After school makes the split sharper. A parent who read the flyer at the gate wants a place for September. Your teacher is already at the board in B Lykeiou maths. Next room, chemistry. The owner is covering Γ Λυκείου. The phone on the desk rings.

Nobody at the desk can finish the booking by hand. Both hands in the room are on the problem. The person who would open the roster cannot leave.

Taking a message and promising that someone will look at the list later is the job a voicemail already does. Finishing the call means the group it offers has a free place when the child sits down.

Read the matching roster before you offer. Write the name before you confirm. If that list cannot be reached, say so and take a callback. A place the parent was promised and the teacher has never seen is worse than no booking.

What goes wrong when the lists are one list

The failure is not “the phone rang”. The failure is a place that sounded finished and was not.

A parent is given Tuesday at 17:00 from a gap on the wall clock. That hour is B Lykeiou homework. The child is Γ Λυκείου, exam programme. They arrive. The teacher has a name the year cannot take, and the exam student sits through exercises from the school book.

A child is written into Monday and Wednesday because that group had an empty chair. The parent asked for Kostas. Kostas takes Tuesday and Thursday, and Tuesday is already at six. The parent turns up expecting Kostas. The room is another teacher, or the room is full.

A makeup is booked into Friday because Friday had a space. Friday is a different year. The teacher spends the first ten minutes sending the child out.

A parent wants to move Tuesday to Wednesday. Handled as cancel-then-book, Tuesday is still on the list while the assistant looks for Wednesday. They are told Wednesday is tight. Sometimes they are told their own Tuesday is the reason. Then, if the new day fails, Tuesday is gone as well, and they have dropped off the roster.

None of that is a missed call. It is a booking that should not have been spoken.

Subject, year, exam or regular — then the matching list

The first questions are the split the person at the desk already asks without thinking. Which subject. Which class year. Exams or school. Then the group that matches. Then whether that group has a place.

Subject. Maths is not physics. Ancient Greek is not modern Greek. English as a school subject is not the chemistry exam group. If you do not offer a subject, the assistant says so and stops. If you do, it still needs the year and the programme before it looks at days.

Class year. A, B, or Γ of Γυμνάσιο. A, B, or Γ of Λύκειο. A Γ Λυκείου child in a B group sits through work they have already done, and the B children get pulled forward. The assistant asks the year. It does not guess from the child’s age.

Exam programme or regular lesson. A parent who says Πανελλήνιες means more hours, mock exams, a pace that is not the homework group. A parent who says the child is struggling with next week’s test means the regular group. Mixing them puts an exam student in a room doing exercises from the school book. The assistant asks which of the two they mean. If the parent is not sure, it does not pick the shorter group to sound fast. It takes a note for you.

Only then does it look at days. The assistant may offer a group only when the subject, the year, the programme and the length all match, and only after it has read the roster you actually work from. A free hour on Tuesday is not a place in Γ Λυκείου physics.

A place is a counted seat

You already know how many chairs are in that room and how many names are on the list. Six was the number you set because seven means the child at the back cannot ask. A place is a name that is not there yet, under a maximum you wrote down.

The assistant has to see that list: subject, year, programme, days, time, teacher, maximum, how many names now. If Tuesday and Thursday Γ Λυκείου maths for the exam programme is at the maximum, that group is full. The honest answers are the other matching group, if it has a place; a waitlist; or a note that you may open another group. An assistant that has not looked at the list, and still says there is a place, has invented one.

Do not give it a sentence that lets it “use judgement” on a full group. It will hear a worried parent and add the name. You open another group, or you do not. The assistant does not decide that from the phone.

A place is held the way you already hold it — usually once the parent comes in and finishes the enrolment at the desk. The assistant should say that at the end of the call, so the parent does not think the place is theirs because someone said yes at 17:05.

If they want to start next week, in October, in January, mid-year is possible when a place exists. Whether the child can catch up is a conversation with you. The assistant books a place or a talk. It does not promise the year can be repaired from the phone.

Two subjects, two children, a named teacher

A parent who wants maths and physics is asking for two groups and two places. Check both. If maths has a seat and physics is full, write maths and waitlist physics. Do not invent a second chair because the parent asked for both on one call.

Two children in the same family are two enrolments. Each needs a place. A sibling does not inherit a seat. If the younger child is a different year, it is a different list.

They will ask for a named teacher. “Can she have Kostas?” Only if that teacher’s matching group has a place. If it is full, say so. Offer another teacher only if that group matches, has a place, and you allow the swap. If the parent will not take anyone else, the answer is the waitlist — not a promise that Kostas will take one more.

A trial lesson follows the same rule. It goes into a group that has a place, for the subject and year the parent named. It is not a spare hour you invent because Tuesday looked quiet. If you do not offer trials, say so in the notes.

They will ask how many children are already in the group. The assistant can say the count and the maximum if you allow it. “There is one place” is clearer than “the group is nice and small”.

A makeup is not a new enrolment

A child missed Thursday because the school had a test. The parent wants a makeup this week. That is not a new name on a list. It is a request to sit in another group of the same subject and year, or a note for the teacher if you do makeups as extra time.

Write the rule you already use. Same week only, or until the next lesson. Only a group that matches. Only if that group has a place. If Friday’s group is a different year, it is not a makeup. If Friday’s matching group is full, it is not a makeup. The assistant takes a note.

If you do not offer makeups at all, say so in the notes. The assistant should not invent a Friday hour to keep the parent on the line.

A parent who is already a customer — they named the child, they said Thursday, they asked for a makeup — should not be asked which subject they want as if they were new. Listen for the child’s name, the day they missed, the word “makeup”. Those calls belong on the existing roster.

Moving Tuesday

The parent already has a day. They are not making a new enrolment. They are changing one.

Handled as “cancel, then book”, Tuesday is still on the list while the assistant looks for Wednesday. The parent is told their preferred day is taken — by a system looking at their own child. Then, if the new day fails, Tuesday is gone as well.

The order is: find the existing name, release it, offer a matching group that actually has a place, place the name, send the new confirmation. In that order.

A moved child still needs the same subject, the same year, and the same programme. Wednesday is not Tuesday moved. Wednesday’s group may already be at the maximum. Wednesday’s teacher may be a different person. Confirm the matching group still has a seat. A place that was there at breakfast can be taken by lunch.

School moved the timetable. That is the usual reason. It is a fact for the note, not a reason to invent a seat in the wrong year because the hour was empty.

Test this before anything else. Pick a child who already has Tuesday on a named group. Ask the assistant to move them to Wednesday. Watch whether their own seat blocks them, and whether Wednesday’s matching group is still free.

After a move, the reminder goes to the new day, not the old one. The old SMS must not still say Tuesday.

What it must not place

It will not invent a seat. A parent who asks if there is a place in Γ Λυκείου maths gets a confirmation only from the roster, or a waitlist.

It will not put a child in the wrong year, or in the exam programme when the parent asked for school support, because an hour happened to be free.

It will not invent a sibling discount or a two-subject price. Whatever figure it says, they will treat as yours. It can repeat a published monthly fee you gave it — one subject, one year, exam or regular, the figure on your sheet. A parent who wants two children, three subjects, and “something on the price” is a note or a time with you.

It will not choose θετική, θεωρητική, or οικονομία, and it will not say which university is realistic. It books a conversation with you, or it writes the question down.

It will not promise a named teacher whose matching group is full. It will not decide a makeup that has no place. It will not tell a parent the child can catch up from January to June. That is your conversation.

A complaint about last month’s teacher, or a mark that did not move: take the name, take what they said, put it in front of you. Do not offer a free month from the phone.

The text after the call

Send the confirmation at the moment the name is on the roster, not at the end of the evening. A parent who leaves the call unsure whether Tuesday is real will ring again, or will enrol at the next frontistirio “just in case”. The assistant sends the SMS itself, in the language of the conversation. Seventy-plus languages. Nobody at the desk types a number. Send it to the parent. A text that goes to the child’s phone is a text nobody reads.

The rule is mechanical. The message goes out after the name exists on the matching list. It names the subject, the year, the programme, the days, and the time. It says how the place is held — usually once they finish the enrolment at the desk. It does not name a teacher whose group you have not confirmed.

No name on the list, no message. A name against a group that is already at the maximum, no “see you Tuesday” — a flag to you instead, or a text that says someone will call. A text for a seventh child in a group of six is worse than no text. The parent turns up. You own the crowded room.

The reminder is a different job. An empty chair costs the same whether the child was never written in or written in and forgotten, and the second kind is easier to prevent. A day ahead is the usual starting point. A same-afternoon reminder helps a first lesson more than a child who has been coming since September.

Once the name is real, which floor, where to park, and the enrolment step you actually require can go in the same message if you want them there. A discount cannot. A direction cannot.

When they cancel

Let parents cancel through the assistant. A Tuesday place released on Monday evening can be offered to the next parent who asked about that group. The same cancellation arriving as a silent gap at 17:00 is a chair you will not get back.

Write the cancellation back to the matching roster immediately, the same way a name is written. A cancellation that is only in a transcript is a cancellation the next parent cannot be offered. Freeing Tuesday does not free Wednesday. Freeing maths does not put physics back on offer.

Treat “I need to move it” as a change, not as a cancel plus a hope. Otherwise you open the old day, fail to place the new one, and have lost them from the list entirely.

A cancel the evening before a first lesson is worth a flag, if you want one. The assistant can take the cancel and mark it. It does not decide who to offer the seat to. It does not ring the next name on a waitlist you never gave it.

Say the notice you actually enforce at the end of a new enrolment. If you do not charge, still say how much notice you need so the chair can be offered again. Do not invent a fee the desk does not use.

The first thirty names

Look at the first thirty by hand. The roster entry, the subject, the year, the programme, the days, and whether that group was actually under the maximum. You are not looking for a system that does not work. You are looking for the year nobody thought to configure, the teacher who does not work Wednesday, the exam group it sold as homework, the seventh name it added. Those exist in every frontistirio. None of them are in the setup form.

Pay particular attention to four things. A Γ Λυκείου child sitting in a B group. A name written into a group that was already at six. A makeup given a different year. A move that left Tuesday in place and failed Wednesday. Any one of those is a configuration problem, and it will repeat until the type is corrected.

Then look at the direction questions that tried to become bookings. If any of them received a firm group, the advice rule is not tight enough. Tighten it before you count how many names the assistant placed.

After that, spot-check weekly for a month and then leave it alone.

What you turn on first

Start with the three questions, not with a menu of days.

1. Subject, class year, exam or regular as the first questions, and the roster you already keep — who teaches which group, the maximum, how many names now. Do not let it offer a day before those three exist.
2. Four types only. A new place in an exam group. A new place in a regular group. A makeup. A change of day. Lengths and maxima from the lists you already run.
3. The seat rule. Confirm a place only from the roster you connected. If you are not connecting a live list on day one, the path is a request only: take the subject, the year, the programme, take a window, you call back.
4. How a place is held — usually enrolment at the desk — and the makeup rule you already use.
5. The change path, tested with a real name already on Tuesday, in a named group.
6. The SMS rule: after the name exists on the matching list, never before, never with a group you have not confirmed, always to the parent.
7. A failure sentence the assistant is not allowed to improve: if the roster cannot be reached, it says someone will call back. It does not hold a seat it cannot see.

Leave university direction, sibling discounts, two-subject prices, and “can they catch up from January” as callbacks. Turn the SMS confirmation on the same afternoon you turn booking on. Turn the reminder on before the week is out.

When those four types have produced a week of names you would have been happy to have written yourself, add the next type. Do not add them all on day one. A frontistirio roster has exam groups and regular groups and makeups, and the edges are where a parent turns up for the wrong room.

Add opening hours, who is in on which afternoon, where to park, which floor.

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