Enquiries

Based on your discipline, your chosen skills, your location and your availability, the Enquiries system will rank-order suitable therapists for any enquiries that are received, and we will assign the most suitable therapist to an enquiry. Note that an enquiry might not request your discipline, but it might say that it's open to alternative suggestions, so don't automatically reject an enquiry which does not ask for your discipline. Also, if the enquiry is for a home or school appointment, but you're unable to travel to the client, do offer an online appointment if you can.

When an enquiry is assigned to a therapist, the therapist will receive an email notification:

Note that you have 48 hours to reply to an enquiry (the system will know if it sends you an enquiry on a Friday, or on the weekend, and will add time accordingly to the reply deadline).

To reply, click on the green button to view the enquiry. You will see a screen like this:

Another way to access the enquiries assigned to you is by clicking on Enquiries in the Nest's sidebar menu:

When you click on Enquiries, all enquiries assigned to you will be listed, including their current status. By clicking on the ‘Edit’ button on the right hand side of each enquiry, you will be taken to the screen pictured above. On the left hand side of that screen is all of the information that the client has provided via the website’s booking form. In the above example, Roger Federer has requested a speech and language assessment for his 8 year old son’s lisp, to take place at an Owl Centre venue, preferably on the morning of 12th November. At this point, you have 5 options:

• Accept enquiry

• Request more details

• Tell the system you've telephoned (or emailed) the enquirer

• Extend the default time the system gives you to reply

• Reject enquiry

(a) Option 1 - Accept enquiry: To accept the enquiry (blue button). To do so, you’d need to (1) choose an address where the appointment will take place (which might involve selecting a venue from the dropdown box on the right (venues are ordered by county)), and (2) enter a suggestion for a session date and time (note that you can (a) offer multiple suggestions and (b) offer a broad window - e.g. a 'morning' appointment. If you select this, you'll be asked to enter an approximate duration of the session, where the enquirer will then be able to select from numerous start times within the time constraints imposed by the broad, pre-defined window that you've offered). You will, of course, have to check venue availability before you can offer an appointment. Also, if the client hasn't selected a preferred venue, but you will offer to visit his home address, you'll need to select the 'other address' option and then enter his address (found on the left hand side of the screen).

Then, (3) when you click on the blue ‘Accept enquiry’ button, the enquiry status will change to this:

Note that you are still two steps away from having a confirmed booking for the client has to now decide if he’d like to make a booking on the basis of the suggestion you have sent him; and, if he chooses to proceed, you’ll have to provide a final confirmation [more below]. If the client wishes to proceed but cannot make the suggested appointment date, he will be able to contact you via a Contact form. You will then be able to return to the enquiry in the Nest’s ‘Enquiries’ menu option, and offer a different date/time if you’re able to.

(b) Option 2 - Request more details: To request more information in order to decide if you can take on the enquiry (yellow button). Clicking on this will produce a screen like this:

Note that the question is sent directly to the client. You can ask one question or, by clicking on the ‘Add another question’ button, multiple questions. As the instruction says, please assume that the client is a lay person, unless you know otherwise, and therefore keep the questions clear and simple.

(c ) Option 3 - Tell the system you've contacted the enquirer: You can tell the system that you've telephoned the enquirer (which, in effect, puts the ball into the enquirer's court, so the system won't send you notifications that you need to reply to the enquiry). If you've emailed the enquirer, clicking the 'Enquirer telephoned' button will carry out the same function.

(d) Option 4 - Extend time to reply: you can request an extension to the 24 hour limit that the system imposes on you to reply. The options are an additional 24 hours, 48 hours or 1 week. Your team leader will need to approve the more extensive requests.

(e) Option 5 - Reject enquiry: The fifth available option is to reject an enquiry assigned to you. Clicking on the red button brings up this box:

Given that the system has identified you as a suitable therapist for the enquiry, providing a reason for rejecting the enquiry will help us to work out if your profile settings need to be altered.