A booking comes in for an interpreter on Thursday. The language is given, the date is given, and nothing else.
The assignment turns out to be a three hour medical appointment in a hospital forty miles away, requiring a specific dialect, a female interpreter at the client's request, and someone comfortable in a clinical setting.
None of that was in the request, and Thursday is now a problem.
Step 1: capture the language and the variety
Not just the language. Dialect, regional variety and script where relevant. This is the single most common cause of a failed assignment and the easiest question to ask.
Step 2: capture the setting
Medical, legal, social care, education, business or community. The setting determines who is qualified to take it and sometimes what registration is required.
Step 3: capture date, start time and expected duration
Including whether it could overrun. Interpreters book by blocks and an assignment that runs over affects the rest of their day.
Step 4: establish the location precisely
Full address, which building, which department and where to report. Interpreters arriving at a large hospital with only a postcode lose half an hour.
Step 5: establish the mode
In person, by telephone or by video, and which platform. These are different services with different rates and different availability.
Step 6: ask about the participants
How many people, whether any are children, whether anyone else needs interpreting and whether the same interpreter is needed for a series of appointments.
Step 7: capture preferences and requirements
Gender preference, whether the client has worked with someone before and any accessibility requirements. In sensitive settings these matter enormously.
Step 8: ask about subject matter
Specialist terminology, technical content or documents that will be referred to. An interpreter who can prepare performs better, and preparation material should be requested.
Step 9: publish your rates and minimums
Minimum booking duration, travel time and expenses, cancellation terms and out of hours rates. Clients booking for the first time need this before committing.
Step 10: publish your cancellation policy
Late cancellations cost an interpreter a day they could have filled. A stated notice period, with charges, is standard and must be visible.
Step 10b: explain how remote assignments work
Telephone and video interpreting is now routine and clients often do not know it is an option, or assume it is unsuitable for their setting. Publishing which settings work remotely, what the platform requirements are and how a remote rate differs converts bookings that would otherwise be declined for distance or short notice.
Step 11: confirm in writing
Every detail back to the client. Most failed assignments trace to something assumed rather than confirmed.
Step 12: handle urgency honestly
Rare languages and specialist settings cannot always be filled at short notice. Saying so quickly lets a client arrange an alternative rather than discovering on the day, which is the timing pressure in interpreting bookings for events and appointments.
Getting started
Publish what you need to book, your rates and cancellation terms, then capture language, setting and location at any hour, which takes minutes to set up with install the widget and train your bot. SpideyChat for agencies answers from your published pages, translation intake is covered in translation quote requests missing word counts and languages, and similar booking detail matters in speaking and workshop requests for consultants and an AI receptionist for beauty salons.