Assumed Bookings

Do you find that some groups just book you in wthout asking?

That really annoys me.

How do you feel about this practice?

Someone did this to me once and I wanted to book another meeting that was on the same day, had to get an AL to change it.

Basically its a useless thing to do because it doesnt matter how many are booked is the numbers on the day that count.

It's NOTallowed for that reason - the sign in sheet has a tick box so the OA should ask if you want them to book you in.

This hasn't happened to me personally but I would assume that it could either be an overzealous OA or perhaps has ticked the box for the wrong person on the form at the meeting.  I would have contacted OA though to ask to be unbooked for whichever group as I wouldn't be going just because I'd been booked in.

 

Yeah - have had this a few times. Sometimes it's a genuine error but it happens too frequently with some groups/ALs to be entirely accidental. I don't get the point of doing it - it doesn't increase my likelihood of attending. My predecessor seemed to do it a fair bit - I think assuming that regulars would be there next time, but often including people who I knew had said they couldn't make it.

It's just annoying for the individual wrongly booked in and disappointing for the team who discover their numbers are lower than anticipated when they're doing confirmations.

I never know if I'm going to make a meeting until the morning of a meeting (if a client has had me working all night then I will be going to bed rather than networking). So I have instructed the local group that they can autobook me in for every meeting and I will get there if I can.

It works for, but I'm not sure if and how much of an issue it causes the team.

I ask the question to everyone as they arrive so unless I'm over-zealous on ticking the box hopefully it doesn't happen at Cheltenham.

Not everyone knows their diary 2 weeks ahead (and even then they don't always get it right) so it's safer to leave them unticked and let them decide later.

That said, you should get the email confirmation which means that you can fire back an email to one of the team to get them to unbook you.

Quite right Trevor that is why you are part of an outstanding 4N team at Cheltenham

BJ

Thanks for all your comments!

Thanks John - I'm blushing now!

 

Terrible practise and very annoying. dont happen in Essex 

 

Kev

When I first started this used to happen to me a lot. It is very annoying 

I always make sure my operation assistants ask the members attending if they would like to be booked in.

It is something that is a big problem. A little while back I even had a GL book me in because they thought I MIGHT want to attend!! They did send an email saying they had done it but it was still very annoying that I had to get it cancelled when I had no intention of going in the first place!

It'l be interesting to see how many other people this happens to.

 

This is a definite 4N 'No No!'

To be honest I'm not even sure why the Ops guys ask this. When I attend various meetings, it smacks a bit of McDonalds and being asked "would you like an Apple pie with that". I assume this must be scripted by 4N to ask the question but given I booked a meeting in the first place I'm capable of booking another one myself too. 

I'm presently trying out various groups across London so some I may attend every two weeks and some I won't so I see no point in being asked the question. It's probably ok for people who attend the same meeting every two weeks but if people book their own meeting the booked numbers will be a true reflection of who's planning on coming and surely help the local team with venue planning/catering requirements. As we all know there is often a certain amount of 'No shows' on the day, how much of those are due to being booked in without asking?

I also make sure OAs ask. Those who say "no" are then asked if they would like to be booked for the meeting in four weeks, as quite often it is because of a holiday or course.

The topic Should we have a booking cutoff? discusses another interesting view on bookings.