Six enquiries and one office manager
Overnight, six enquiries arrived. A seventeen-year-old in a village south of town wants manual lessons after school. A nurse wants automatic lessons on her days off, which change weekly. Someone wants a female instructor. A pupil who failed a test elsewhere wants a few lessons and a test as soon as possible. Two just say 'how much?'.
The office manager knows roughly who covers which area and who drives automatic, but not who has space. She texts instructors, and whoever replies first gets the pupil. One instructor feels he is always overlooked. Two enquiries do not hear back until the afternoon, and one has already booked elsewhere.
Why allocation is harder than it looks
- Instructors cover different areas and pickup points.
- Gearbox, manual or automatic, rules out half your instructors straight away.
- Pupils have preferences, such as a female instructor or someone experienced with nervous drivers.
- Capacity depends on each instructor's diary and how many pupils they want.
- Fairness matters to franchised instructors who pay to receive pupils.
- Enquiries arrive through several channels and at all hours.
The cost of slow allocation
Learners usually contact several schools. The one that confirms a first lesson first often wins. Instructors who feel allocation is unfair are less happy with their franchise and more likely to leave. Pupils sent to an instructor who does not really have space wait weeks for a regular slot. And the office manager spends her morning on text messages.
The allocation process we build
- Enquiries from your website, phone notes, email and Facebook or Instagram messages land in one list, with the details that matter captured by a short form or by the office.
- Each instructor's coverage is set by postcode or on a map, with their gearbox, any specialisms and how many new pupils they want at the moment.
- For each enquiry, the system lists instructors who cover the pickup point, match the gearbox and preferences, and have real free slots in the diary at the times the pupil wants.
- The pupil is offered to the first suitable instructor on your fairness rule, such as whoever has received fewest recently, with a time limit to accept, and then to the next.
- Once accepted, the pupil gets a message with the instructor's name, a first lesson time and how to pay.
- Every allocation is recorded, so instructors and the owner can see who received which pupils and why.
| Match on | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Area | Instructor coverage map or postcodes |
| Gearbox | Instructor's car |
| Preference | Instructor profile |
| Availability | Shared lesson diary |
| Fairness | Your rule, applied from allocation history |
The fairness rule is your business decision, and many franchise agreements have something to say about it. We build what you and your instructors agree.
Enquiries answered while the learner is still looking
The seventeen-year-old gets a message within the hour offering a first lesson after school on Thursday with an instructor who covers her village. The nurse is offered someone with flexible weekday slots. The office manager checks the list rather than sending texts, and deals only with the unusual cases. Instructors can see that allocation follows the rule, which settles a lot of grumbling.
The awkward enquiries get handled properly too. The pupil who failed a test elsewhere and wants a quick test is matched to instructors who take on test-ready pupils, and flagged for the readiness list after an assessment lesson. Someone outside every instructor's area gets a polite, quick reply saying so, instead of silence. And when an instructor tells you they are full for the next month, their coverage is paused and new pupils go to others without anyone having to remember.
Recognise how you allocate pupils?
- New pupils go to whichever instructor replies first.
- Enquiries wait hours for an answer.
- Instructors complain about who gets new pupils.
- Nobody knows exactly who has space this week.
- Enquiries arrive in several different inboxes.