A reply kit for new enquiries and cover requests, built once from facts about your service

A parent who enquires usually wants an answer quickly, and you are often with the children when it arrives. Six replies written once, from the facts of your own service (ages you take, days and hours, area, whether you have space, how a first visit works), mean each real enquiry becomes a two-minute edit instead of a blank page at 9pm. The assistant never sees an enquiry, because an enquiry names a parent and usually a child.

You will need: a "Reply facts" document you write about your service, your own email for sending

Works with: a chat assistant that can read one document and write drafts. Check your tool's current features. It needs no connection to your inbox.

Set it up

1. Write a "Reply facts" document about your service only: the age range you take, your days and hours, the area (a town or part of town, not your address), how you handle a first visit and settling in, your waiting-list approach, and "[FEES: you add them]". Put in nothing about any child or family.
2. List the six situations you answer again and again: a vacancy now (with a visit offered), a waiting list, no vacancy, a short-notice cover request you can take, one you can't, and an enquiry that isn't a fit (age, hours or area).
3. Give the assistant only that document and the six situations. It writes one reply template per situation, under 120 words, warm and plain, using only your facts and placeholders such as [PARENT FIRST NAME] and [VISIT TIMES].
4. Keep the six templates in your own documents. Do not paste any real enquiry into the assistant. When one arrives, open the matching template in your own email and fill in the placeholders yourself.
5. Before each reply goes, check every fact against your real diary that day, and check the reply promises nothing you haven't decided (a place, a start date, a fee, a discount).
6. Once a month, update "Reply facts" for changes in vacancies, hours or fees, and add a seventh situation if the same kind of question keeps arriving.

The instructions to give your agent

I am a UK childminder. From the "Reply facts" document below, write one reply template for each of these six situations: vacancy now with a visit offered; waiting list; no vacancy; short-notice cover I can take; short-notice cover I can't take; enquiry that isn't a fit. Each reply is under 120 words, warm and plain, signed [MY FIRST NAME]. Use only facts in the document. Where a fact is missing write [YOU ADD IT].
Use only these placeholders: [PARENT FIRST NAME], [VISIT TIMES], [START DATE], [FEES: you add them]. Do not ask for or use any child's name, age or details, or any parent's contact details. Do not promise a place, a start date, a fee or a discount. Do not mention safeguarding, health, allergies, additional needs or behaviour. Do not mention Ofsted grades or registration numbers: write [REGISTRATION DETAILS: you add them] if I need them. Do not read any messages or send anything.