Recruiting

Booking Respondents

Booking is the core action in Olivia. It is the process of assigning a respondent to a time slot for a specific product. The booking flow is designed for speed and reliability — multiple recruiters can book simultaneously without conflicts.

How Booking Works

Booking follows a simple three-step flow:

Select a product — Choose which product the respondent will evaluate.
Select a slot — Pick an available time slot for the chosen product.
Enter the respondent's name — Provide the respondent's full name to finalize the booking.

After completing these steps, the respondent is booked and you are taken to the respondent's detail page where you can add additional information (contact details, answers to questions, etc.).

Step 1: Select a Product

Go to "New Booking" in the menu. You will see all products that still have available slots. Each product card shows the number of available slots per mode (e.g., "Focus Group (3)", "Quant (12)").

If a project message has been set, it will appear at the top of the booking page. Make sure to read it before proceeding — it may contain important last-minute changes from your project administrator.

Click on the product you want to book a respondent for.

Step 2: Select a Slot

After selecting a product, you will see all available time slots for that product. Each slot card shows the date, time, mode, and optional slot name. Slots with a name (e.g., "Focus Group 1") are visually highlighted.

Only slots that match the selected product are shown. If a slot is restricted to specific products, it will only appear when you select one of those products. See Slots for more details on product restrictions.

Click on the slot you want to book.

Step 3: Enter the Respondent's Name

After selecting a slot, the slot is temporarily held for you. You have 2 minutes to enter the respondent's full name and complete the booking.

Enter the respondent's name and click "Book". The booking is now complete.

You will be redirected to the respondent's detail page where you can add more information such as contact details, gender, date of birth, and answers to your project questions.

Concurrent Booking and Slot Locking

When multiple recruiters are booking at the same time, Olivia uses database-level locking to prevent double bookings:

When you select a slot, it is set to Pending status and temporarily reserved for you.
If the 2-minute window expires without completing the booking, the slot is automatically released back to the available pool.
If another recruiter has already taken the slot you selected, you will see an error message and be redirected back to step 1.
Quota availability is also locked during selection to ensure accurate counts.

This means you can have many recruiters booking simultaneously without worrying about conflicts or overbooking.

After Booking

Once a booking is complete:

The slot status changes from "Open" to "Booked".
The product quota is updated automatically.
The booking appears on the Dashboard and in Statistics.
You can edit the respondent's details, add answers to questions, and download the PDF invitation from the slot detail page.

For more on managing respondents after booking, see Respondent Management.

Slots — creating and managing the time slots that are booked
Respondents — managing respondent details after booking
Dashboard — viewing all bookings from the central hub
Questions — questions answered when editing respondent details
PDF Invitations — download invitations for booked respondents
Project Messages — messages displayed before booking