Remote interpreting by video or phone: setting up sessions

Offer remote interpreting as its own services, by length, with a minimum booking such as 30 minutes or an hour, and let clients book them online. Say in each description which platform you use and how the link is sent, what the client must test before the call, and that times are shown in your time zone. Keep breaks between sessions: remote interpreting is tiring, and back-to-back calls leave no margin when one overruns.

Without travel, a short session is worth taking: a 30-minute video call between a company and a foreign supplier, a phone call with a landlord, a short online medical consultation. Half-day blocks, which make sense in person, would price those out. Remote work also brings clients who aren't in your city, or even your country, and who book from their own time zone.

On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page. Each slot belongs to one service, with its own start and end. Clients pick a service, then a free slot. With one place per slot, a booked slot is full and disappears from your page.

Lengths and prices are examples: set your own. The slot length is the minimum billed: say in the description what happens if the call runs over, for example billed by extra 15 minutes.

Book doesn't create video links. Decide how the call happens and write it in the description:

The public booking form asks for first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note that you read in your new-booking email. Ask in the note for the setting, the language pair, the number of participants and whether the call is video or phone.

Book's public page shows slot times in your business's time zone and displays its name, so a client in another country sees clearly that 15:00 is your time. Say it again in the description ("times are Paris time") and, if you often work with one region, add the matching local time for a typical slot. The client gets a confirmation email with a calendar file, which their calendar app places at the right local time.

If you want to serve clients far away, open some slots early in the morning or in the evening, depending on where they are. You can create those slots only on the days you choose and repeat them each week until a date.

Short sessions still need preparation: names, technical terms, the purpose of the call. Ask in the description for documents by email ahead of the session. Between two remote sessions, leave a gap rather than opening slots end to end: it gives you time to rest your voice, deal with a late start, and check the next link. If a longer meeting is expected, a 2-hour service with a planned break is more honest than two back-to-back hours.

Clients can't move bookings online: they contact you, and you reschedule or cancel from your bookings list. Book doesn't email them about changes, so confirm the new time yourself, stating the time zone. Book doesn't take payments; say in the description whether you ask for payment before the session, which is common practice with new clients abroad, or invoice after it. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.