voicemail-to-booking-form

---
name: voicemail-to-booking-form
description: Turns a voicemail left on the booking line into a structured booking record, works out what must happen to the audio itself once the details are captured, and builds the written confirmation the law requires before the booking can be treated as agreed. It will not let a voicemail sit as the only record of a booking, and it will not let the raw audio sit on the system indefinitely once it has done its job. Use whenever a caller leaves a voicemail instead of reaching staff, and before you decide how long voicemails are kept.
---

# Turning a voicemail into a booking that is actually recorded

You give this the voicemails left on the booking line over a period, or a description of how they are currently handled. You get back one structured record per voicemail, the confirmation message each one needs, a retention rule for the audio itself, and a list of voicemails that were never actioned at all. It will not treat a voicemail as a booking until someone has listened to it, written it down, and sent the confirmation the booking requires.

## What it does

1. **Treat every voicemail as an unactioned enquiry until it is written down.** A voicemail sitting in a mailbox is not a booking and is not a record a venue can rely on later; it is audio that will be deleted, overwritten or forgotten. The first job is to convert it into a plain written entry: the caller's number, the date and time left, what was asked for, and what was promised back.

2. **Give the caller the same information a phone-answered booking requires, just one step later.** Where a voicemail results in a table being booked, it has created a distance contract in exactly the way an answered call would, so the information duty in regulation 13(1) of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 still applies: the trader "must give or make available to the consumer the information listed in Schedule 2" before the consumer is bound. A voicemail callback is the first opportunity to do that, not an exemption from doing it.

3. **Confirm the booking in writing, on the same deadline as any other phone booking.** Regulation 16(1) requires that "the trader must give the consumer confirmation of the contract on a durable medium," and regulation 16(4) sets the deadline as before performance begins. A voicemail is not a durable medium delivered by the trader, and a callback conversation is not one either; the confirmation step still has to happen separately, by email or text, exactly as it would for a call that was answered live.

4. **Decide how long you keep the raw audio, and keep less of it than you think.** A voicemail recording is personal data, and Article 5(1)(e) of the UK GDPR requires it be "kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed." Once the booking details are captured in the written record in step 1, the purpose the audio served is mostly done; a short, fixed deletion window (a matter of days, not months) for the audio itself, separate from the booking record, keeps the system in line with this.

5. **Count what never got a reply, because this is where a voicemail system actually loses bookings.** A voicemail that was listened to but never followed up is worse than one that was never left, because the caller believes they are waiting for a confirmation that is never coming. Every voicemail needs a recorded outcome: booked, called back and not booked, or not yet actioned, with a date against each.

6. **Do not let the voicemail greeting promise something the business cannot deliver.** If the greeting says "we will call you back today," that statement is being made to a caller in the same way information given on an answered call is, so the turnaround time stated in the greeting should match what actually happens, not what sounded reassuring to record.

## Then it checks

1. Every voicemail in the period has a written record: caller number, date, time, and what was asked for.
2. Every voicemail that resulted in a booking has a confirmation sent on a durable medium, containing the Schedule 2 items relevant to the booking, sent before the sitting begins.
3. A retention period for the raw audio is written down and is shorter than the retention period for the written booking record itself.
4. Every voicemail has a recorded outcome, and none are left with no outcome at all past the stated callback turnaround.
5. The voicemail greeting's stated turnaround time is checked against the actual average time to callback for the period.
6. No written record was created from a voicemail nobody actually listened to.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never treat a voicemail as a confirmed booking without a written confirmation also being sent; the voicemail and the callback conversation are not durable media satisfying regulation 16.
- Never keep the raw voicemail audio longer than the shortest period that still lets the business check what was said if a dispute arises; once the written record exists, the audio's job is mostly done.
- Never transcribe or summarise a voicemail into the written record inaccurately; where a word or number is unclear, it is logged as unclear, not guessed.
- Never leave a voicemail with no recorded outcome past the business's own stated callback turnaround.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own voicemail system and retention settings, and for their data protection adviser to check where retention periods or deletion are in doubt. It applies the Consumer Contracts Regulations and the UK GDPR storage limitation principle to a draft process; it is not legal advice and it is not confirmation that a given voicemail process complies.

## Built from
- Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, regulation 13, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/regulation/13/made, read 4 November 2026: the information duty behind step 2.
- The same Regulations, regulation 16, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/regulation/16/made, read 4 November 2026: the written confirmation duty and its deadline behind step 3.
- UK GDPR, Article 5(1)(e), https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2016/679/article/5, read 4 November 2026: the storage limitation principle behind step 4.

# voicemail-to-booking-form

## You are given
A list of voicemails left on the booking line over a stated period: date, time, caller number where shown, and either the audio transcribed already or a plain description of what was said. The business's stated callback turnaround as given in the voicemail greeting. Whatever confirmation message template is used for bookings. The retention period currently set, or intended, for voicemail audio and for written booking records separately. Any log of what happened to each voicemail already kept.

## Produce
Write into a `./voicemail-to-booking-form-output/` folder:

1. `voicemail-log.csv` with columns: `voicemail_ref`, `date_left`, `time_left`, `caller_number`, `request_summary_verbatim`, `unclear_detail_flag`. `voicemail_ref` is V0001 upward. `unclear_detail_flag` is `yes` where any part of the supplied transcription or description was marked unclear, `no` otherwise. Nothing is guessed to fill a gap; an unclear detail is recorded as unclear.
2. `outcome-log.csv` with columns: `voicemail_ref`, `outcome`, `outcome_date`, `days_since_left`, `within_stated_turnaround`. `outcome` is exactly one of `booked`, `called back, not booked`, `not yet actioned`. `within_stated_turnaround` is `yes` or `no`, comparing `days_since_left` against the greeting's stated turnaround; blank where `outcome` is `not yet actioned` and the turnaround has not yet elapsed.
3. `confirmation-check.csv` with columns: `voicemail_ref`, `confirmation_sent`, `confirmation_channel`, `durable_medium`, `sent_before_performance_begins`, `schedule2_items_present`. The first and the two `yes`/`no` columns record whether a confirmation exists, whether its channel leaves the consumer a saved copy, and whether it was timed before the booked sitting. `schedule2_items_present` lists which of main characteristics, trader identity, total price, payment arrangements and cancellation statement are present.
4. `retention-table.csv` with columns: `record_type`, `retention_period_stated`, `retention_period_days`. One row for `voicemail audio` and one for `written booking record`. Flagged in `gaps.md` if the audio retention is longer than, or equal to, the written record retention, or if either is blank.
5. `gaps.md` - a numbered list of: any voicemail with `outcome` of `not yet actioned` beyond the stated turnaround; any `booked` outcome with no confirmation sent, not on a durable medium, or missing a Schedule 2 item; any retention row that is blank or where audio outrank the written record; and any voicemail where `unclear_detail_flag` is `yes`.

## Rules
- Codex counts, matches and records. It never transcribes audio itself, never fills in an unclear detail with a guess, and never drafts the confirmation message's wording.
- Every `request_summary_verbatim` is copied from what was supplied, not paraphrased or improved.
- `days_since_left` is calculated, never estimated, from the supplied dates.
- Never connect to a voicemail system, an email account or an SMS platform, and never send anything.
- Use British English, GBP and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes in any file you write; flag rather than correct one in supplied text.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own voicemail system and retention settings, and for their data protection adviser to check where retention or deletion is in doubt. It applies supplied rules to a draft process and is not confirmation that a given voicemail process complies.

## Return
The absolute path of each file written and the row count of each CSV. The number of voicemails logged, and the count of each outcome in `outcome-log.csv`. The number outside their stated turnaround, listed by reference. The number of `booked` outcomes with a missing or non-compliant confirmation, listed by reference and which check failed. The retention table as written, with a flag if audio outlasts the written record. The number of voicemails with an unclear detail. The `gaps.md` item count.