Harrowden Foods / BG-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Harrowden Foods · 10 Feb 2026 13:15
Gemma Holt is sold on the brain after a retailer review win. Order amendments are missing, customer service is next on, and her boss will want a value case before the 5 Jan 2027 renewal.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Gemma Holt is sold on the brain after a retailer review win. Order amendments are missing, customer service is next on, and her boss will want a value case before the 5 Jan 2027 renewal.
What happened: On 10 Feb 2026 Hamza Akhtar planned connectors with Gemma Holt, five weeks into the Growth contract. CRM and helpdesk are live, and orders load without amendments.
Customer view: Gemma described a retailer review answered in minutes rather than two days of work. She says she is sold and wants more of the business on it.
Commercial: About four people use the brain against forty seats, so customer service fits within the licence. An accounting connector fits inside the eight connectors, but her boss must approve who sees it.
Watch: Her boss is a numbers person and the renewal date is 5 Jan 2027. Gemma is the only admin until her IT colleague agrees to be the second.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Orders gap, wider rollout
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Hamza Akhtar to send a short note for the IT colleague covering the read-only order connection and a second admin.
- Gemma Holt to name the planner who can explain the order amendments for a twenty minute session.
- Hamza Akhtar and Amara Obi to agree a value case with Gemma ahead of the 5 Jan 2027 renewal.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Order amendments are not loading, so dates in retailer review answers can look wrong.
- Gemma is the only admin and the IT colleague who must help is busy.
- Her boss will judge the renewal on numbers and no value case is written yet.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Customer service of eight or nine people can join within the forty included users.
- An accounting connector fits within the eight Growth connectors if her boss approves access.
Transcript
Hamza AkhtarHello, Gemma. Can you hear me all right?
Gemma HoltHi Hamza, yes, loud and clear. Can you hear me? I've just swapped headsets because the last one kept cutting out.- Hamza AkhtarPerfect, you're coming through fine. Good afternoon, by the way. Did you get any lunch or are you eating through this?
- Gemma HoltHa, I've got a sandwich to hand but I'll try not to crunch at you. It's so cold here today. Leicester's gone properly grey, the car park was like an ice rink this morning.
- Hamza AkhtarSame in London, just wetter. Nobody's happy with February. Right, well, thanks for making the time. I've got about forty minutes with you, so I thought we'd go through where you are, get the connectors properly planned and agree who owns what.
- Gemma HoltLovely. Can I give you a quick win first? Because it's relevant.
- Hamza AkhtarPlease do. I always like those.
- Gemma HoltSo last week one of the account managers had a retailer review coming up. One of the big supermarkets, the sort of meeting where they read out a list of complaints at you and you're meant to have a view. Normally that's two days of me and a spreadsheet. Instead she just asked the brain what service-level complaints we'd had on that retailer's account, and what the orders looked like around the same dates.
- Hamza AkhtarOkay, and what came back?
- Gemma HoltA proper answer. A cluster of late-delivery complaints that lined up with a couple of order changes at short notice. We walked in knowing that before they said it. She said, and I quote, the account managers love it. I think she'd have hugged it if she could.
- Hamza AkhtarThat's exactly the use we had in mind when we scoped this. Retailer accounts, complaints and orders in one place. Good, that makes my life easier, because I'm not selling you the idea any more.
- Gemma HoltNo, I'm sold. I just want more of the business on it. Which is probably where you're going with the connectors.
- Hamza AkhtarIt is, yes. Let me share my screen and show you the plan. Give me a second. Right, can you see that?
- Gemma HoltI can see a table with a lot of grey boxes.
- Hamza AkhtarGrey boxes are the ones not connected yet. That's the point of today, to turn them into something less grey. So you're on Growth, which gives you eight connectors and forty users. The contract started on 5 Jan 2026 and runs to 4 Jan 2027, so we're about five weeks in.
- Gemma HoltFeels like longer. In a good way.
- Hamza AkhtarGood. Now, what you've got live at the moment is the first set we did together in the opening weeks. Retailer accounts from your CRM, and the helpdesk where complaints are logged. Is that still what you'd say you're using?
- Gemma HoltYeah. CRM and the helpdesk. And the orders, but that's the bit that's a bit clunky, isn't it? I thought that was only a partial load.
- Hamza AkhtarRight, so that's the one I want to spend time on. Orders is the source that's giving us trouble, and I want to be straight about why. The order system holds data from both sites, and the way the two sites record changes isn't consistent. So the brain's getting orders, but not always the amendments.
- Gemma HoltWhich would explain why the account manager's answer was good but she said a couple of dates looked a bit off.
- Hamza AkhtarIt would, yes. Likely the amendments weren't there so the original order date shows. It's not wrong, exactly, it's just not the whole story.
- Gemma HoltOkay. Can we fix that? Because that's the one the retailer reviews depend on.
- Hamza AkhtarYes, we can. I need two things from your side. One, someone who understands how the amendments are recorded at each site. Two, someone with the access to give us a read-only connection to the order data. Is that you or is that IT?
- Gemma HoltNot me, I can see the reports but I can't touch the database. That'd be a colleague in IT. He's good, but he's busy. If I ask nicely, can he do it next week?
- Hamza AkhtarNext week would be fine. I'll write it up so it's a ten minute job for him rather than a project. What he needs to know is which tables, what permissions, and that it's read-only. I'll send you a short note you can forward as it is.
- Gemma HoltPerfect. That's the way to get things done here. Short and with the answer already in it.
- Hamza AkhtarNoted. Plain and short. And on the amendments question, someone from the planning team, maybe, who could explain how the sites differ? Twenty minutes with me would do it.
- Gemma HoltMm. There's a planner at each site who'd know. I'll find out which one's better at explaining things. Honestly, one of them is lovely but goes off on tangents.
- Hamza AkhtarI'm good with tangents. Pick whoever you think knows it best and we'll cope.
- Gemma HoltHa, deal.
- Hamza AkhtarSorry, that was me looking at the refresh settings. Let me say one thing about timing while I'm here. The brain refreshes overnight and should be done by 07:00 on business days, so anything that changes in the order system during the day shows up the next morning, not instantly. I say that because people sometimes expect live.
- Gemma HoltThat's fine. Nobody's trying to answer a delivery query in the same minute. They want yesterday's picture before the meeting.
- Hamza AkhtarGood, then we're aligned. Okay, so that's orders. What else is on your wish list? You said more of the business. Who are you thinking of?
- Gemma HoltCustomer service. Can we get customer service on? That's the big one. They deal with the same retailers day in, day out, they log half the complaints, and right now they've got no way to see what the account managers see. They ring us, we ring them, it's a bit silly.
- Hamza AkhtarMakes complete sense, and it's what the contract was bought for, really. The profile for this account is commercial insights and customer service looking at the same thing. So how many people are we talking about in customer service?
- Gemma HoltHandful. Maybe eight or nine on the team, I'd have to check. Plus the lead.
- Hamza AkhtarThen there's no licence issue at all. You've got forty users and at the moment I think you have around four of you on in a typical day. So there's a lot of headroom.
- Gemma HoltIt's just the account managers and me at the moment, really. We started with them because the retailer reviews are what hurt.
- Hamza AkhtarSensible. So the question is not whether, it's how. I'd suggest we don't just flip a switch for the whole team. We train the lead and a couple of the more confident people first, and let them show the others.
- Gemma HoltThat works. The lead is keen. She's been hearing about it from the account managers for weeks and she keeps asking why she can't just look.
- Hamza AkhtarThen she'll be a good first user. What does she mostly want to know? If I'm planning a training session, I want to use their questions, not mine.
- Gemma HoltMostly, has this retailer complained before about this. Is this a repeat. What did we say last time. How did it get resolved. So it's history, really. She wants the history without ringing round.
- Hamza AkhtarThat's all in the helpdesk data, which is already connected. So she'd get value on day one. Right, I'll put that in as the first training session. Say an hour, her and two others, on their own tickets, not a demo account.
- Gemma HoltYes. Real ones. People switch off if it's fake data.
- Hamza AkhtarCompletely agree. Okay. What would you like to do about admins? At the moment I've got you down as the only admin.
- Gemma HoltIs that bad?
- Hamza AkhtarNot bad, just fragile. If you're on holiday or you move on to something else, nobody can add a user or fix a permission. I'd always say two admins. Ideally one commercial and one from IT, so one person knows what the data means and the other knows how the systems work.
- Gemma HoltRight. Okay. Then it'd be my IT colleague, the same one who'll do the order connection. I'll ask him. He'll grumble but he'll say yes.
- Hamza AkhtarGrumbling is fine. I'll make the admin part of the same note so he knows what he's agreeing to.
- Hamza AkhtarSorry, I was updating the plan while we talked. So that's two admins, order connection, customer service first group. Is there anything else on your side that's not on my table? Anything you've been wondering about adding?
- Gemma HoltWell, there's finance. We've got the accounting system and the odd time someone asks whether a retailer's paying on time before we agree something. But that's not a priority. I just wondered what it would cost to add it. Or whether it's included.
- Hamza AkhtarGood question. Under Growth you have eight connectors, and you're using, I'll count, two fully and one partly. So an accounting connector fits inside what you've already got. No extra cost for the connector itself.
- Gemma HoltOh, that's good news. I thought there'd be a catch.
- Hamza AkhtarNo catch for the connector. The only thing to be careful about is who sees it. Finance data's more sensitive than complaints, so you'd want to decide who gets access, and that's a decision for you and your boss, not me.
- Gemma HoltYes, I'd have to take that to my boss anyway. I don't buy or switch anything on without running it past him. But it's good to know it's not a new bill.
- Hamza AkhtarUnderstood. And just so you've got the shape of it, if you ever did go past forty users or eight connectors, there are add-ons for additional users and connectors, and that would be a conversation with Lewis Kerr, who looks after the commercial side. But you're nowhere near that.
- Gemma HoltNo, not at all. Right now it's the opposite. It's four of us on forty seats. I'd feel a bit silly asking for more.
- Hamza AkhtarYou shouldn't feel silly. The seats are there to be filled. Honestly, the aim for the next couple of months is to make that number look very different.
- Gemma HoltThat's the plan. Can I ask something slightly awkward?
- Hamza AkhtarGo for it.
- Gemma HoltWhen it's time to renew, how do I show it was worth it? Because my boss will ask. He's not against it, he's just a numbers person, and fifty thousand a year is fifty thousand a year. I'd like to have something better than the account managers love it.
- Hamza AkhtarThat's not awkward, that's smart, and it's better to think about it now than in December. The renewal date is 5 Jan 2027, so there's time. What I'd suggest is we agree now what you'd count as value. Questions asked, who's asking them, and one or two real examples like the retailer review.
- Gemma HoltSo I write down what the retailer review used to cost us in time and what it cost this time.
- Hamza AkhtarExactly that. Even roughly. Days of your time, days of the account manager's. Keep a note each time something like it happens, and I'll make sure the usage figures are ready when you need them. Amara Obi, your customer success manager, will run reviews with you and she'll help put it into a page for your boss.
- Gemma HoltBrilliant. That takes the pressure off. I was worried I'd have to build the whole case myself.
- Hamza AkhtarNo, and you shouldn't. Okay, I think that's the shape. Let me read back what I've got and you tell me if I've got it wrong.
- Gemma HoltGo on.
- Hamza AkhtarOne. I send you a short note for your IT colleague covering the read-only order connection and the second admin. Two. You find out which planner can explain the amendments, and I spend twenty minutes with them. Three. We run a first training session for the customer service lead and two others, using their real tickets. Four. The accounting connector is parked for now, you'll talk to your boss, and it won't cost extra. Five. We agree a simple value case ahead of the renewal. Did I miss anything?
- Gemma HoltNo, that's it. Oh, one thing. Can the lead's team see everything or can we limit it? I don't want the whole of customer service seeing commercial notes the account managers write.
- Hamza AkhtarGood catch. You can control what each group sees. We should set that up before they go on, not after. So I'll add a step, which is you and I agree on a list of what customer service should and shouldn't see. Fifteen minutes.
- Gemma HoltYes please. Before, not after. That's exactly the sort of thing that comes back and bites you.
- Hamza AkhtarAgreed. I'll put it ahead of the training so it's in the right order.
- Gemma HoltSorry, I just had someone at my desk. Where were we? Oh yes, the list. I can draft it myself if you send me a template. I'll just go through what the account managers write and mark what's commercial.
- Hamza AkhtarThat'd be ideal, you know the content better than I do. I'll send a simple one, categories down the side, who sees what across the top. Nothing clever.
- Gemma HoltNothing clever is my favourite kind.
- Hamza AkhtarMine too. Right. Anything on the other side of things? Any tickets with us, any problems I should know about? I've got no open tickets showing for you, which is either very good or very quiet.
- Gemma HoltHonestly, nothing. It's been quiet because it's been working. If something's wrong I'll say, I don't sit on things. I'd rather tell you on a Monday than have it fester.
- Hamza AkhtarI appreciate that. The one thing I'd flag is the order amendments, because it's not a fault, but it's a gap, and I'd rather you heard that from me.
- Gemma HoltNo, that's fair, and I'd already half guessed. Better to know why than think the brain's just wrong.
- Hamza AkhtarExactly. It's not wrong, it's incomplete, and we know how to fix it. Which is a much better position to be in.
- Gemma HoltRight. So how quickly can we get this moving? Realistically.
- Hamza AkhtarIf the note goes to your IT colleague today and he does it next week, I can have the order data reloaded with amendments within a few days of that. Then the planner session, then the access list, then training. So I'd say a few weeks, not months.
- Gemma HoltOkay. A few weeks I can sell to the lead. She's been waiting a while already.
- Hamza AkhtarI'll keep it as tight as I can. And if the IT part slips, tell me early and I'll rearrange rather than have us all waiting.
- Gemma HoltWill do. Thanks Hamza, that was actually useful. Some of these calls you come off and think, what did we decide.
- Hamza AkhtarThat's the best compliment I'll get this week. I'll send the notes and the two documents this afternoon, while it's fresh. If I've misunderstood anything, just reply and tell me.
- Gemma HoltPerfect. Speak soon then. Cheers, Hamza.
- Hamza AkhtarCheers, Gemma. Enjoy the sandwich. Bye for now.
- Gemma HoltHa, I will. Bye.
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