Harrowden Foods / BG-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Harrowden Foods · 17 Feb 2026 12:00
Gemma Holt is pleased with early use by account managers. Customer service wants access, and Growth's 40 users cover it at no extra cost. The orders feed is the main gap, and connector ownership is unclear.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Gemma Holt is pleased with early use by account managers. Customer service wants access, and Growth's 40 users cover it at no extra cost. The orders feed is the main gap, and connector ownership is unclear.
What happened: Onboarding call with Hamza Akhtar covering connectors, owners and rollout. Gemma shared a quick win where an account manager got complaints against orders in five minutes.
Customer view: Her priority is one view of a retailer so she is not the middle person. She has been asked twice by the customer service lead when she gets access.
Commercial: Hamza confirmed Growth covers forty users with only a handful active, so adding customer service needs no new contract. Gemma buys nothing without her director, so this removes a barrier.
Watch: Orders live in a planning system at the sites and no one fully knows how the summary reaches finance. Connector ownership defaults to Gemma, and a silent system change could leave the brain stale.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Onboarding and service rollout
Importance
upsell
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 the orders feed note and a written plan with the order of sessions.
- Gemma Holt to send a named owner for each connector and find who looks after the planning system.
- Gemma Holt to give a core group of customer service names so Hamza can set up logins with IT.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Orders data sits in a site planning system with no known owner, so the orders feed may slip.
- Connector ownership defaults to Gemma, who would not know of a helpdesk change, so sources could go stale unnoticed.
- Account managers rolled out all at once have partly stopped using it, so a wide rollout to service could repeat that.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Customer service team can be added within the Growth 40-user licence with no new contract.
- Dashboards builder is included in Growth and unused; a retailer scorecard would show value at the next review.
- Matching orders to complaints once the feed is in would strengthen the case for the brain.
Transcript
Hamza AkhtarHello Gemma, can you hear me all right?
Gemma HoltLoud and clear. Hi Hamza. Sorry, I've got a sandwich in one hand, it's been one of those mornings that rolled straight into lunch.- Hamza AkhtarHa, no, eat. Honestly, I'm doing the same. Good to speak properly. We've swapped a few emails but I don't think we've had a proper sit-down since the kickoff note.
- Gemma HoltNo, that's right. Can I start with a quick win, actually? Because it's a nice one.
- Hamza AkhtarPlease, go on.
- Gemma HoltSo one of the account managers had a retailer review coming up, and normally she'd spend most of a day pulling orders from one place and the complaints from another and trying to line them up. This time she just asked the brain. Asked it what service-level complaints had come in on one supermarket account and how they sat against orders. Five minutes. She came and found me afterwards, she was properly chuffed.
- Hamza AkhtarThat's exactly the thing it's for. And that was on the data we've already got connected?
- Gemma HoltYeah, the bits that are live. It's patchy, there are gaps, which is partly why I wanted today. But the account managers love it already. Even with what's in there.
- Hamza AkhtarGood. Right, so let me say what I'd like to get out of the next forty-odd minutes, and you tell me if it's wrong. One, I want to go through the connectors and confirm which ones are live and which ones are still waiting on us or on you. Two, who owns what on your side, because that's usually where it slows down. Three, how we get more of the business onto it. Does that sound about right?
- Gemma HoltThat's perfect. Can we get customer service on is my number-one question, so make sure that's in the third bit.
- Hamza AkhtarNoted, it's in. Let me share my screen. Can you see the connector list?
- Gemma HoltYep. Bit small. Oh, that's better.
- Hamza AkhtarSo this is your workspace in your own Snowflake account. Everything we build sits inside that, which is why your IT people were so relaxed when we did the access review. Top of the list, green, you've got the CRM connected and loading nightly. Then the helpdesk. Those two are the ones the account managers are using most.
- Gemma HoltRight, that matches. The CRM is what they live in. And the helpdesk, that's what customer service use all day, so that's why I keep banging on about them.
- Hamza AkhtarExactly. Now, below that, amber, the accounting system. It's connected but we're only pulling invoices, not the order detail you mentioned on the first call. Is that the bit you actually want?
- Gemma HoltOrders, yes. Not the ledger side so much. What I care about is what a retailer has ordered, what's been late, what's been short. The finance stuff I'm happy to leave to our finance team, I just don't want to be the person who breaks something.
- Hamza AkhtarFair. And that's the thing, orders probably don't live in the accounting system at all for you, do they?
- Gemma HoltNo. No, they don't. They come through from the retailers' portals into our planning system at the sites, and then a summary goes across. I'd have to check how the summary gets to finance. Honestly, I'm not sure anyone fully knows.
- Hamza AkhtarRight. That's useful to say out loud, because it means I shouldn't be trying to squeeze orders out of accounting. What I'd suggest is we find out who looks after that planning system, and I'll ask what export or feed it can give us. We don't need anything clever, a nightly file into your Snowflake would do.
- Gemma HoltThat'd be someone at one of the sites. Probably the supply chain side. I'll find out who. Can you send me two lines I can forward, so I don't have to explain it badly?
- Hamza AkhtarOf course. I'll write it so it's readable by someone who's never heard of us. What it is, what we need, that it's read-only. That last bit usually matters.
- Gemma HoltYeah, read-only, say it twice.
- Hamza AkhtarTwice, noted. Okay, next one down. Shared documents. You've got the Microsoft 365 connector set up, but it's only pointing at one library. Is that deliberate?
- Gemma HoltIs it the retailer folder one? I think I asked for that one because that's where the account managers keep the scorecards and the review packs. There are a lot of other folders. Some are a mess.
- Hamza AkhtarIt is that one. And I'd leave it there to start with. The more messy folders you add, the more rubbish the brain has to wade through. Start small, see how the answers look, then widen it.
- Gemma HoltGood. Honestly I'd rather it was right than big.
- Hamza AkhtarSame. Now, calls. Do your account managers record their calls with retailers?
- Gemma HoltSome do. Not all. Mostly on video calls, the buyers sometimes don't want to be recorded. It's a bit hit and miss, to be honest. I wouldn't prioritise that.
- Hamza AkhtarOkay, then we park it. I'll mark it as not yet. That's fine, that's a decision, not a gap.
- Gemma HoltLove that. A decision, not a gap. I might steal that.
- Hamza AkhtarGo for it. So, we've got three live, one half-done, one parked, one to find. Let me ask the thing I always ask. If the brain only did one thing for you by the end of the month, what would you want it to be?
- Gemma HoltOne view of a retailer. Orders, complaints, anything they've said in the review. So when a buyer rings or emails, whoever picks it up knows the story. Right now it's me in the middle, going, wait, let me check. I don't want to be the middle.
- Hamza AkhtarRight, and that's where customer service comes in, because they're the ones taking the complaints.
- Gemma HoltExactly. They log a complaint in the helpdesk, and by the time it reaches me or an account manager it's three days old and half the detail's gone. If they could ask the brain on their side, and see the account manager's notes, and the orders, it changes how they handle it.
- Hamza AkhtarOkay. So let's talk about that properly. Who's the lead in customer service?
- Gemma HoltThat's the customer service lead, she runs the team. She's keen. She's actually asked me twice when she gets access. I keep saying soon, which is not a great answer.
- Hamza AkhtarWell, here's the good news, and I'll say it carefully. You're on Growth, and the licence is for forty users. At the moment, from what I can see, you've got just a handful of people actually active. So there's lots of room. Adding customer service doesn't need a new contract, it's inside what you've already got.
- Gemma HoltOh. Oh, that's better than I thought. I'd assumed it'd be, what would it cost to add, and then a conversation with finance.
- Hamza AkhtarFor the users, no. If you ever went past forty, or needed more connectors than the tier gives you, that would be a conversation, and that would be with Lewis Kerr, he's your account owner. But we're nowhere near that.
- Gemma HoltOkay. And I don't buy anything without my director anyway, so it's good to know there's nothing to buy. Saves me an awkward email.
- Hamza AkhtarHa, fair enough. So the real work with customer service isn't commercial, it's access and a bit of training. Who sets up the logins on your side?
- Gemma HoltIT. Well, one person in IT. He's good but he's also one man. If I send him a list of names it'll happen, but he'll want to know whether it's single sign-on or what.
- Hamza AkhtarOn Growth it's the standard login, not single sign-on, that's an Enterprise thing. So it's invitations by email, they set a password, done. It's about two minutes each.
- Gemma HoltTwo minutes each I can sell. Right. I'll get the list from the customer service lead and send it across. How many should I put? All of them?
- Hamza AkhtarI'd start with a core group. The lead and a few of the people who handle the retailer complaints day to day. Get them using it, get them asking proper questions, then open it up. If you put everyone on at once, half of them will log in once and forget.
- Gemma HoltThat's what happened with the account managers, if I'm honest. I rolled it out to them in one go, and a couple of them haven't touched it since. The keen ones are brilliant. The others, I think they forgot.
- Hamza AkhtarYeah, and that's normal. That's where the active numbers you're seeing come from. A small group using it a lot, and some who haven't started. We can fix that with a short session. Maybe twenty minutes, in their own team meeting, using their own retailer. Not a lecture.
- Gemma HoltCould you do that? Would you be on the call, or is it me?
- Hamza AkhtarI can do the first one with you. Honestly it works better if it's someone from your side asking the questions and I'm just there when it goes wrong. Then you carry on.
- Gemma HoltYes. Lovely. Do that.
- Hamza AkhtarRight, let me go back to the list, because there's one more thing, and it's the dull one. Who owns each connector on your side? When something changes, a system gets upgraded, a login expires, who tells us?
- Gemma HoltOoh. Honestly, probably me, by default. Which is fine, but I'm not the one who'd know. If the helpdesk gets changed, customer service would know before I did.
- Hamza AkhtarThat's the answer I was fishing for, because it's the commonest way these things break. Somebody changes a system, nobody tells us, and the records stop loading. Nothing shouts, the brain just goes quiet and gets stale. So, what I'd like is a named person for each source, even if it's just a name on a list.
- Gemma HoltOkay. So CRM, that's the sales operations person. Helpdesk, the customer service lead. Documents, that's IT. Orders, whoever it turns out to be at the site. And me as the overall one.
- Hamza AkhtarThat's brilliant. Can you put those in an email to me, with names? I'll file it against the workspace and Amara can see it too. Amara Obi, she's your customer success manager, she'll pick up after I've gone.
- Gemma HoltI've met Amara, she's lovely. Okay, I'll do the list this afternoon. Well, tomorrow. Realistically tomorrow.
- Hamza AkhtarTomorrow's fine. Now, can I show you the freshness side? Because you said gaps, and I want to be sure we're talking about the same gaps.
- Gemma HoltGo on.
- Hamza AkhtarSo this view shows, for each connector, how much has been loaded and when it last refreshed. The refresh should finish by seven in the morning on business days. You can see the CRM and the helpdesk are both fine, they've been in by seven every day this week. The documents one only changes when someone saves a new file, so that looks flat, which is expected.
- Gemma HoltOkay, so flat isn't always bad.
- Hamza AkhtarNot for documents. For the CRM or the helpdesk, flat for a few weeks would worry me, because that's lots of activity that should be growing. So that's one to watch, and it's the sort of thing Amara will keep an eye on.
- Gemma HoltGood. I like that someone's watching it. I'm not going to remember to look.
- Hamza AkhtarYou shouldn't have to. Right. I'd like to try something live, if you're up for it. Give me a retailer account, and a question you'd actually ask.
- Gemma HoltOkay. Let me think. Use the big one, the one with the chilled meals. Ask, what complaints have we had in the last month and what were they about?
- Hamza AkhtarTyping that in now. It's thinking. Okay, so it's come back with a summary, and it's pulling from the helpdesk tickets. It says there's a theme around late deliveries to one depot, and a couple of notes about packaging. Does that sound right?
- Gemma HoltYes. Yes! The depot thing, that's real. That's exactly what came up in the review last time. Can you ask it what orders were affected?
- Hamza AkhtarI can ask, but this is where the orders gap bites. It'll tell you it only has what's in the CRM and tickets. Let's see. Yeah, there it is. It's saying it can see the complaints but has no order detail to match them to.
- Gemma HoltThat's honest at least. It's not making it up.
- Hamza AkhtarThat's deliberate. It would sooner say it doesn't know. And that's the best argument for getting the orders feed in. Once that's in, the same question gets you the matching orders.
- Gemma HoltRight, that's my motivation sorted. I'll chase the site tomorrow when I do the list.
- Hamza AkhtarBrilliant. One last thing on the build side, and it's small. Dashboards. Growth includes the dashboards builder. Have any of your people tried it?
- Gemma HoltI haven't. I didn't know that was a thing, to be honest. Would it be, like, a retailer scorecard thing?
- Hamza AkhtarIt could be exactly that. Complaints by retailer, trend by month, whatever you'd normally build in a spreadsheet. We'd do the first one together. It's the sort of thing that's easier to see than describe.
- Gemma HoltYes please. If I could take a scorecard into the next review that came straight off the brain, I'd be very happy.
- Hamza AkhtarThen let's put that in the plan as the second session, after the customer service one. So, to recap what we've agreed, and tell me if I've got anything wrong. You'll send me the owner list tomorrow. You'll find out who looks after the planning system and forward my note. You'll get me a core group of names from customer service, and I'll set up their logins with IT. Then we do a short session with that team, and a dashboard session after. And I'll send you the note about the orders feed, plus a written plan with the order of all that.
- Gemma HoltThat's it. That's all of it. Sorry, one more. Are we on track? Like, in terms of the onboarding? I don't want to find out at the end that we've done it wrong.
- Hamza AkhtarYou're on track. A bit slower on the orders side than I'd like, but that's because we only just found out where they really live. Nothing's broken. Nothing's overdue. You've had no tickets with us, which at this stage I'd read as everything being quiet rather than anything being wrong.
- Gemma HoltGood. I don't like surprises. If something's wrong I'd want you to tell me straight.
- Hamza AkhtarI will. Same the other way, if the orders feed is going to be a nightmare on your side, say so early and we'll find another route.
- Gemma HoltDeal. Right, I should get on, I've got a meeting at one that I haven't prepared for. Thanks, Hamza, this was really useful.
- Hamza AkhtarThanks, Gemma. Speak soon. I'll get the plan over this afternoon.
- Gemma HoltCheers. Bye for now.
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