Carnmoor Fleet Leasing / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Carnmoor Fleet Leasing · 21 Sep 2026 10:45
Gemma Thorne admits Growth usage has drifted back to spreadsheets and that she is the key person. Price is not her worry; showing the brain earns its place before the December renewal is.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Gemma Thorne admits Growth usage has drifted back to spreadsheets and that she is the key person. Price is not her worry; showing the brain earns its place before the December renewal is.
What happened: Amara Obi opened with the usage numbers: fewer than six active people a day, about four in ten fewer than the previous quarter. Gemma confirmed habit, not distrust, and that no tickets in the last month meant quiet rather than happy.
Customer view: Gemma named herself as the key person and said remarketing never got going. She said it is not the price she is worried about, but whether she can show it is earning its place.
Commercial: The contract runs to 1 Dec 2026 with renewal on 2 Dec 2026 at £42k a year on Growth. Gemma needs a page, a couple of numbers and a client story for her director, who decides.
Watch: One possible invoice lag a few weeks ago is unconfirmed until a ticket gives a timestamp. Seats were discussed but Amara wants use fixed before trimming.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Usage decline before renewal
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Gemma to find who flagged the invoice lag and get a ticket raised.
- Amara Obi to book afternoon slots this week and build the review pack with Gemma.
- Amara to deliver a one-page value summary for Gemma's director before the end of next month.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Usage is concentrated in Gemma and a handful of regulars, so one departure would cut activity sharply.
- Her director decides the renewal and needs evidence of value that does not yet exist.
- Silence in tickets alongside falling use may signal drift before the 2 Dec 2026 renewal.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Build a shared review pack on a real corporate client to give a first client story.
- Run a remarketing session and a service desk view to widen use of the 40 Growth licences.
Transcript
Amara ObiMorning Gemma, can you hear me alright?
Gemma ThorneMorning, yes, loud and clear. Give me one second, I've still got someone else's slides up on the screen.- Amara ObiNo rush. I've got three tabs open and none of them is the right one, so we're even.
- Gemma ThorneRight, that's me. Sorry. How's your week been so far?
- Amara ObiBusy but good, thanks. Rainy Monday, so everyone's late to everything. You?
- Gemma ThorneSame. I'm in the middle of preparing a review for one of our bigger corporate clients, so I'm living in spreadsheets. Which, honestly, I'll come back to, because it's sort of why I wanted this call to go ahead.
- Amara ObiOkay, good, then let's start there. For anyone who's forgotten, I'm Amara, I'm the customer success manager for Carnmoor on our side. First question, and it's always the same one: what does good look like for you this quarter?
- Gemma ThorneGood is that when an account manager sits down with a client, they start from the same numbers the service desk has. Which client, which fleet, what did the client actually see. That's what we bought it for.
- Amara ObiRight. And that's the Growth set-up, so account managers, the service desk and remarketing all looking at the one picture. Yes?
- Gemma ThorneYes. That was the idea, anyway.
- Amara ObiMm. Anyway. Okay, I'm going to be straight with you, because I'd rather you heard it from me than found it on a chart. Here's what the numbers say. Over the last month, fewer than six people a day were active on average. And that's well down on the previous quarter, something like four in ten fewer.
- Gemma ThorneYeah. I thought it might be that. I haven't looked, but I've had a feeling.
- Amara ObiWhat's the feeling?
- Gemma ThorneThat people have drifted back. I walked past two account managers last week and one of them had a fleet spreadsheet open that I'm fairly sure the brain would have produced in about a minute. And I didn't say anything, which, well. I'm not proud of that.
- Amara ObiThat's useful, honestly. Can I ask, do you think it's a trust thing or a habit thing? Because those need different fixes.
- Gemma ThorneHabit, mostly. I think. They've got their own way of building a review pack, they've done it for years, and when the deadline's tight they go with what they know. The brain was a nice-to-have in the good weeks and then the weeks weren't good.
- Amara ObiOkay. And there's nothing in the tickets, which is the other thing I wanted to say. No tickets at all in the last month. Nothing high priority, nothing routine. Which in a month where usage is down, I read as quiet rather than happy.
- Gemma ThorneQuiet. Yeah. That's fair. If something's annoying people they don't raise it, they just stop. I'd have done the same on the service desk, we'd get a client who went silent and that was always the one to worry about.
- Amara ObiExactly that. So, can I check a few things with you so I'm not guessing? Is anything broken that you know of? A connector not loading, numbers that look stale, anything people have grumbled about in the corridor?
- Gemma ThorneNot that anyone's told me. There was a moment a few weeks ago where someone said a client's invoices looked a day behind, but I think that was them looking at the wrong morning's refresh. I didn't chase it.
- Amara ObiOkay. I'd like to chase it, if that's alright. The refresh should be complete by seven every business day. If someone saw a lag, I'd rather know whether it was real. Can you find out who said it?
- Gemma ThorneI can. It was one of the account managers on the contract-hire side, I'll find out which. Do you want me to ask them to raise a ticket?
- Amara ObiIf they can, yes, then there's a timestamp and I can tell you straight whether it was a miss. If not, send me the name and I'll go to them directly. Whichever's easier for them.
- Gemma ThorneFine. I'll do the ticket route, they're more likely to do it if it comes from me than if a stranger emails them.
- Amara ObiFair point. Now, can I ask the awkward one? Who's actually using it? Because from my side it looks like a small group is carrying most of the questions, and I'd rather not say who until I've heard how it looks to you.
- Gemma ThorneWell, me, obviously. And two, maybe three of the account managers who were in the original training. And someone on the service desk, a team leader, who uses it to check what a client's been told. Beyond that I'd be guessing.
- Amara ObiThat matches. So, you've got forty licensed users and a handful of regulars. I'm not saying that to make you feel bad. It's headroom in one sense, but it's also a risk, because if one of those people goes on leave or moves on, the numbers fall off a cliff.
- Gemma ThorneYes. No, I know. You're right. I'm the key person, aren't I.
- Amara ObiYou're a big part of it, yes. Who else should have access that doesn't? Or the other way round, who has it and never opens it?
- Gemma ThorneBoth, probably. Remarketing were meant to be in on this and I'm not sure they ever really got going. That was always the third leg, the account managers, the service desk and remarketing, and I think remarketing just looked at it once and decided it was for someone else.
- Amara ObiRight. And is that a workflow problem, that the brain doesn't answer what they need, or just that nobody sat down with them?
- Gemma ThorneNobody sat down with them. I should have. It's what the onboarding was meant to cover, but then it was a busy autumn last year and I think we just ran out of road.
- Amara ObiOkay. I'm not going to pretend I know everything that happened back then, I wasn't in the room for the early weeks. But I can see from the record that the remarketing group never really picked up. So that's a gap we can close.
- Gemma ThorneI'd welcome that. But let me be careful, I don't want to promise them something I haven't seen. If you're going to run a session, I want to know what it actually shows before I put it in front of them.
- Amara ObiCompletely fair. I'd do it the other way round, in fact. I'd show you first, on your own data, with a couple of real questions a remarketing person would ask. If you like it, we run it for them. If you don't, we change it.
- Gemma ThorneThat works. What sort of questions?
- Amara ObiYou tell me, that's the point. What do they need to know before a vehicle comes back? Maintenance history, the client's mileage pattern, anything that was invoiced on that fleet, whatever it is. You know their day better than I do.
- Gemma ThorneMm. Let me think. Condition history, I suppose. Whether there were any disputes on charges. How the client's behaved on returns before. I can write you a list. It won't be long.
- Amara ObiA short list is perfect. Three or four questions, in their words, not ours.
- Gemma ThorneRight, I'll do that today or tomorrow. Can I ask you something though? It's a bit awkward.
- Amara ObiGo on.
- Gemma ThorneThe renewal. It's in December, isn't it? Someone's going to ask me whether this is worth it, and with numbers like that I'm not sure what I'd say. I'm being honest with you.
- Amara ObiThank you, I appreciate that. So the contract runs to 1 Dec 2026 and the renewal date on our side is 2 Dec 2026. You started with us on 2 Dec 2025, so it's a straight twelve months. The order form and the invoices both say £41,800 a year, so there's no mismatch there.
- Gemma ThorneRight. And that's Growth.
- Amara ObiThat's Growth, yes, forty users, the dashboards builder, quarterly reviews. And I'll be straight about that as well: I'd like this to be a proper quarterly review, not a chat where I read you a chart and we both feel a bit flat.
- Gemma ThorneNo, it's not flat, I'm glad you said it. I'd rather this than get a renewal notice and find out in November that nobody's been using it.
- Amara ObiThat's exactly why I want to do this now. We've got a good stretch of time. Let me ask: if the usage looked healthy by the end of the quarter, would you be comfortable going into the renewal conversation?
- Gemma ThorneYes. If I could say that the account managers are using it in every review pack and the service desk are using it for client queries, then yes, easily. It's not the price I'm worried about. It's whether I can show it's earning its place.
- Amara ObiGood. That's helpful to know, because then the job is value, not money. Now, who decides on the commercial side at Carnmoor? I know you're the champion, but who signs?
- Gemma ThorneI don't take a commercial decision without my director. I'd recommend it, and they'd want to see something. A page, a couple of numbers, and ideally a client story, one of those corporate fleets where it made a review easier.
- Amara ObiOkay. That's a clear ask. So by the next check-in I'd like us to have at least one real example you can show them. Do you have a client in mind?
- Gemma ThornePossibly the one I'm preparing now. It's a big fleet, a lot of vehicles, a lot of queries and invoices, and normally this is the review where we lose a whole day pulling it all together. If I can do it differently this time, that's a story.
- Amara ObiThen let's do it this time. Would you be up for me sitting with you for half an hour while you build it? Not me taking it over, just there to say, ask it this way, or that source isn't connected yet.
- Gemma ThorneHonestly, yes, that would be good. When's the review? Oh, it's, hang on, it's not until next week. So we've got a few days.
- Amara ObiThen I'll find half an hour this week. I'll send you a couple of slots after the call. Does the afternoon suit better than the morning?
- Gemma ThorneAfternoons, yes. Mornings are the service desk stand-up and then it's just chaos until lunch.
- Amara ObiAfternoons it is. Second thing. Can I check which of the connectors your people are really relying on? Because I can see the sources are configured, but the way I read it, if nobody's asking about invoices or tickets, those connectors might as well not exist.
- Gemma ThorneInvoices, definitely, that's the main one. Queries, the service desk side, I think is used less than it should be. And the client contact history, which account managers always say they want, I'm not sure it's used much at all.
- Amara ObiOkay. That's what I'd guess from the numbers too, so it's good we agree. Questions asked is the best single measure of value, in my view, and that's the one that's dipped most. So that's what I'd like us to move.
- Gemma ThorneHow do you move it, though? That's what I'm stuck on. I can't make people ask questions. I can ask them to, I've asked them to, and it doesn't stick.
- Amara ObiNo. And I'd be careful about pushing it as a mandate. What tends to work is making it the easiest route to something they already have to do. If a review pack starts from the brain because it's faster, they'll use it. If it starts from the brain because you told them to, they'll quietly go back.
- Gemma ThorneMm. That's true. They'd just do it twice and hide the spreadsheet.
- Amara ObiHa, yes. So I'd start small. One review pack template, built with you, that the account managers can pick up and use as it is. It's quicker for them, and it's the same numbers the service desk sees. That's your agreed-numbers point.
- Gemma ThorneI like that. A single pack, same numbers. And if the service desk can pull the same view, then when a client rings up and says what did you tell us, we're all reading the same page.
- Amara ObiExactly. So I'd propose three things. One, we build that pack together this week on the real client review. Two, I run a short session for remarketing once you've seen it. Three, I look at the account for anyone who's got access and never used it, and we talk about whether it should go to someone who will.
- Gemma ThorneThat last one's sensible. I don't mind taking people off if they're not using it, I'd rather the seats went to people who'd actually benefit.
- Amara ObiGood. And I'd rather fix the use before we talk about the number of seats, because there's no point trimming what we haven't tried to fill.
- Gemma ThorneAgreed. Can I ask about the dashboards? I know that's part of what we have. I don't think anyone here has built one in a while.
- Amara ObiRight, and that's part of Growth. Dashboards built is a secondary measure, but it's a good sign when a customer invests in one, because it shows they've thought about what they want to see every week. If there's a view you'd want the service desk to have on a screen, we could build that at the same time.
- Gemma ThorneSomething for the service desk, like open queries by client? That'd be useful. The team leader would use that, and it would stop me being asked.
- Amara ObiThen put it on the list. It'll make a good test as well, because if the team leader uses it and you stop being the middle person, that's usage that doesn't depend on you.
- Gemma ThorneWhich is the whole point, really. I'm a bottleneck at the moment and I didn't realise.
- Amara ObiIt's a natural thing for a champion. You made it work, so everyone comes to you. Now we spread it.
- Gemma ThorneOkay. Can I ask you something slightly different? Sophie. Is she still the person I'd go to on anything contractual? I think she was on the original deal.
- Amara ObiYes, Sophie Ling is the account owner on the commercial side, so for anything about the contract or terms she's your person. I look after adoption and the renewal conversation, so you'll get me on both, and I'll bring Sophie in where it's about the paper.
- Gemma ThorneGood. I just wanted to be sure who to ring if my director has questions.
- Amara ObiRing me first and I'll loop her in. I'd rather the story was joined up. And I'd like to get ahead of that, so before the end of next month I want us to have a short summary, a page, that you could hand to your director with the usage, the examples and what's changed.
- Gemma ThorneA page would be ideal. They don't read much. If it's got a chart and two sentences about a client, they'll read that.
- Amara ObiChart and two sentences. I can do that, I'm good at charts. Honestly it's my main skill.
- Gemma ThorneHa. I've noticed. Your emails are mostly charts.
- Amara ObiThey are. Sorry. Okay, anything else on your side before I recap? Anything I've missed, anything that's been bothering you about the product or about us?
- Gemma ThorneNot about you. If anything I've been the one who's been quiet. I think I assumed it was ticking along, and it was, and then it wasn't. No, it's not you, it's us not keeping it up.
- Amara ObiWell, that's two of us who could have spoken sooner, so let's call it even and just move. Is there anything about the data itself that you don't trust? Because if there's a number someone's been doubting, I want to know.
- Gemma ThorneOnly that thing with the invoices looking a day behind. Otherwise no, I think the numbers are right. If anything, the problem is they're right and people still don't look.
- Amara ObiThen that's the thing to solve. Okay, let me recap, and stop me if I get any of it wrong. One, you'll find out who flagged the invoice lag and get a ticket raised, so I can check the refresh against a timestamp.
- Gemma ThorneYes. I'll do that today.
- Amara ObiTwo, you'll send me three or four questions that remarketing would ask, in their words. Three, I'll send you afternoon slots this week for half an hour, and we build the review pack for your corporate client together.
- Gemma ThorneYes. And I'll want to see the remarketing questions answered before anyone else does.
- Amara ObiOf course, you see it first. Four, we put a service desk view on the list, open queries by client, and see if the team leader will use it. Five, I look at who's got access and never used it and bring you a suggestion. And six, a one-page summary for your director, with a real example in it, before the end of next month.
- Gemma ThorneThat's a lot, but it's all sensible. Can we call it five and fold the list into the session? I don't want it to feel like a project, I want it to feel like we just got on with it.
- Amara ObiFine by me. We'll fold the access check into the session. Less is more. And I'll keep it light, I promise.
- Gemma ThorneGood. And, Amara, thank you for not being all alarm bells about it. I was braced.
- Amara ObiI'd rather be honest and useful than alarming. The numbers are what they are, but nothing's broken as far as we can see, the contract's in good order, and you've got a clear idea of what you want it to do. That's a fixable position.
- Gemma ThorneIt is. Right. I should go and find that account manager before they forget what they saw.
- Amara ObiPlease do. One more thing before you go, because I like to be asked: next check-in. Do you want it sooner than the usual gap, given where things are?
- Gemma ThorneSooner, I think. A short one. Maybe after we've done the review pack, so we've got something to look at.
- Amara ObiDone. Let's get the next one in the diary for a few weeks from now, a short one, and I'll send the invite with the slots. If the pack works, we'll have the first real example to talk about.
- Gemma ThornePerfect. And I'll send the questions and the name today. Is it easier if I just reply to your last email?
- Amara ObiReply to anything, I'll find it. And if the ticket goes in, I'll look at it the same day.
- Gemma ThorneBrilliant. Then I think that's me. Thanks, Amara, that was more useful than I expected.
- Amara ObiGlad to hear it. Thanks, Gemma. Speak soon, and good luck with the review.
- Gemma ThorneCheers. Bye now.
- Amara ObiBye.
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