Harcastle Environmental / BB-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Harcastle Environmental · 2025-05-21 14:00
Onboarding call on the Growth build. The customer agreed source order, a flag-not-merge approach to duplicate CRM records, and owners. Nicola Brearley wants a missed collection caught before the customer rings.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26Onboarding call on the Growth build. The customer agreed source order, a flag-not-merge approach to duplicate CRM records, and owners. Nicola Brearley wants a missed collection caught before the customer rings.
What happened: Laura Penhaligon, Imran Hussain and Nicola Brearley agreed the order of sources (CRM, routing, helpdesk with a privacy check, accounting, then calls and email) and who owns each step. Six connectors are planned of the eight on Growth.
Customer view: Nicola framed value as spotting a missed collection before the customer calls, and told Imran to say it to the board as reduce, not remove. Imran wants nothing switched on until he has tested it.
Watch: Imran named duplicate CRM records as the biggest worry and wants it said that it will take time. Nicola fears the project going quiet while the plumbing is done, and Imran is wary of asking finance for accounting access.
Commercial: Laura confirmed forty users is ample with two people active, and two connectors are held spare. Live depot operations were put out of scope for this phase.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Onboarding sources and mapping
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Laura Penhaligon to send a follow-up note with the source order, the finance field list and the read-only statement.
- Imran Hussain to send the status codes and a helpdesk ticket sample, then CRM access once tested.
- Nicola Brearley to send first account manager names, speak to finance and write down her questions.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Duplicate CRM records will take time to review and could slow the customer mapping.
- Nicola fears momentum will stall while the connectors are built, after telling her directors account managers will see results soon.
- Finance may be slow to approve read access to the accounting system.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Two Growth connectors are held spare for sources not yet mentioned.
- Calls and email are a second wave that account managers said they would miss most.
- Live depot operations were parked as a separate piece of work for later.
Transcript
Laura Penhaligon NoneHello, hello. Can you both hear me all right?
Imran Hussain NoneYes, loud and clear here. Afternoon, Laura.
Nicola Brearley NoneAfternoon. Sorry, I'm still eating a sandwich, give me thirty seconds. Today has been one of those days.- Laura Penhaligon NoneNo rush at all. Honestly, it's a good sign if you've got a sandwich, means you've sat down.
- Nicola Brearley NoneHa. Barely. So, the worst complaint of the week, since you'll ask: a food-waste customer in Doncaster, third missed collection in a fortnight, and the account manager only found out because the customer rang the depot directly. That's exactly why we bought this.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneRight, and that's the thing we want to put in front of your account managers by the end of this. Which depot, which round, do you know?
- Nicola Brearley NoneDon't, you're stealing my line. It was the Wakefield early round. Anyway. Imran, you had something you wanted to say first, didn't you?
- Imran Hussain NoneYes, just briefly. Since we last spoke I've set up the service account we agreed for the routing system, and I've checked that it can only read. I haven't switched anything on. I want to test it before we do.
- Laura Penhaligon NonePerfect, that's the right order. So let me just frame what I'd like to get through today, and tell me if it's wrong. First, which sources we connect and in what order. Second, how we identify a customer across those sources. Third, who does what over the next few weeks. Does that sound right?
- Nicola Brearley NoneThat's my three. Sources, customer record, owners. Go on.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneGreat. So just to level-set, you're on Growth. That's forty users, and up to eight connectors. The implementation is the eight-week plan, so we're early in that. Where we are today, I can see only two people are really logging in on average, which is normal at this stage. Nobody should worry about it.
- Imran Hussain NoneThat'll be me and Nicola. Plus one person from the finance team poking around. We haven't invited the account managers yet because there's nothing for them to see.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneExactly right, I wouldn't invite them yet. Nothing worse than a team logging in to an empty brain and deciding it's not for them.
- Nicola Brearley NoneWhich is the opposite of what I want. I want them to open it for the first time and see their own customers, their own complaints. First impressions.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneAgreed. So let's talk connectors. From the kickoff notes, what you want is collections and routes, the helpdesk with the missed-collection tickets, the accounting system for invoices, and then calls and email as a second wave. Is that still the order in your heads?
- Imran Hussain NoneMostly. How many connectors have we got left if we do all of those? I was counting and I think it comes to five or six, but I'd rather you confirmed.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneSo, routing, helpdesk, accounting, your CRM, and then the call recorder and mailbox. That's six. You've got eight on Growth, so two spare. And I'd keep those two spare for a bit, honestly, because someone always turns up with a spreadsheet or a system nobody mentioned.
- Nicola Brearley NoneSomeone always does. There's a depot that still tracks bin exchanges in a system from years ago. Imran knows.
- Imran Hussain NoneI do know. Let's not talk about it. It's, well, it's a problem for later, and I'll test it before anyone suggests we connect it.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneFair. Noted, and parked. So, routing first. Imran, can you share your screen and show me what the export looks like? I'd like to see how a collection is represented.
- Imran Hussain NoneSure. Give me a second. Right, can you see it?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYes, that's coming through. Okay, so each row is a scheduled collection. And there's a site identifier, a round, a vehicle, a status and a time window.
- Imran Hussain NoneThat's it. And the status is the bit that matters. Collected, missed, rescheduled, and a couple of codes the drivers use that aren't documented anywhere. I've written them up, so I'll send you the list.
- Laura Penhaligon NonePlease do, that'll save us a guess. And the site identifier. Is that the same thing the account managers think of as the customer?
- Imran Hussain NoneNo. And this is the thing I wanted to raise. A customer can have several sites, and each site has its own identifier in routing. In the helpdesk the ticket is against the customer, not the site. And in the accounting system the invoice is against yet another account reference.
- Nicola Brearley NoneWhich is why I can't answer the simplest question. Has this customer had a missed collection and have they been invoiced for it. Three systems, three answers.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneRight, and this is the heart of the job. What we do is build a mapping so that one customer record sits above the sites, the tickets and the invoices. Imran, which customer id is the one you'd trust? Is there a single master?
- Imran Hussain NoneWhich customer id is that, sorry, you mean which system holds it? I'd say the CRM, mostly. The accounting reference is a close second. But there are duplicates in the CRM. A few hundred, I'd guess. I haven't counted properly, so I don't want to put a number on it.
- Nicola Brearley NoneIt's more than a few hundred, Imran. Sorry, but it is. We've had account managers creating a new record because they couldn't find the old one.
- Imran Hussain NonePossibly. I'd say the data shows a lot of near-matches, and I can't tell you how many are real duplicates without checking them one by one.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's a sensible way to put it. So here's what I'd suggest. We don't try to clean the CRM first. We load it as it is, build the mapping on the accounting reference, and then flag the near-matches for you to review, rather than merging anything automatically. Does that sit okay?
- Imran Hussain NoneThat sits very well. I never delete a record I can't restore, and I don't want a tool deciding two sites are the same customer. Flag them, I'll look.
- Nicola Brearley NoneAnd I'll make the account managers help with the review. They know which ones are the same customer. Imran shouldn't be doing that alone.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneLovely, that would help a lot. It's their customers after all.
- Nicola Brearley NoneLet's see it from the customer's side. They've got one contract, they don't think of it as seven sites and a ticket queue and an invoice run. If we can't show them that, we've not done our job.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneCompletely. So, to the helpdesk. Imran, I understand there's one ticket category for missed collections, and then a lot of free text. Is that right?
- Imran Hussain NoneRoughly. There's a category, but the agents don't always use it. They'll put a missed collection under general query because it's quicker. So I wouldn't trust the category alone. The text is more reliable.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneOkay, that's useful, because the brain reads the text anyway, so it'll cope. But I'd still like to know what the category is for, so we can report on it honestly. Could you pull a sample for me? Not hundreds, a dozen or so.
- Imran Hussain NoneYes, I'll screenshot a handful and strip the customer names. I'll send them across tomorrow, I think. Tomorrow, yes.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneGreat. And the helpdesk side, is the access sorted, or do you need something from your IT team?
- Imran Hussain NoneI'm the admin, so I can do it. What I'd like is for someone to tell me what it will touch. Read-only? Will it change any tickets?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneRead-only. It reads tickets, comments and the status history, and it doesn't write anything back. And it runs inside your own Snowflake account, so the data doesn't leave your environment. I'll put that in writing in the follow-up, because I know your security team will want it.
- Imran Hussain NoneThey will. Thank you. That helps.
- Nicola Brearley NoneCan I jump in on timing? I don't want this to drag. What's the first moment an account manager could realistically ask a question and get an answer that's useful?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneFair question. If routing and the helpdesk are loaded and mapped, I'd say within a couple of weeks you could have a small group asking things like, show me missed collections for this customer in the last quarter. The invoices come after that, because the accounting mapping is the fiddliest.
- Nicola Brearley NoneA couple of weeks. Okay. What's the fix and who owns it if it takes longer?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneIf it slips, it's almost always the mapping, and it would be me chasing Imran, or Imran telling me a source isn't ready. I'll tell you straight away rather than let it sit. That's my job.
- Nicola Brearley NoneGood. I'd rather hear bad news on a Tuesday than find out at a review.
- Imran Hussain NoneCan I ask about the nightly refresh? How fresh will the routing data be when an account manager opens it in the morning?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThe refresh completes by seven in the morning on business days, for every tier. So by the time the first account manager is at their desk, they've got yesterday's collections and anything that closed overnight.
- Nicola Brearley NoneYesterday's is fine for the account managers. For the depot managers, no. They'd want it live. But I don't think they're in scope, are they?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneNot for this phase. This is about account managers seeing a customer's whole picture. Live depot operations is a different thing, and I wouldn't want us to blur the two and disappoint anyone.
- Nicola Brearley NoneAgreed. Good. I just wanted that on the record so nobody promises the depots something.
- Imran Hussain NoneSo the next practical thing is the accounting system, and I'll be honest, I'm a bit wary of that one. Finance are protective, quite rightly. I'd like to know what it will read before I ask them.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's the right instinct. What we need is invoices, credit notes, the account reference and the payment status. Not bank details, not payroll, none of that. I'll send you a one-page list of exactly the fields, so you can take it to them and they can strike anything out.
- Imran Hussain NoneYes, please. If they can strike things out, they'll be much happier. People relax when they've got a pen.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThey do. Right, I'll do that today or tomorrow. Nicola, in the meantime, can I ask about the people side? Who are your first account managers? Who would you want in the first group?
- Nicola Brearley NoneThree, four. I want the ones who will actually use it and tell me if it's rubbish. Not the keen ones who say everything's brilliant. A senior one from the north, one who deals with the big multi-site contracts, and one newer person who isn't set in their ways.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneLovely, that's a good mix. And a lists of three, as ever.
- Nicola Brearley NoneOccupational hazard. I'll send you names once I've asked them. I won't volunteer people without asking.
- Laura Penhaligon NonePerfect. And in terms of training, what I'd normally do is a short session with that first group, about the length of this call, using their own customers. Then a few questions they can try that same afternoon.
- Nicola Brearley NoneTheir own customers, definitely. Not a demo with made-up names.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneNever made-up names. They switch off the second it's not real.
- Imran Hussain NoneOne thing on that. If we use real customers in training, I'd like to check first that nothing sensitive is showing. Some of the ticket text has personal details in it. Drivers' names, people's mobile numbers, that sort of thing.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneGood catch. We can look at that before anyone sees it. I'd suggest we run the helpdesk load first into your environment, you and I look through a sample together, and we decide whether anything needs masking. Then it goes to the account managers.
- Imran Hussain NoneYes. That's what I'd want. Test first, then switch on.
- Nicola Brearley NoneFine by me. I don't want a driver's phone number turning up in front of the whole commercial team.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneNobody does. Okay. So what I'm hearing is: routing first, then the helpdesk with a privacy check, then accounting once finance have seen the field list. CRM alongside routing, because the mapping needs it. And calls and email last. Have I got that right?
- Imran Hussain NoneThat's right, except I'd put the CRM before routing, because the mapping depends on it. Otherwise I'll load routes and have nothing to hang them on.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneYou're right. CRM first, routing straight after, same week if we can. Thank you, that's better.
- Nicola Brearley NoneWhich sources would our account managers miss the most if they weren't there? Calls, I'd say. They're always telling me what a customer said on the phone and nobody has written it down.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's one of the nicer parts. Once the call recorder is connected, someone can ask what a customer said about a missed collection and get the answer, rather than hunting through recordings. But I'd still do it last, because it only works well when the customer record is solid.
- Nicola Brearley NoneMakes sense. Don't build the roof first.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneQuite. Right, let's do the owners and dates. I'll write it as I say it. Imran, you own access and testing for each source. Is that fair?
- Imran Hussain NoneYes. I'll own that, and I'll tell you when each one has passed my checks before it goes anywhere near the account managers.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneGood. Nicola, you own the account manager group and the list of questions they care about. Do you want to try me with a few now?
- Nicola Brearley NoneEasy. One: which customers have had more than one missed collection this month, by depot. Two: for a given customer, show me the complaints, the calls and the invoices in date order. Three: which customers had a missed collection and then got invoiced for the same period, because that's where we get the angry phone calls.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's a really good three. The third one's the one I'd highlight, because it needs routing and accounting together, and that's exactly what nobody can do today. I'll make that our target for the first review.
- Imran Hussain NoneThat one will need the site-to-account mapping to be right. If it isn't, it'll give a confident wrong answer.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneWhich is exactly why the mapping matters. I'd rather show you a gap and say we don't know, than show a clean answer that's wrong. We'll mark anything unmapped as unmapped.
- Nicola Brearley NoneGood. I'll take unmapped over wrong any day. Wrong gets someone phoned at home.
- Imran Hussain NoneCan I ask something on the user side? We've got forty licensed users. If I want to add someone from the depots later on, do I need to do anything, or is that just a seat?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneIt's just a seat, up to the forty. You, as admin, can invite people. If you went over forty we'd have a conversation, but you're nowhere near it with two people active. I'd be amazed if you needed more this year, to be honest.
- Nicola Brearley NoneDon't say that to Andrew, he'll want to know why we've got forty.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneHa, fair. Well, forty gives you room for the commercial team and a few depots, and it's what's in your order form. Nothing to add, nothing to chase.
- Imran Hussain NoneOkay. And the one ticket we raised, has that closed? It was about the login for the finance colleague.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneI believe that's resolved. I'll double-check and confirm in my follow-up, rather than say yes and be wrong.
- Imran Hussain NoneThanks. I'd rather know. I'll mark it done on my side once you've said.
- Nicola Brearley NoneRight, I need to be careful, I've got a customer call at the top of the hour. Can we do a little on what you need from me over the next fortnight? Properly, so I can put it in the diary.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneOf course. Three things from you. One, the names of the first account managers. Two, a conversation with finance so Imran isn't going in cold, even if it's just a heads up. Three, the list of questions, which you've half given me already, written down in your own words.
- Nicola Brearley NoneNames, finance, questions. Got it. Finance I'll do tomorrow morning. They've got a month-end thing coming, so the sooner the better.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneAnd from Imran: the status codes list, the helpdesk sample, and the access for the CRM and routing once he's tested them. Do I have that?
- Imran Hussain NoneYes. Status codes and the sample tomorrow. CRM access in a couple of days, once I've tested the service account properly. Routing straight after.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneGreat. And from my side: a follow-up note today with the order of sources, the field list for finance, and the statement about read-only access and where the data sits. Then I'll set up the CRM load as soon as Imran says the account's ready.
- Nicola Brearley NoneIs Marcus involved at this stage? He's the one I've been dealing with before. I don't want to lose him.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneMarcus is your customer success manager, and he stays your point of contact once we're live. I'm the implementation side, so I'll be with you through the build and then hand over properly. And Lewis looks after the commercial side. You won't lose anyone.
- Nicola Brearley NoneGood. I just don't like being handed around.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneUnderstood. I'll introduce Marcus properly when we get to the first review, so it isn't a stranger.
- Imran Hussain NoneOne more small thing, while I think of it. When a new source goes on, does it disturb the ones already there? I've had it before with another tool, where adding a connector broke the old ones.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneIt shouldn't, because each source loads on its own and the mapping sits on top. But that's why I'd add them one at a time, and why you'll see it before anyone else does. If something breaks, you'll see the record counts stop moving, and I'll look at it the same day.
- Imran Hussain NoneThat's what I wanted to hear. One at a time, test, then on.
- Nicola Brearley NoneCan I be cheeky and ask what good looks like in, say, three months? Not a promise. Just what you'd expect.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneNot cheeky at all. I'd expect a handful of account managers using it most days, asking questions about their own customers before a call rather than after a complaint. Imran confident the sources are stable. And you able to point to a case where a missed collection was spotted and fixed before the customer rang.
- Nicola Brearley NoneThat last one's the one. If I can say to the board that we caught one before they called, I'm done.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThen let's make that the aim. I'll note it down as the thing we're working towards.
- Imran Hussain NoneCan we be realistic about it though? Some customers will still ring first. We can reduce it, we can't remove it. I wouldn't want us to claim more than the data shows.
- Nicola Brearley NoneFair, Imran. Reduce, not remove. I'll say that to the board, not the other thing.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThat's the honest version, and it's a better story anyway. Okay. Anything I've missed? Anything that's worrying either of you?
- Imran Hussain NoneOnly the duplicate records, really. I think that's the one that will cause the most grief, and I'd like it said out loud that it's going to take time.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneIt's said. It's going to take time, and I'd rather we spend it on that than rush the loads. I'll build a review step into the plan so it's visible, not hidden in the background.
- Nicola Brearley NoneFor me it's just momentum. I've told my directors that account managers will see this soon. I don't want it to go quiet for a month while we all do the plumbing.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneUnderstood. Then what I'll do is give you something visible early. Even if it's only one customer's missed collections from routing and the helpdesk side by side, once those two are mapped. That gives you something to show, even before invoices.
- Nicola Brearley NoneThat would be perfect. One customer, one view. I can show that to people.
- Imran Hussain NoneAnd I'd choose the customer. Not one with a messy history, one where I know the mapping is clean.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneSensible. Pick one that's clean and one that's a bit messy, and we'll show both. Honest, but not frightening.
- Nicola Brearley NoneHa, I like that. Clean and messy. Right, I really have to run, my next call's about to start. Anything you need from me before I go?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneJust the three things we said: names, a word with finance, and your questions. No rush on the questions, but names would help me plan the training.
- Nicola Brearley NoneNames tomorrow. Finance tomorrow. Questions by the end of the week. Done.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneBrilliant. Thanks, Nicola. That was a really useful hour, well, forty minutes, it felt longer in a good way.
- Nicola Brearley NoneHa. Thanks both. Speak soon. Bye.
- Imran Hussain NoneBye, Nicola.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneRight, Imran, while we've still got the line, do you have a few minutes for the account setup? I'd like to agree exactly what the CRM service account needs, so you're not guessing.
- Imran Hussain NoneYes. I've got the screen still up. What do you need me to look at?
- Laura Penhaligon NoneJust the permissions on the account you created. I'm looking for read on accounts, contacts, notes and activities, and nothing that lets it write or delete. Can you scroll to the permission list?
- Imran Hussain NoneGive me a moment. Right. Accounts, yes. Contacts, yes. Activities, yes. Notes, hold on, notes isn't ticked. I'll sort that. And there's nothing with write or delete on it. Good.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneLovely. Tick notes, because a lot of the useful context sits there. Then it's exactly what I need.
- Imran Hussain NoneDone. Saved. I'll run a test query as that user before I send you the details, just so I know it behaves.
- Laura Penhaligon NonePerfect. That's all I need. Send me the connection details when you're happy, and I'll start the load the same day.
- Imran Hussain NoneWill do. Can I ask, how long does a first load of the CRM usually take? So I know when to tell Nicola it's there.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneFor a CRM of your size, most of a working day to load and another stretch to check. I'd say tell her it'll be there by the following morning. If it's quicker, great, and if it's slower, I'll tell you.
- Imran Hussain NoneGood. I'll tell her the next morning, and not before.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneSensible. And once it's in, I'll send you the first list of near-matches, so you can start reviewing while I'm doing routing.
- Imran Hussain NoneThat works. I'll take it in chunks, by region maybe, so I'm not staring at one enormous list.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneI'll split it by region then. Yorkshire and the North East, that's natural for you anyway.
- Imran Hussain NoneYes, that's how the depots are organised. Easier for me to ask the depot people about their own patch.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThen that's how we'll do it. Right. So to recap my side: follow-up note today, the field list for finance, a check on that login ticket, and the CRM load as soon as you send the details. Yours: tick notes, test the account, status codes and the ticket sample tomorrow.
- Imran Hussain NoneThat's everything I have. Plus the thing about not switching anything on until it's tested.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneHa, that goes without saying now. I think we're in a good place, Imran. It's early, and there's a lot of fiddly mapping, but the shape is right.
- Imran Hussain NoneI think so. It's a good plan. I'd just ask that if anything surprises you in our data, you tell me before you tell anyone else. I'd rather hear it first.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneAlways. You'll hear it first, and with a screenshot, since I know you like those.
- Imran Hussain NoneHa. Screenshots are the only honest form of communication. Right, thanks Laura. I'll get on with the account.
- Laura Penhaligon NoneThanks, Imran. Speak soon, and enjoy the rest of your afternoon. Bye for now.
- Imran Hussain NoneBye. Cheers.
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