Harcastle Environmental / BB-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Harcastle Environmental · 2025-08-11 09:30
Check-in on 11 Aug 2025. Usage is up but about six people use it regularly, and Nicola Brearley said that is not yet a business case for her managing director. Next group rollout planned for early September.
What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26Check-in on 11 Aug 2025. Usage is up but about six people use it regularly, and Nicola Brearley said that is not yet a business case for her managing director. Next group rollout planned for early September.
What happened: Marcus Bell showed questions asked rising and about six regular users against forty licensed. Nicola Brearley again gave a care home story where the account manager rang the customer first.
Customer view: Nicola said she will have to justify the spend to her managing director. She is not asking for a discount and cannot commit budget alone.
Commercial: Marcus confirmed the annual fee matches the order form and the invoices, with nothing outstanding. Price and renewal talks sit with Lewis, who is to be told of the call.
Watch: Nicola and two account managers ask most of the questions, so value is tied to a few people. Nobody has built a dashboard yet, which the Growth tier includes.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Renewal value case, usage spread
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BB-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Marcus Bell to send a one-page template for recording customer stories, and times for the first group session in early September.
- Marcus Bell to send three dashboard examples.
- Marcus Bell to tell Lewis about the call so he is across the renewal before it comes up.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Nicola must justify the spend to her managing director and does not yet have a business case.
- A big share of questions comes from Nicola and two account managers, so value is tied to a few people.
- About six regular users against forty licensed seats weakens the value story at renewal.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Roll out in groups to multi-site account managers, then the North East team, then Yorkshire, on existing seats.
- Introduce the dashboards builder in Growth, which nobody has used yet.
Transcript
Marcus Bell NoneMorning, Nicola. Can you hear me all right?
Nicola Brearley NoneMorning, Marcus. Yes, loud and clear. Give me two seconds, I'm just closing a door. Right, that's better. Sorry, it's been one of those weeks already.- Marcus Bell NoneNo problem at all. It's only Monday, so I'm slightly worried about what Friday looks like.
- Nicola Brearley NoneDon't. Honestly, don't. So the worst one this week, since you'll want to know, was a business customer in the North East, a care home, who had a missed collection on one round three weeks running. Three weeks. And the account manager only found out because she'd looked them up in the brain on the Friday before they rang.
- Marcus Bell NoneAh. So she saw it before they called?
- Nicola Brearley NoneShe did. She saw the three missed collections, saw the ticket history, saw the last invoice, and she rang them first. Which depot, which round, what's the fix and who owns it, all of it was on one screen. The customer was cross, obviously, but they were cross at something we'd already acknowledged. That's a very different call.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's exactly what you bought it for, isn't it. That's really good to hear. Do you mind if I share my screen? I've pulled the numbers for the last few months and I want to walk you through them, then we can talk about what's next.
- Nicola Brearley NoneGo for it. I've got half an hour, a bit more if we need it.
- Marcus Bell NonePerfect. Right, you should see a dashboard with a few lines on it. Can you see that?
- Nicola Brearley NoneYes. Little blue line going up, I like that one.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's questions asked. So that's people actually asking the brain things, which is the measure I care about most. It's up a lot on where it was last quarter. And the average number of people active in a month has more than doubled over the same stretch.
- Nicola Brearley NoneHow many is that, though, in actual people? Because I know it's not forty. I know that much.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, it's about six on a typical month. So you've got forty licensed users on Growth and six of them are in there regularly. I'm not saying that to make it sound bad. For a few months in, with a team that's been learning it, that's a healthy start. But it does mean there's a lot of room.
- Nicola Brearley NoneRight. No, that's fair. It's basically my team and a couple of the account managers I leaned on to try it out. Everybody else is still doing it the old way, flicking between the collections system, the helpdesk and the invoices.
- Marcus Bell NoneMm. And who's asking most of the questions? Because that's the other thing I look at.
- Nicola Brearley NoneMe, probably. Let me guess. It's me.
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's you, and then two of the account managers. Which is fine, but it's the bit I'd gently flag, because if one person is asking a big share of the questions, then the value is a bit tied to that one person. I'd like to see it spread out.
- Nicola Brearley NoneNo, you're right. I don't want it to be the Nicola show. If I'm off for a fortnight and nobody opens it, that's a waste of what we've built. What would you do?
- Marcus Bell NoneHonestly? Pick the next group. Not everyone at once. A small bunch of account managers who cover the busiest customers, get them in a room or on a call, and show them the one thing that matters to them. For you that's probably the customer's whole story on one page before they pick up the phone.
- Nicola Brearley NoneWhich is the care home thing. Right. I could do that. Let me see it from their side. They don't want a tour of every feature, they want to know what it does for Tuesday morning.
- Marcus Bell NoneExactly. I'm happy to run it. Short session, built around their own customers, so they're not looking at demo data. They'll see their own accounts.
- Nicola Brearley NoneYes. Yes, because that's what won me over. When it was my own customers on the screen I stopped being sceptical.
- Marcus Bell NoneGood. Let me scroll down a bit. This next part is the connectors, the systems feeding the brain. Everything you asked for at the start is loading. Nothing's stalled, and the number of records coming in is still climbing, so the data's current.
- Nicola Brearley NoneRight, so when the overnight data lands, it's there by the time the account managers sit down?
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's been there every business day that I can see. I've not seen a late one in the records. And on the support side, you've not raised a single ticket this past month, which I'd read as a good sign rather than silence, given how much people are using it.
- Nicola Brearley NoneWell, nothing's broken. If it breaks, you'll hear from me. Quickly.
- Marcus Bell NoneI know I will. You're not shy. That's a compliment.
- Nicola Brearley NoneIt's a compliment, I'll take it. Can I ask something a bit awkward?
- Marcus Bell NoneGo on.
- Nicola Brearley NoneSo, we're on, what is it, thirty-nine six hundred a year?
- Marcus Bell NoneYes, thirty-nine thousand six hundred pounds a year. That matches the order form, and what's been invoiced matches it too. Nothing odd on the billing side, and no invoices outstanding.
- Nicola Brearley NoneGood. Because here's the thing. When the renewal comes round, I'm going to have to stand in front of my managing director and say what we got for that. And at the moment, six people and a care home story is a good start, but it's not a business case.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's a fair thing to want. And I'd rather we built that case now than in March. If we get more of the account managers using it, you've got a much stronger picture. More questions, more people, and ideally a few examples like the care home one that you can write down at the time.
- Nicola Brearley NoneWrite them down at the time. Yes. I keep telling myself I'll do that and then another complaint lands.
- Marcus Bell NoneI can help with that actually. I can send you a one-page template. Date, customer, what the brain showed, what you did differently. Takes a minute to fill in. Then by next spring you've got a pile of them.
- Nicola Brearley NonePlease. That's useful. Lists of three, I like lists of three. What happened, what we did, what it saved.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's the template, pretty much. And on the money side, I'll be straight with you, the renewal conversation itself, and anything about price, that's Lewis. He owns the commercial side of the account. I look after how it's being used and whether you're getting value. But he'd want to hear that you're thinking about it this early.
- Nicola Brearley NoneFine. I'm not asking for a discount, I just want to know what I'm walking into. And I can't commit any budget on my own anyway, I'd need to take anything like that to the people who hold it.
- Marcus Bell NoneUnderstood. Nothing to decide today. This is just so there are no surprises. Your term runs to the tenth of April and renews on the eleventh, so you've got a good stretch of time yet.
- Nicola Brearley NoneRight. So, spring. Plenty of time to make a mess of it, then.
- Marcus Bell NoneOr plenty of time to make it look very good. Which is where I'd put my money.
- Nicola Brearley NoneCheeky. Okay. Let me think about who to put in the next group. Can I talk it through with you now?
- Marcus Bell NonePlease. Say it out loud and I'll make notes.
- Nicola Brearley NoneSo I've got the Yorkshire account managers, who are the bulk of the customers, and then the North East lot who've had the most complaints this year. Then there's a couple of people who cover the really big accounts, the ones with multiple sites, and they're always chasing three different things.
- Marcus Bell NoneI'd start with the multi-site people. They've got the most to gain from one view, and if they like it, other people hear about it from colleagues rather than from me.
- Nicola Brearley NoneYes. That's true. Nobody believes the supplier. They believe Dave on the next desk.
- Marcus Bell NoneHa. Exactly. Sorry, who's Dave?
- Nicola Brearley NoneNobody, it's a figure of speech. Sorry. Any colleague. Right, so multi-site first, then the North East team, then Yorkshire.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat works. Do you want me to run the first one in the next couple of weeks, or would you prefer to leave it till people are back from holiday? It is August.
- Nicola Brearley NoneGood point. Half my team are off. Let's say after they're back, early in September. Can you hold me a slot?
- Marcus Bell NoneI'll send a few times over today. Shall we book half an hour for the first group, and then I'll stay on for questions?
- Nicola Brearley NoneYes. Half an hour. Any longer and they'll start checking email.
- Marcus Bell NoneHalf an hour it is. One more thing on the usage side, and then I'll let you go. There's a dashboards feature in Growth, where your own people can build views. Nobody's built one yet, as far as I can see.
- Nicola Brearley NoneOh. What would that be, for us? Give me an example.
- Marcus Bell NoneSomething like missed collections by round, over the last month, next to complaints and credit notes. Something you look at on a Monday without having to ask anyone.
- Nicola Brearley NoneWhich depot, which round. That's literally my Monday. Right, I want that. Can we do that in the same session or is that a separate thing?
- Marcus Bell NoneCould be the same one, or I can set time aside just for you. I'd say separate. Let me pull a few examples of what other teams have built and send them over, so you can pick what's useful.
- Nicola Brearley NonePlease do. Though not too many. I'll get overwhelmed. Three, tops.
- Marcus Bell NoneThree. Noted.
- Nicola Brearley NoneAnything else I should know about? Anything you're worried about?
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, nothing worrying. If I had to name one thing, it's just that spread of usage. Getting beyond the handful of you. Everything else looks healthy: the data's flowing, no tickets, and the invoices are fine.
- Nicola Brearley NoneGood. Well. That's a nicer call than the one I had at eight o'clock.
- Marcus Bell NoneGlad to be the easy one. So, to recap. I'll send over the one-page template for the stories, a few times for the first session in early September, and three dashboard examples. You'll think about who's in the first group, and loop me in on names.
- Nicola Brearley NoneAnd I'll start writing the care home thing down today, while I remember it. What happened, what we did, what it saved.
- Marcus Bell NonePerfect. And I'll let Lewis know we've spoken, so he's across it before the renewal comes up.
- Nicola Brearley NoneThanks, Marcus. Speak soon.
- Marcus Bell NoneThanks, Nicola. Enjoy what's left of the week. Bye for now.
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