Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 4 Nov 2024 10:30
Marcus Bell's 4 Nov 2024 check-in with Craig Ashwell. Craig wants variations agreed before work is done and valuations paid on time. Use is heavily weighted to Craig himself. Two training sessions and a quarterly review were agreed.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Marcus Bell's 4 Nov 2024 check-in with Craig Ashwell. Craig wants variations agreed before work is done and valuations paid on time. Use is heavily weighted to Craig himself. Two training sessions and a quarterly review were agreed.
What happened: Marcus Bell checked in with Craig Ashwell on usage, tickets and the contract. Craig first asked where an unsigned client variation sits, and Marcus showed it on the client page.
Customer view: Craig set the test himself: variations agreed before the work is done and valuations paid on time. He said that if the brain helps with those two, it has earned its money.
Commercial: Marcus confirmed Growth with forty users, matching the order form, with the term running from 23 Aug 2024 to 22 Aug 2025. Craig's asks, credit control training and a one-page client dashboard, sit inside Growth.
Watch: Craig said a lot of the asking is him. Marcus also noted two overdue invoices and asked Craig's finance team to look.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Value test and adoption spread
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
positive
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Marcus Bell to email options for a credit control session within a fortnight, copying Craig's finance lead.
- Marcus Bell to book a working session on the one-page client dashboard and confirm whether site managers can use it from a phone.
- Marcus Bell to book the first quarterly review for the new year and prepare what the brain surfaced on variations and late payments.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Much of the questioning comes from Craig Ashwell himself, a key-person risk if his time drops.
- Craig has set a clear value test, and if variations and late payments do not improve the brain is judged a nice search box.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Credit control and project directors are named groups to bring into use under the existing Growth licences.
- A one-page client dashboard built in the Growth dashboards builder could be copied across clients.
Transcript
Marcus BellMorning, Craig. Can you hear me alright?
Craig AshwellLoud and clear. Morning. Sorry, I'm just walking back into the office, give me a second to find a room.- Marcus BellNo rush at all. Horrible out there, isn't it? It's been raining here since about seven.
- Craig AshwellSame in Reading. Half our site deliveries turned up late and wet. Right. Door's shut. Go on.
- Marcus BellThanks. So, I'll share my screen in a moment, but let me say what I wanted to cover. Three things really: how the team's been using the brain since you went live, the tickets from the last month, and what we do between now and the first quarterly review. Does that work, or is there something else on your mind?
- Craig AshwellSomething else, actually. The office floor we're finishing for the corporate tenant. The client's asked for extra work on site and I want to know where the variation is. Not in a drawer, not in someone's inbox. Where is it? What has the client signed?
- Marcus BellOkay. That's exactly the sort of thing I'd like to show you, so good. Give me a second. Right, can you see that?
- Craig AshwellI can see it. Bit small.
- Marcus BellLet me make that bigger. Better? So this is the view for that client. You've got the calls, the emails and the variations that have been logged against the project, all on one page.
- Craig AshwellMm. And the one that isn't signed?
- Marcus BellThat's flagged here. There's the request from the site manager's email, there's the call where your project lead talked it through, but there's no signed variation attached yet. The brain can only show what's been recorded. I can't tell you whether it's been agreed on site.
- Craig AshwellNo, that's fair. That's my problem, not yours. The point is I can see it. Before, I'd have found out at the valuation. Too late. Always too late.
- Marcus BellYeah, that's what I hear from a few people. Can I ask, who's actually asking it questions on your side? Because I've pulled the numbers and I want to check I'm reading them right.
- Craig AshwellGo on.
- Marcus BellSo you've got forty licensed users on Growth. Over the last month, on an average day, just under six of them were active. That's up a lot on the quarter before, several times over really. It's a small number against forty, but the direction's the right one.
- Craig AshwellSix. Out of forty. Hm.
- Marcus BellI know. I'd rather be straight with you. The early weeks are usually the commercial team and a couple of project managers, and then it spreads if people see a reason to open it. I'm not worried about the number today. I'm more interested in who's missing.
- Craig AshwellCredit control. They're the ones I want in there. They're still working off the spreadsheet because that's what they've always done. And the site managers. They won't touch anything that isn't on their phone.
- Marcus BellRight, that's useful. So two groups. Let's take credit control first. Would it help if I did a short session for them? Thirty minutes, just showing them how to ask for a client's open invoices and the calls and emails around them.
- Craig AshwellYes. But not me presenting it. They'll listen to you more than me. And I'd want finance in the room. I don't talk about cash without our finance lead there, so I'll get her to join.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. I'll send a couple of time options. Shall we aim for the next fortnight?
- Craig AshwellFine. Do it.
- Marcus BellLovely. And while we're on that, I'll just flag it, because I saw it in the account view: there are two invoices showing as overdue. I haven't looked into why and I'm not the right person to, so I'd just ask your finance team to take a look when they can.
- Craig AshwellTwo? Right. That'll be our finance people. I'll mention it. Probably a purchase order thing or someone on leave. I'll have a word.
- Marcus BellNo problem at all. That's all I wanted to say on it.
- Craig AshwellGood.
- Marcus BellCan I ask what the commercial team are actually using it for day to day? I can see the questions, but you know the context.
- Craig AshwellMostly one thing. Before a client meeting they ask it what's happened with that client. Open variations, last call, whether anyone's chased an invoice. One of the quantity surveyors told me last week he asked which clients had had a call but no email afterwards. Said it found three he'd forgotten about.
- Marcus BellThat's a good one. That's the kind of question that's hard to answer by hand, because you'd have to look in two places and match them up.
- Craig AshwellExactly. Nobody has time. They'd just not do it.
- Marcus BellAnd is it mainly you and him asking, or is it spread across the team?
- Craig AshwellMe, honestly. A lot is me. I can't pretend otherwise. I'm on it most mornings.
- Marcus BellThat's not a criticism. It's just something I'd like to watch, because if it's mostly one person, then it's only as good as how much that person has time for. So getting the credit control team and a couple more project directors in would help, I think.
- Craig AshwellAgreed. Project directors I can do. I'll tell them to use it. They'll grumble and then they'll use it.
- Marcus BellHa. Fine by me. Moving on to the tickets, then. There were three in the last month, and one of them was marked high priority. I've been through all of them with the support team and I'm happy with how they were handled.
- Craig AshwellThe high priority one, that was my team. They get twitchy when a number doesn't match what they expect. It got sorted, I think. Quick enough.
- Marcus BellIt did, yes. And for what it's worth, three tickets from a team that's using it a lot more than before is about what I'd expect. It's when it goes quiet that I start to wonder.
- Craig AshwellHa. So noise is good.
- Marcus BellNoise is fine. Silence is what I don't like.
- Craig AshwellFair enough. Anything else on the tickets?
- Marcus BellNot really. If anyone on your side is unsure whether something's a ticket or a how-to, tell them to raise it anyway. We'd rather see it.
- Craig AshwellI'll tell them.
- Marcus BellOkay. On the contract side, nothing to change. You're on Growth, forty users, thirty-nine thousand six hundred pounds a year, and that's what's been invoiced, so it matches the order form. You've been with us since 23 Aug 2024 and the term runs to 22 Aug 2025.
- Craig AshwellThat's most of a year away.
- Marcus BellIt is. I only mention it so it's never a surprise. Nothing for you to do now. Growth includes quarterly reviews, and I'd like to get the first one booked for the new year, when we've got a few more months of data and the credit control team have had a go.
- Craig AshwellWhat would you show me in that?
- Marcus BellUsage by team, which questions are being asked and who's asking them, and what you've built in the dashboards builder. And I'd want you to tell me what's worth it and what isn't. That's more use to me than any chart I could make.
- Craig AshwellRight. Direct, then. What I want is variations agreed before the work's done and valuations paid on time. If the brain helps with those two, it's earned its money. If it's just a nice search box, it hasn't.
- Marcus BellThat's a fair test. Can I write that down as the thing we measure against?
- Craig AshwellPlease do. Put it at the top.
- Marcus BellDone. So for the review, I'll try to pull together what the brain has surfaced on variations and on late payments, and we'll see together whether it holds up. I can't promise it'll be neat, mind. Some of it will depend on what's been recorded.
- Craig AshwellWhich is why I keep telling people to record it. Where's the variation? If it's not written down, it didn't happen.
- Marcus BellHa, I might borrow that.
- Craig AshwellBorrow it. One more thing. The dashboards. My project directors want one page per client. Contract, variations, what's been invoiced, what's outstanding. Can it do that?
- Marcus BellYes, that's what the dashboards builder is for, and it's part of Growth. I'd be happy to build the first one with you on a call, then your team can copy it for other clients. I wouldn't promise it's perfect first time, but we'd get a working version.
- Craig AshwellFine. Put thirty minutes in. Same week as the credit control session?
- Marcus BellShall we book both then? I'll send options by the end of the day.
- Craig AshwellDo. I'll be on site half the week though, so email me, don't ring. I never hear it ring.
- Marcus BellWill do. Email it is.
- Craig AshwellAnd copy my finance lead on the credit control one so she sees it.
- Marcus BellOf course. Is there anyone else you'd want on that invite? A project director, perhaps?
- Craig AshwellNot yet. Let's do credit control properly first. If it's too many people it turns into a meeting and nobody learns anything.
- Marcus BellAgreed. Small and useful. Anything else on your list?
- Craig AshwellThe site managers. Can they ask it from their phone?
- Marcus BellI'd need to check what the experience on a phone is like for you before I say yes. Let me find out and come back to you rather than guess.
- Craig AshwellGood. Don't guess. Last time someone guessed we lost a week.
- Marcus BellWon't. Honestly, if the answer's no, I'd rather tell you no now. Then you can decide whether it's worth the site managers using it at all or whether the project directors just pass things on.
- Craig AshwellYes. That's the right way to look at it. Tell me either way.
- Marcus BellI will. Right, a quick recap so we're on the same page. I'll send times for a credit control session, with your finance lead copied. I'll book a working session on the one-page client dashboard. I'll check the phone question. And we'll get the first quarterly review in for the new year.
- Craig AshwellYes. Good. And find me the unsigned variation on that floor.
- Marcus BellThat one's on the screen already. I'll send you the link to the page so your project lead can chase it.
- Craig AshwellPerfect. Send it now if you can. I'll forward it straight on.
- Marcus BellSending it as we speak. You should have it in a minute.
- Craig AshwellRight, I've got a site meeting. Thanks, Marcus. This was useful. More useful than I thought it'd be.
- Marcus BellCheers, Craig. Happy to jump on another call any time. Speak soon.
- Craig AshwellBye.
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