Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 16 Jun 2025 09:30
On the 16 Jun 2025 check-in Craig Ashwell said he is not unhappy and the brain has earned its keep on one job. Only five or six of forty seats are active, and many questions come from him. He wants the value written down for the board.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026On the 16 Jun 2025 check-in Craig Ashwell said he is not unhappy and the brain has earned its keep on one job. Only five or six of forty seats are active, and many questions come from him. He wants the value written down for the board.
What happened: Marcus Bell ran a check-in with Craig Ashwell on 16 Jun 2025. Craig opened with an unpapered variation on a corporate tenant job that the brain exposed.
Customer view: Craig said commercial and credit control use it daily, but project managers see it as a finance tool. He wants to be able to tell the board what the company got.
Commercial: Marcus restated the contract at £40k, matching the order form and invoices, and the renewal on 23 Aug 2025. Priya Raman owns the price conversation.
Watch: Craig is the heaviest user, so the team depends on one person. Marcus proposed a Growth dashboards builder view per project and a quarterly review with finance ahead of the renewal conversation.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Adoption gap and value case
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Craig Ashwell picks two project managers by Wednesday so Marcus Bell can book a session on their own jobs.
- Marcus Bell sends the user list and the variations list, then reruns the variations list in a month.
- Marcus Bell sends three review dates, no Fridays, for a quarterly review with someone from finance.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Only five or six of forty Growth users are active on an average day, slightly lower than the quarter before.
- Craig Ashwell asks a large share of the questions, so usage depends on one person.
- Craig wants the value written down for the board, and finance has not yet confirmed any recovered figure.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A dashboards builder view per project could bring project managers in, using a Growth feature the customer already has.
- Credit control wants to see slow-paying clients with open variations, which Marcus Bell will look into.
Transcript
Marcus BellMorning, Craig. Can you hear me alright?
Craig AshwellMorning, Marcus. Yes, loud and clear. You?- Marcus BellYep, all fine. Bit grey up here in Manchester. I hope it's better down your way.
- Craig AshwellRaining. Of course it is. I've been on site since half seven, so I've already had a good moan to the site manager.
- Marcus BellHa, well, thanks for making the time anyway. I know it's a busy week. I'll share my screen in a minute, but what I wanted to cover is quick. How the team is using the brain, anything that's not working for you, and where we are with the renewal. Does that work?
- Craig AshwellFine. But before you start, can I tell you what's worrying me? It's the corporate tenant job, the one that's nearly at completion. The client asked for extra work on the ceilings and the lighting back in the spring. Nobody has papered it.
- Marcus BellRight. And that's, sorry, is that something you've been looking at in the brain?
- Craig AshwellYes. That's the point. I asked it what the client has signed. It gave me the emails, it gave me the notes from two calls, and it showed me the site instruction. What it did not show me was a signed variation. Because there isn't one.
- Marcus BellMm. So it found the gap for you.
- Craig AshwellIt found the gap, yes. Which is more than the project team did. Where's the variation? That's what I said to them. We build it, we don't get paid for it. I'm not having that again.
- Marcus BellThat's a good example, actually. That's exactly what the commercial and credit side of it is meant to do, put the project and the paperwork next to each other.
- Craig AshwellRight. And that's the bit that works. My team, the commercial lot, they live in it. Credit control too. They use it every day.
- Marcus BellGood. Okay, let me share my screen so you can see what I've pulled. Give me a second. Can you see it?
- Craig AshwellYep. Bit small. Go on.
- Marcus BellI'll make it bigger. There. So, this is the last quarter against the one before. Questions asked are holding up well, and a lot of those are from you and a couple of people in your team, which is great. Records indexed are still moving every night, so the data's fresh. No tickets from you in the last month, nothing urgent, nothing sitting open.
- Craig AshwellGood. I'd have shouted if there was.
- Marcus BellI know you would. The thing I wanted to flag is the number of people actually logging in. You've got forty licensed users on Growth. On an average day it's about five or six people active. That's a little lower than the quarter before.
- Craig AshwellForty. Right. And five or six actually use it.
- Marcus BellOn an average day, yeah. Some people dip in less often, so it's not the whole picture. But it's a gap between what you've got and what's being used, and I'd rather talk about it than leave it.
- Craig AshwellNo, fair enough. Who's the five or six? Is it just us?
- Marcus BellMostly commercial and credit control, with you as the heaviest user. A few project managers show up from time to time, but not regularly. I've got the names here if you'd like them.
- Craig AshwellSend them over. I know what the problem is anyway. The project managers think it's a finance tool. They're on site, on their phones, they want the drawing and the programme. They don't want to sit and ask questions.
- Marcus BellThat's useful to hear. Can I ask, if they could see their own projects, say which variations are open and which have been agreed, would that be of any interest to them?
- Craig AshwellOf course it would. That's the thing they get wrong. If they could see at a glance, this one's instructed but not signed, they'd chase it. Right now it's in someone's inbox.
- Marcus BellOkay. So there's a way of doing that with the dashboards builder, which is part of Growth. I can sit with whoever you choose and build a simple view per project. Open variations, what's been instructed, what's been signed.
- Craig AshwellWho builds it? You?
- Marcus BellI'd build the first one with someone from your side watching, so they can do the next ones themselves. I don't want it to be something that only works when I'm there.
- Craig AshwellGood. I like that. Last thing I want is another thing that depends on one person.
- Marcus BellWhich, honestly, is the other thing I wanted to mention. Quite a lot of the questions are coming from you. That's not a problem, but if you're away for a fortnight, I don't want the team to stop using it.
- Craig AshwellHmm. Yes. I take that. I go on holiday in July. Fair point.
- Marcus BellNo, you should. I'm just saying it's worth spreading it a bit.
- Craig AshwellRight. Who else should be using it? Give me a name.
- Marcus BellI'd say start with two project managers, the ones who look after your biggest jobs. If it works for them, others will follow, because they'll see the value in a meeting. People copy what's useful.
- Craig AshwellTwo. Okay. I'll pick them. They'll grumble.
- Marcus BellThat's fine. Grumbling's allowed. Happy to jump on a call with them, short one, show them how to ask it about a project.
- Craig AshwellHow long?
- Marcus BellHalf an hour. Maybe a bit more if they've got questions. I'd do it on their own jobs, not a made-up example.
- Craig AshwellTheir own jobs. Yes. That's the only way they'll listen.
- Marcus BellAgreed. Okay, can I check something else? The connectors. Everything you set up is still loading. I can see your CRM, the project system and the accounting system all moving, the calls as well. Has anything changed on your side? New systems, anything being swapped out?
- Craig AshwellNot that I know of. We've talked about changing how we do timesheets, but that's not decided. If it happens, I'll tell you before, not after.
- Marcus BellPlease do. If a system's replaced, the connector needs looking at, and it's much easier if we know in advance.
- Craig AshwellUnderstood. Before, not after.
- Marcus BellThanks. Right. The other thing is the renewal. Your contract runs to 22 Aug 2025 and it renews on 23 Aug 2025. You're at £39,600 a year, which matches the order form and what's been invoiced. I just wanted to say it out loud so there are no surprises on the calendar.
- Craig AshwellYes. I've got it in the diary. What happens? Do I need to do something?
- Marcus BellNothing today. Priya will be in touch about the commercial side, because that's hers, not mine. I don't get into price. What I can do is make sure that when she calls, you've got a clear picture of how it's been used and what it's done for you.
- Craig AshwellOkay. Look, I'll be straight with you. I'm not unhappy. It's earned its keep on that one job alone, the ceilings. But I'd want to be able to say to the board, here's what we got.
- Marcus BellThat's fair, and that's what I'd like to help with. If we get those two project managers going, and a dashboard in place, then in a couple of months you'll have something concrete to point to. Variations caught, things chased earlier.
- Craig AshwellRight. And can it tell me how many? How much we've recovered?
- Marcus BellIt can show you the variations it's linked to the projects and what state they're in. What was recovered, in terms of money, I'd want your finance side to confirm, because that's their figure.
- Craig AshwellYes. That's right. I don't talk cash without our finance lead in the room anyway. But I can get her to look.
- Marcus BellThat would be ideal. Even a rough before and after would do it.
- Craig AshwellRight. Now, can I ask you something else? On the credit control side. They want to see which clients are slow, and which of those have got open variations. Because if the client hasn't signed the variation, they won't pay the valuation. Same thing, different end.
- Marcus BellYeah, that makes sense. Can I take that away? I'd like to look at what's already linked in your data before I say what's possible. I don't want to promise something and then find the invoices and the variations don't line up.
- Craig AshwellFair. But I think they do. They've been pretty tidy.
- Marcus BellGood. Then it might be easy. I'll have a look this week and come back to you.
- Craig AshwellGood. Let's get paid for what we've built. That's all I'm after.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. Okay, anything else that's been annoying you? Slow answers, things it gets wrong? Even small stuff.
- Craig AshwellHmm. One thing. Sometimes I ask about a project and it gives me the wrong job, because two of them have nearly the same name. It's not wrong, exactly, I just have to be careful.
- Marcus BellOkay, that's helpful. Usually that's about how the jobs are named in the source system. If you give me the two names I can see whether we can make it clearer on our side, or whether it's something your team could tidy in the project system.
- Craig AshwellI'll send you them. They're both on the same landlord. Same building, different floors.
- Marcus BellRight, that'd do it. Send them over and I'll take a look.
- Craig AshwellWill do. Anything else from you?
- Marcus BellJust one. Growth comes with a quarterly review, a proper one, with usage and what it's delivered. I'd like to do the next one with you and someone from finance. It'd double as the lead into the renewal conversation, so Priya's got it all in front of her.
- Craig AshwellThat makes sense. When?
- Marcus BellI'd suggest in a few weeks, once the two project managers have had a go. Then we've got something real to look at, not just the numbers I showed you today.
- Craig AshwellFine. Send me some dates. Not Fridays, I'm on site.
- Marcus BellNo Fridays. Got it. I'll send three options by the end of this week.
- Craig AshwellGood. And the list of who's using it?
- Marcus BellYes, I'll send that today, along with a short summary of what we covered. Bullet points, nothing long. You'll have the names of the people I'd suggest for the training, but you choose, it's your team.
- Craig AshwellOkay. I'll pick the two by Wednesday.
- Marcus BellPerfect. Then I'll book the session for the week after, around their site visits.
- Craig AshwellRight. Good. One more thing, and then I've got to go. The ceilings job. Can you show me again how I find all the instructions without a signed variation? I'd like to do it across all the jobs, not just that one.
- Marcus BellSure. Let me show you. I'll type it in the chat. Something like, which projects have a client instruction with no signed variation. Give it a moment.
- Craig AshwellThere. That's a list. That's a proper list. Hang on, that's longer than I thought.
- Marcus BellIt might not all be real gaps. Some of those may be signed outside the system, so I'd have the project teams check each one. But it's a good place to start the chase.
- Craig AshwellNo, understood. But that's my week. Send me that list, please, exactly as it is.
- Marcus BellI'll export it and add it to the email. Happy to rerun it in a month so you can see what's closed.
- Craig AshwellDo that. That's a good measure. How many were open, how many are now closed.
- Marcus BellExactly. That's something you can take to the board without anyone arguing about it.
- Craig AshwellRight. I'm happy with that. It's been a more useful call than I expected.
- Marcus BellGlad to hear it. So just to recap. I send you the user list and the variations list today. You choose two project managers by Wednesday. I book the session with them and build the first project view. I look at the credit control question and the near-identical job names. And I send you dates for the review, no Fridays.
- Craig AshwellThat's it. And you tell Priya I'm not going anywhere, so she can stop worrying.
- Marcus BellHa. I'll pass on that you're positive, and that you'd like to see the value written down first. I think that's fair.
- Craig AshwellThat's fair. Written down. Yes.
- Marcus BellBrilliant. Thanks, Craig. Enjoy the rain.
- Craig AshwellI won't. Speak soon, Marcus.
- Marcus BellSpeak soon. Bye.
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