Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Check In
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Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 19 Jan 2026 11:00
On 19 Jan 2026 Marcus Bell told Craig Ashwell that only three or four of 40 Growth users are active on a given day. Craig says he cannot justify the spend upstairs without a clear picture of what the team gets out of it.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026On 19 Jan 2026 Marcus Bell told Craig Ashwell that only three or four of 40 Growth users are active on a given day. Craig says he cannot justify the spend upstairs without a clear picture of what the team gets out of it.
What happened: Marcus walked Craig through usage on Growth. Active users are well down on the previous quarter, and questions come mainly from Craig and one credit control colleague.
Customer view: Craig was not surprised and puts it down to habit and a busy autumn. He wants a variations use case for project managers and a variations dashboard.
Commercial: Contract ends 22 Aug 2026 with renewal on 23 Aug 2026, at £44k a year on the original terms. Craig says he will struggle to justify it upstairs without a clear value picture.
Watch: Connectors are loading and the data is current, so this is adoption, not plumbing. No tickets were raised in the last month, and an overdue invoice was flagged but passed to Craig's finance lead. The evidence does not show the outcome.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Low adoption 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- Marcus Bell sends Craig the user list with last-seen dates that week, for Craig to mark who stays.
- Marcus tests a variations question on the Thames Valley job, then books thirty minutes with the project managers.
- Priya Raman, named by Marcus as account owner, goes through the commercial side of the renewal with Craig.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Only three or four of 40 licensed Growth users are active on a given day, and use is concentrated in two people.
- Craig says he will struggle to justify the renewal upstairs without a clear value picture.
- An overdue invoice was flagged and has been passed to Craig's finance lead, with no outcome shown.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A live variations session with the project managers could widen use of the brain.
- The Growth dashboards builder is unused, and Craig asked for a variations dashboard in the plan.
Transcript
Marcus BellMorning, Craig. Can you hear me alright?
Craig AshwellYep, loud and clear. Morning, Marcus. Sorry, I'm walking back into the office, give me a second to sit down.- Marcus BellNo rush. Take your time. I've got the kettle on anyway.
- Craig AshwellRight. Sat. Mondays, eh. I've already had three calls about one site, and it's not even half eleven. Well, it's eleven. Feels later.
- Marcus BellWhich one's the worry this morning?
- Craig AshwellThe office floor we're finishing in the Thames Valley. The client's asked for extra partitions and extra data points, we've built half of it, and where's the variation? Nobody's signed anything. What has the client signed? Nothing. That's what I keep asking.
- Marcus BellMm. Yeah, that's the sort of thing I'd hope the brain helps with, to be fair. Seeing the emails and the project record side by side.
- Craig AshwellThat's exactly why I brought it in. Which is partly why I said yes to this call, actually, because I suspect you're about to show me something I won't love.
- Marcus BellHa, well, let me be straight with you. I'll share my screen and say what I want to cover. Can you see that okay?
- Craig AshwellI can see a graph going the wrong way.
- Marcus BellRight, so, that's it. Three things today. One, how the team's actually been using it since the autumn. Two, anything that's got in your way. Three, what we do between now and the renewal. Is that fine?
- Craig AshwellGo on. Start with the graph.
- Marcus BellSo you've got forty licensed users on Growth. Over the last month, on average, it's only three or four people active on any given day. And that's well down on the previous quarter. I've pulled the numbers, and it's not a small dip, it's a proper drop.
- Craig AshwellThree or four. Out of forty.
- Marcus BellYeah. Sorry. I'd rather you heard it from me than found it in a report.
- Craig AshwellNo, no. Better you say it. I'll be honest, it doesn't surprise me. I'm in there most weeks. I know the credit control lot dip in when they're chasing. But the project managers? I couldn't tell you the last time one of them mentioned it.
- Marcus BellCan I ask what you think happened? Not blame, just so I understand.
- Craig AshwellHonestly? Habit. We rolled it out, everyone had a go, there was a bit of energy. Then the autumn got mad with handovers, and people went back to what they know. Spreadsheets. Phoning each other. Whoever shouts loudest.
- Marcus BellThat's pretty common after the first few months, to be fair. It's not a reflection on anyone.
- Craig AshwellIt's a reflection on me, a bit. I'm the one who said this would be how we see every client in one place.
- Marcus BellWell, you've been using it, and that matters. Look, can I show you who's asking the questions? Because I think it's quite telling.
- Craig AshwellGo on.
- Marcus BellSo if I filter the questions asked by person, a big share of them are coming from you and one person in credit control. That's the bulk of it. Everyone else is a handful, or nothing at all.
- Craig AshwellRight. So if I'm off for a fortnight, it's practically quiet.
- Marcus BellMore or less, yeah. Which I'd rather not see. Two people carrying it is thin.
- Craig AshwellFair. What else have you got?
- Marcus BellConnectors. Your CRM, the accounting system and the mailbox are all still loading. Records are still coming in each night, so the data's current. That side's healthy. It's the people side that's thin, not the plumbing.
- Craig AshwellGood. Because if the data was rubbish I'd have heard about it from the credit team in about ten minutes.
- Marcus BellExactly. And on that, you've raised no tickets in the last month. Not one. Normally with a team that size I'd expect a few how-to questions at least.
- Craig AshwellSo silence isn't good news.
- Marcus BellNot really, no. I read it as people not poking at it, rather than people finding it easy.
- Craig AshwellYeah. That's fair. Okay. So what do we do? I don't want to pay for forty seats and have four people using it.
- Marcus BellNo, I wouldn't either. So, a couple of ideas. Tell me if they're daft. One is a short session with the project managers, thirty minutes, on your real projects, not a demo. Variations first, because that's what you care about.
- Craig AshwellVariations, yes. Show them where the variation is. Show them what the client has signed and what they haven't.
- Marcus BellThat's the idea. Ask the brain, on a live job, 'what's been instructed on site that isn't on a signed variation'. And let them see the answer come back from the emails, the calls and the project record.
- Craig AshwellCan it actually do that? Because if it can, that's the whole thing. That's money.
- Marcus BellIt depends on how well the emails and the project record are tied to each client. Let me test it on that Thames Valley job before we do the session, so I'm not guessing in front of your team. I'll tell you what comes back, good or bad.
- Craig AshwellDo that. I'd rather know it works before I put a room of PMs in front of it. They'll give up in about thirty seconds if it doesn't.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. That's the trick, isn't it. The first go has to be useful.
- Craig AshwellYeah. Sorry, one sec. Someone's at the door. Carry on, I can hear you.
- Marcus BellOkay, so, while you're doing that. The second idea is a bit more boring. I'd like to look at the user list with you and see who's actually on it.
- Craig AshwellRight, I'm back. Sorry. Who's on it, you said.
- Marcus BellWho's got a seat. Because some of that forty might be people who left, or people who were added for the first push and never logged in. Then we can see who really should be in there and who shouldn't.
- Craig AshwellThere'll be a few. We've had people move on. I couldn't tell you which. I'd have to ask HR, and then I'd have to ask the site teams who they actually deal with.
- Marcus BellI can send you the list with last-seen dates. You tick who matters, cross off who doesn't. Won't take ten minutes.
- Craig AshwellFine. Send it this week and I'll turn it round.
- Marcus BellWill do. Third thing, and this is where I'll be careful, because it's not mine to argue. The renewal.
- Craig AshwellGo on, I'm listening. The contract runs out in August, doesn't it?
- Marcus BellIt does. Contract ends 22 Aug 2026 and the renewal falls on 23 Aug 2026. You're at £44k a year at the moment, on the original terms. Priya Raman's your account owner and she'll go through the commercial side with you. I don't do price, that's hers.
- Craig AshwellRight. I did get a letter, didn't I? Early January. About prices changing.
- Marcus BellThat's right, all the customers on the older price book were told. I'm not going to try to explain the detail, because I'd get it wrong and Priya won't. What I can do is make sure when you two sit down, you've got a clear picture of what the team actually uses.
- Craig AshwellWhich at the moment is four people and a graph going down.
- Marcus BellYeah. Which is why I'd like to move it before then. Seven months is plenty of time, but not if we sit on it.
- Craig AshwellFair. I'll be straight with you, Marcus. If I go into that conversation and can't say what we've got out of it, I'll struggle to justify it upstairs. The family will ask me what we're paying for.
- Marcus BellThat's completely reasonable. And that's what I want to help you with. A proper picture. Not a sales pitch, just here's what it's done and here's what it hasn't.
- Craig AshwellOkay. Let me ask something awkward. Is there anything we should have been doing that we weren't? Features, or connectors, or whatever. Have I missed something?
- Marcus BellNot a missed feature, no. If anything, you're on Growth, so there's a dashboards builder you haven't used at all. I'd have expected a project dashboard by now, honestly. Variations open, variations signed, by job.
- Craig AshwellA dashboard I could look at on a Monday morning. Instead of three phone calls.
- Marcus BellThat's the idea. And it's the kind of thing that gets people looking at it without being told to.
- Craig AshwellRight, I like that. Put that in the plan. Variations dashboard, and the PM session.
- Marcus BellNoted. I'll write them down properly in the follow-up. Can I ask one more thing, and tell me if it's out of order?
- Craig AshwellGo on.
- Marcus BellI can see there's an invoice we've sent that's overdue. I'm not chasing, I just want you to know I've seen it, in case it's tangled up in how you feel about the thing generally.
- Craig AshwellRight. That's not mine to talk about, that's for our finance lead. I don't get into cash without her in the room. I'll ask her to pick it up with your billing people today.
- Marcus BellThat's absolutely fine. I only wanted to flag it. I'll leave it with her.
- Craig AshwellGood. And for what it's worth, it's not a protest. It's probably just sitting in somebody's inbox.
- Marcus BellNo, I didn't think it was. Honestly.
- Craig AshwellOkay. So, the session. When? Because I can't do next week, we've got the handover on the Thames Valley job and everyone'll be on site.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. Shall we say the week after? I'll test the variations question beforehand and send you what I find. Then if it's good, we book the thirty minutes with your project managers.
- Craig AshwellThat works. Give me a shout when you've got something. And Marcus.
- Marcus BellYeah?
- Craig AshwellDon't send me a report with forty graphs in it. One page. What's working, what isn't, what I've got to do.
- Marcus BellOne page. Got it. Actually, that's probably better for me too.
- Craig AshwellHa. Everybody says that.
- Marcus BellRight. Let me read back what I've got, and you stop me if I've got it wrong. I send you the user list with last-seen dates this week, and you mark who should stay.
- Craig AshwellYep.
- Marcus BellI test a variations question on the Thames Valley job and tell you honestly how it comes out. If it's good, we book thirty minutes with your project managers the week after next, on live jobs. And I'll sketch what a variations dashboard might look like, so you can say yes or no to it.
- Craig AshwellYes. And your side says Priya contacts me about the renewal.
- Marcus BellShe does. I'll give her a heads up on where we've got to, so she's not going in cold, and I'll make sure the usage picture is one page for her as well.
- Craig AshwellGood. Right. I've got a site meeting in a few minutes, I need to jump.
- Marcus BellNo problem at all. Thanks for being straight with me, Craig. It helps.
- Craig AshwellLikewise. Speak soon. Go and find me my variation.
- Marcus BellWill do. Speak soon, Craig. Cheers.
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