Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 20 Jan 2026 14:15
On 20 Jan 2026 Amara Obi, newly on the account, met Craig Ashwell and Jamal Edwards. Use is low but concentrated on two client disputes, and Craig wants a value case for the August renewal.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026On 20 Jan 2026 Amara Obi, newly on the account, met Craig Ashwell and Jamal Edwards. Use is low but concentrated on two client disputes, and Craig wants a value case for the August renewal.
What happened: Amara introduced herself as having picked up the account recently. Jamal showed how he builds evidence for two valuation disputes from variations, site instructions, calls and emails.
Customer view: Jamal says use is mostly him, and what took days now takes an afternoon plus checking. Craig says it changed the conversation on the disputes.
Commercial: Craig said low usage made him question £44k, but the walkthrough suggests it earns its keep on the disputes. He needs to show that to the rest of the family, so a QBR before the renewal is planned.
Watch: Key-person dependence on Jamal and Craig, and 40 seats where valuation and credit control staff are not yet in. Some site instructions were in unindexed folders, and Craig needs any data lag flagged. An open invoice went to his finance lead.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Dispute evidence and value case
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- Jamal Edwards sends Amara Obi the list of site instruction folders so she can check they are indexed.
- Amara builds a standard dispute page with four sections and sends it that week.
- Amara emails Craig's finance lead about the open invoice, copying Craig, and sends QBR options that week.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Use rests largely on Jamal Edwards and Craig Ashwell, a key-person risk across 40 licensed seats.
- Some site instructions sat in folders that may not be indexed, and Craig needs warning of any stale data during a dispute.
- Craig must show the rest of the family the value, and an open invoice sits with his finance lead.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A standard dispute page on the Growth dashboards builder could let others pick up cases.
- Quantity surveyors, credit control and the finance lead could take unused seats to widen use.
Transcript
Amara ObiHello, hello. Can you hear me all right? I've got the recording light on, so we should be live.
Craig AshwellLoud and clear. Good afternoon. Jamal's just finding a room, he'll be two minutes. He's got a site meeting that overran.- Amara ObiNo problem at all. While we wait, let me introduce myself properly, Craig, because we haven't spoken before. I'm Amara, I'm the Customer Success Manager and I've picked up your account recently. I won't pretend I know the history, so I'd rather you tell me where things really stand.
- Craig AshwellAppreciated. Honestly, that's the best way to start. People usually pretend and then we spend twenty minutes correcting them.
- Amara ObiHa, no, I'd rather ask. How's the week been? Is it as grey in Reading as it is here?
- Craig AshwellGrey and wet. Everything's wet. Try getting a screed to cure in January. Anyway, it's a Tuesday, we're still here.
Jamal EdwardsSorry, sorry, I'm here. Can you hear me? I've got the laptop on a window ledge, it's the only quiet spot.- Amara ObiWe can hear you, Jamal. Hi, I'm Amara from BG-Demo. Thanks for making time.
- Jamal EdwardsHi, Amara. No, thank you. Craig said you wanted to see how we're actually using it, so I've got a few things open.
- Amara ObiThat's exactly it. So here's what the numbers say, and then I'll stop talking. You're on Growth, forty licensed users, and over the last quarter only a handful of people have been logging in regularly. Questions asked are down as well. It's not a complaint, it's just something I never let go unmentioned in a check-in. Who else should have access, and who has stopped using it?
- Craig AshwellFair. Fair. I'll be straight with you. Most of the team are living in their inboxes at the moment. We've got two clients disputing final valuations, and that's what's eating everybody. That's the project that worries me most, actually both of them. So the people who do use it are the people on those two.
- Amara ObiRight. So the use is concentrated on the disputes. Is that good or bad, do you think?
- Craig AshwellGood, if it works. Bad if it's only Jamal and me. Which, to be fair, is nearly where we are.
- Jamal EdwardsIt's mostly me, if I'm honest. Craig asks a question every now and then, but I'm in there most days at the moment.
- Amara ObiOkay. Would you show me? I'd love to see how you build the evidence on these two, start to finish, rather than me guessing from a usage chart.
- Jamal EdwardsSure. Give me a second, let me share. Can you see the browser? Not the email, the other one.
- Amara ObiYes, I can see the brain, the client page. Looks like the first client's page, is that right?
- Jamal EdwardsThat's it. So I'm not going to name them on a recording, if that's all right. I'll call them the first client and the second client. The first one is the office floor for a landlord, the second one is the retail unit.
- Amara ObiThat's fine, makes sense. Go on.
- Jamal EdwardsSo on every client page I do the same four things. One, the variations. Everything we priced on top of the original scope, with the date it was raised and whether it was ever signed. Two, the site instructions. Three, the calls. Four, the emails. And I put them in order, side by side, so you can see what was said and then what was confirmed.
- Craig AshwellWhich is the whole game. What has the client signed? That's all a valuation dispute is. What have they signed, and what did they just nod at.
- Amara ObiMm. So where do the variations come from? Are those typed in, or is that pulled from your systems?
- Jamal EdwardsPulled. Well, mostly. The variation register comes through from the commercial side, and I check it against what the brain finds in emails. That's the bit I find most useful, actually, because the register is only as good as whoever updated it.
- Craig AshwellWhere's the variation? That's my question every morning. If it's not on the register and it's not in an email, it doesn't exist as far as the client is concerned.
- Amara ObiRight. Show me one that's tricky. Something where the register and the paperwork don't line up.
- Jamal EdwardsOkay, so, the extra partitioning on the second floor. Hang on, let me scroll. Here. This is on the first client. We've got it on the register as a variation, priced, but status is unsigned.
- Amara ObiAnd the client says what?
- Jamal EdwardsThe client says it was always in scope. So I ask the brain, what was said about the partitioning on the second floor. And it comes back with three things. A call, an email after it, and a site instruction.
- Craig AshwellShow her the call.
- Jamal EdwardsYeah. So this is the call from the autumn. The client's rep says, and I'll read it, that they want the additional partitions done before the tenant moves in, and that they understand it's additional. It's in their words. Then the follow-up email from our side confirms the price, and there's no reply that disputes it.
- Amara ObiThat's quite a strong thread. So the recording and the email are linked automatically? You didn't have to go hunting?
- Jamal EdwardsNo hunting. That's the point. Before, I'd have been through about three mailboxes and a shared drive. Now I ask once and I get the call, the email and the instruction in date order.
- Craig AshwellAnd I'll tell you what, it changed the conversation. Two weeks of going round in circles and now we've got a timeline. Doesn't mean we win. But we know what we've got.
- Amara ObiOkay. And the site instructions, where do those sit? Are they in the same place, or is that a separate source?
- Jamal EdwardsSeparate. The site instructions come in through the shared drive connector. Some of them are scans, so the quality varies. There are a couple I couldn't find at first, and it turned out they'd been saved in the wrong folder.
- Amara ObiMm. That's useful for me to know, because a folder that isn't connected is a gap you'd only discover in a dispute. Can you send me the list of folders the site instructions live in, and I'll check they're all being indexed?
- Jamal EdwardsYeah, I can do that today. I'd rather it was complete before we go any further with the second client.
- Craig AshwellLet's do the second one. That's the harder one.
- Jamal EdwardsRight, switching. Same layout. Here's the retail unit. This one's messier, because a lot of the changes were agreed on site, verbally, with the client's project manager. So you've got fewer emails and more calls.
- Amara ObiSo the recorder picks up the calls, but not the conversations on site?
- Jamal EdwardsCorrect. Site conversations aren't recorded. What we have is the call before and the email after. So I look for the email that says, as discussed on site, and then work back.
- Craig AshwellWhich is a habit I'm trying to get everybody into. Anything agreed on site, an email the same day. Not tomorrow, same day.
- Amara ObiThat's a really good habit. And it'll make the brain better too, because it's got something to find.
- Jamal EdwardsYes. So here, look. Eleven of these same-day emails I can match to variations. The ones I can't match, I flag. That's the list I take to Craig.
- Craig AshwellAnd that list is the worry. Every item on it is money we've built and not been paid for. Let's get paid for what we've built, that's all I want.
- Amara ObiUnderstood. Can I suggest something? On Growth you've got the dashboards builder, and I don't think anyone here has built one. Would it help to have one standard page per dispute, with the same four sections, so anybody picking it up sees the evidence in the same order?
- Jamal EdwardsThat's more or less what I've been doing by hand each time. A template would save me the setting up.
- Craig AshwellAnd it means it's not just Jamal. If he's on site, somebody else can open it. I like that.
- Amara ObiGood. I'll put a simple one together for you, using the structure Jamal's just shown me, and send it over. You tell me what's missing. Who else on the commercial side should be able to open it?
- Craig AshwellQuantity surveyors, the credit control team. Our finance lead, definitely. She'll want it for the valuations.
- Amara ObiGreat, because that's where the licences are going spare. Forty seats, and the people who deal with valuations every day aren't in there. One thing I do need to mention, and I'll keep it short. There's an invoice showing as open on our side.
- Craig AshwellRight. I'll stop you there, Amara, nothing personal. I don't talk cash without our finance lead on the call. Can you email her and copy me? She'll come back to you properly.
- Amara ObiAbsolutely, that's the right way round. I'll send the detail today. It's one invoice, nothing dramatic, I just don't want it sitting.
- Craig AshwellUnderstood. Thank you. Now, can I say something about the renewal?
- Amara ObiPlease do.
- Craig AshwellIt's up in August. I've seen the date, 23 August 2026. And I'll be honest, if you'd asked me a month ago I'd have said the usage is low, so why are we paying forty-four thousand pounds. Having Jamal walk through this, I think the answer is that it's earning its keep on exactly the two things that matter. But I need to be able to show that to the rest of the family. Not just say it.
- Amara ObiThat's fair, and thank you for saying it plainly. So the value case is what the disputes are worth to you and how quickly you could assemble the evidence compared with before. I can't put the money figures in, that's yours. But I can put the usage and the time saved alongside. Does that sound useful?
- Craig AshwellVery. Jamal, you can say roughly how long it took to build one of these before?
- Jamal EdwardsDays. Properly, days, for a client with this much history. Now it's an afternoon, plus the checking. The checking's the bit I won't skip.
- Amara ObiAnd you shouldn't. The brain finds, you decide. Okay. Let me read back what I'm taking away, and shout if I've got it wrong.
- Amara ObiOne, I check that every folder with site instructions is indexed, and Jamal sends me the list today. Two, I build a standard dispute page, same four sections, and send it over this week. Three, I email your finance lead about the open invoice, copying Craig. Four, you tell me who on the commercial and credit side needs access, and I get them set up. And five, we get the next QBR in the diary, ahead of the renewal, so we can put the value case together properly.
- Craig AshwellThat's it exactly. Put it in the diary for the back end of the month, if you can, before it all gets any worse.
- Amara ObiI'll send options this week. Anything else worrying you, Craig, before we finish? Anything about the brain itself, not the clients?
- Craig AshwellOnly that it keeps up. Last thing I need is stale data in the middle of a dispute. If it's behind by a day, I need to know.
- Amara ObiFair, and I'll check the refresh on your account and tell you what I find, good or bad. I'd rather you heard it from me than discovered it.
- Jamal EdwardsThat'd be great. And I'll have the folder list across to you within the hour, after this.
- Craig AshwellGood. Thanks, Amara. Thanks, Jamal. Right, I've got to get on the road.
- Amara ObiThanks both. Speak soon. Best, Amara.
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