Following up on our discovery call
Email thread Calderbrook Housing Group · sales
After the discovery call Helen Marsden ranked arrears, complaints and repairs by pain and asked whether every answer can be traced to its source. Tom Ashdown floated a £56k placeholder; she wants the breakdown in writing.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026After the discovery call Helen Marsden ranked arrears, complaints and repairs by pain and asked whether every answer can be traced to its source. Tom Ashdown floated a £56k placeholder; she wants the breakdown in writing.
Ask: Helen will not put a figure before the board unless it traces back to its record. She wants the price breakdown in writing, not a floated number.
Customer view: arrears is worst, complaints second, repairs third. Tom said the Growth tier is the starting point, with the opportunity at £56k as a placeholder and expected close 16 Aug 2024.
Next: Tom promised a demo on her own data and a confirmed commercial breakdown.
The thread
Updated 9 Oct 26Messages
Tom Ashdown 26 Jun 2024 13:42Hi Helen, Thanks for your time this morning, and for being so straight about where the board pack is hurting. I wanted to get my notes to you while they were fresh. As I heard it, you want tenant calls, repairs tickets, complaints and rent arrears sitting in one place, so your team can stop stitching them together by hand before each board meeting. The sticking point is that the numbers need to reconcile to the housing management system, and you need to be able to show where each one came from. What I'd suggest as a next step is that we look at what the Growth tier would cover for your team, given the number of sources you mentioned. I've put an opportunity together on our side at £56,000. Please treat that as a placeholder for the total deal value rather than a quote: I'll confirm exactly what's in it, and how it splits between the one-off implementation and the subscription, before anything goes near you. Pencilled expected close is 16 Aug 2024, but that's just so I can plan, not a deadline for you. Could you tell me which two or three board-pack sections cause you the most grief? I'd like to build the demo around those. Best, Tom
Helen Marsden 26 Jun 2024 14:36Tom, Thank you for the summary, it matches my understanding of the call. To answer your question: the arrears section of the board pack is the worst. The figures there and the figures in the housing management system do not reconcile, and the board will ask. The second is the complaints section, where the count depends on whose spreadsheet you open. Repairs is third, but I could live with that for now. Before we go any further I would like to be clear on one point. When the brain gives an answer, can you show me the source? If I can't trace a figure back to the record it came from, I can't put it in front of the board, whatever the tool says. On the price, thank you for being careful. I'd rather see the breakdown in writing than have a number floated. Kind regards, Helen- Tom Ashdown 27 Jun 2024 15:51Hi Helen, That's a fair challenge, and it's the right one to ask. Short answer is yes: every answer the brain gives points back to the underlying record in the source system, so you can click through and see where a figure came from. Rather than just tell you, I'd like to show you on your own data, starting with arrears and complaints, since those are the two that bother you most. If a figure doesn't reconcile in the demo, we'll talk about why, not paper over it. I'll leave the commercial breakdown with our side and send it once I've confirmed it, no drama. Can we get something in the diary for a demo? I'll send a few slots separately. Best, Tom