Book air-conditioning visits without mixing breakdown and service
Quick summary
- The assistant reads the book before it offers a time, so a heatwave breakdown is never offered as an annual clean.
- A service on three wall units and a look at a new indoor unit are different visits. Get that wrong and a hotel sits in twenty minutes reserved for a pipe run.
- Breakdown or service first. Then the address. Then the book.
- Anything that sounds like gas, a filter lecture, or a price for a new split stays a callback. The technician will look at the unit.
- If the assistant cannot read the book, it takes a callback. It does not guess an arrival.
- The assistant texts the window, the address, and who should be in, so the visit you wrote is the visit you can keep.
TL;DR
You are on a balcony. A caller who wants a time will not wait for a callback just to learn whether Thursday morning is free. An assistant can book those visits if it reads the book first, treats a heatwave call-out as different from an annual service, and asks breakdown or service before it places anything. A breakdown is an address. A service is a window. Gas advice is not a visit type — the technician will look at the unit. If the book cannot be reached, the assistant does not guess. It takes the request and says so. The assistant texts the window and who should be in.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the types and their real durations before you let it book — breakdown window, annual service, new-install look, hotel plant.
- Mark heatwave hours and days you do not run in the same book it reads, including Sundays.
- Test a move on an existing service and on a breakdown visit, separately, before you test a new install.
- Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with the address and who should be in.
- If the book cannot be reached, the only answer is a callback.
- Check the first fifty bookings by hand. That is when you find the hour that was a hot flat put into a clean.
When someone wants a time and you are on a roof
You are on a balcony. The outdoor unit is open. The phone rings.
A tenant wants Thursday morning for three wall units. A hotel wants a corridor looked at before Saturday. A family wants a new indoor unit measured. You cannot pick up. The copper is still open.
Those three callers are asking for a time. They are not asking for the same window. Mix them and a hotel is waiting for a half-day while you have booked twenty minutes, and a hot flat has been given a clean.
A caller who wants a time will not wait for a callback just to learn whether Thursday is free. They will ring the next van. The assistant can book those visits if it reads the book first, treats a breakdown as different from a service, and asks that split before it places anything.
Two clocks in August
A heatwave call-out is not an annual clean. A new pipe run is not a remote that needs batteries. Write the types the way you would tell a new hire on their first Saturday.
Breakdown window. Address, floor, indoor or outdoor, what they can see. A same-day afternoon if you run one. Not “twenty minutes”. Not a gas fill as the type.
Annual service. How many heads, indoor and outdoor, who will be in, whether the manager has the roof key.
New-install look. Rooms, wall or cassette, a time you can stand in the flat. Not a price.
Hotel plant. How many units, which floors, when the manager is there. Longer than a flat. Mark it.
If you run a “between four and seven” window in August, write that window down. The assistant repeats it. It does not tighten it to 16:20.
Breakdown or service — then the address — then the book
Nothing useful goes into the diary before the split.
If it is a breakdown, take the address and what they can see. Then look. Offer only a window the book shows as free, or ring the van if you marked heatwave jobs that way. Write it. Text the window, the address, who should be in.
If it is a service, take how many units and the address. Then look. A clean on three heads is not a twenty-minute remote. Do not put a hotel corridor into a flat slot.
A caller who is both — warm air tonight and a new indoor unit — still gets two notes. Book the breakdown. Flag the look. Do not let the assistant finish the second one as a price.
If the book cannot be reached, the only honest sentence is a callback. A tenant on a balcony with a confirmation for a visit the van has never heard of is worse than no booking.
No gas as a visit type. No filter lecture as a visit type. No “add gas Thursday at eleven”. Refrigerant is what you decide after you have seen the charge, not a slot.
Moves, cancels, and the window that never went back
“Move Thursday” is not a request until they say which Thursday thing. The clean and the new split can share one phone.
The assistant finds the existing visit, releases it, writes the new one, then texts. It does not offer the old hour to the next caller until the change is in. A cancel has to go back on the book the same hour. A service that will not happen on Thursday is a window a hot flat can take.
Sundays belong on the same book. Do not let it book a hotel plant into a morning when nobody is on the van.
This is not an electrician’s diary. A dead board is not a hole you fill with a split. Keep the types cooling-only.
What to send, in the language of the call
The SMS is the booking. Window, address, who should be in, whether the manager has the roof key. If they rang in English, the text is in English. 70+ languages. A confirmation in the wrong language is how nobody is in and the morning sits empty.
Do not put a pressure, a gas price, or a repair step in the text. The assistant will send whatever you leave in the template.
What you set first
- Types and durations. Breakdown, service, install look, hotel plant. Real hours, not hopeful ones.
- The book you already use. If it cannot be read, a callback. No guessed arrival.
- Hours, including the hours you do not run.
- The two refusals. No gas advice. No repair steps. No invented price for a new split.
- SMS at the moment of booking, with who should be in.
- Moves as one change. Find, release, write, then text.
- Read the first fifty bookings. That is when a hot flat has been dropped into a clean.
A quiet morning in March will tell you the greeting is right. It will not tell you whether Thursday’s hotel plant is still landing on a twenty-minute slot. Check August, not the calm.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reads the book before offering a time | Yes, the book the van works from | Yes | Usually not — takes a message |
| Books evenings and Saturday mornings | Yes, if you marked them | No | Sometimes |
| Treats a breakdown as different from a service | If you marked the two types | Yes | Rarely sees the week |
| Starts with breakdown or service | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what day |
| Books a gas top-up as a visit type | Never — the technician will look at the unit | The technician does, after seeing it | Sometimes books "a gas fill" |
| Sends the confirmation and who should be in | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of empty service windows costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- One van. About 28 booked half-days a month for service, installs, or hotel looks.
- An empty half-day is not given to someone else the same morning.
- About 10% of booked times, nobody is in, or the key is with the manager. Check your own figure.
- Recoverable value of a used half-day, €180. Put your own figure in. A clean and a new pipe run are not the same.
- A reminder that names who should be in cuts empty times by a third. Challenge this first.
- 28 times × 10% = about 3 empty half-days a month.
- 3 × €180 = €540 of reserved time sitting empty.
- A third avoided returns about €180 a month.
- Over a 12-week summer — 3 × €180.
Roughly €540 a summer, from a text that names who should be in, not only the window.
What it costs
CITT is pay as you go: no packages, no minimum, no contract. The current rates — the monthly fee per number and the per-minute rate — are on the pricing section of the home page, which is the only place they are published.
Frequently asked questions
Can it book a service while I am on a balcony?
It reads the same book the van works from and checks the window before offering it. A morning you have closed because you are in a heatwave run, or because the hotel plant has taken the day, is never offered as a clean, if you marked it. Short looks can still be offered that day if a window is free. If the assistant cannot reach the book at that moment, it does not guess. It takes the request as a callback and says so. A visit the van has no record of is worse than no visit. You arrive and nobody is in.
What about someone moving an existing service?
The assistant asks breakdown or service first, then the address, and treats the move as one change. Handled as cancel, then book, Thursday is still taken by their own visit, and they are told that window is not free. A client who has a clean and a new indoor unit on the same phone must say which visit is moving.
Will it book a time to add gas?
It will book a breakdown visit or a service, if you allow those types. It will not book a session in which the assistant itself tells them to add gas or talks them through a repair. Refrigerant is a decision after you have seen the unit. The technician looks — a person, not the voice on the phone.
Should it book a hotel plant against any free hour?
A hotel corridor is a longer visit if you marked it, and a note if you need the manager and a key. Mark how many hours you need. The assistant takes the address and how many units, and offers only the kind of visit you marked. It does not invent that you can do twelve heads before Saturday.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the conversation, at the moment of booking, including the window and who should be in. The reminder goes out ahead of the time on the schedule you set. Neither requires anyone on the van to type a number.
Can clients cancel through it too?
Yes, and you should let them, especially on service visits in a heatwave week. A cancellation the van hears about the day before is a window that can go to a hot flat. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is a morning gone. Cancellations are written back to the book the same way bookings are.
