Book fence measures without taking a side
Quick summary
- The assistant reads the book before it offers a morning, so a jammed-gate look is never offered as a forty-metre measure.
- A time to look at a motor and a morning on a plot are different bookings. Get that wrong and a neighbour sits in twenty minutes reserved for a run.
- Mesh, wall or gate first. Then the address. Then the book. A boundary fight is a measure, not a side.
- Anything that sounds like whose land it is, a price from a photo, or Thursday's install stays a callback.
- If the assistant cannot read the book, it takes a callback. It does not guess.
- The assistant texts the window, the type, and who must be on the plot, so the person who arrives is a person you can measure with.
TL;DR
You have a post in the ground. A caller who wants a morning will not wait for a callback just to learn whether Thursday is free. An assistant can book those mornings if it reads the book first, treats a gate look as different from a plot measure, and asks mesh, wall or gate before it places anything. A dispute is a measure. A measure is a measure. A side is not a visit type — the tape goes on the run. If the book cannot be reached, the assistant does not guess. It takes the request and says so. The assistant texts the window, the type, and who must wait on the plot.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the types and their real durations before you let it book — plot measure, gate look, repair.
- Mark install days and storm-hold mornings in the same book it reads, including August.
- Test a move on an existing gate look and on a measure, separately, before you test a new run.
- Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with who must be on the plot, not only the neighbour.
- 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 morning that was a dispute put into a motor slot.
When someone wants a morning and a post is in the ground
One of you is on the level. The other is cutting mesh. The phone rings.
A buyer wants Thursday morning to measure a garden line. A villa in Voula wants a look at a motor today. A plot wants ten minutes to note a kicker plate. You cannot pick up. The post has not gone in.
Those three callers are asking for a morning. They are not asking you to pick a neighbour. They will not wait for a callback just to learn whether Thursday is free. If the assistant can read the book, it can put the right type in the right window. If it cannot, it must say so. A neighbour at a line you did not write down is worse than no visit.
The first question is still mesh, wall or gate. A leaf in the road is not a gap at eleven. A boundary fight is not a winner’s appointment. Only then does the assistant look at the book.
Two kinds of morning, and a third that is not a morning
Plot measure. You, a tape, a run, a window of hours. Mesh, a wall, railings. Mark who must be on the plot. If the assistant offers this window as a motor look, a neighbour arrives expecting a line and finds a remote.
Gate look. Twenty minutes at the motor, the photocells, the leaf. Mark these as their own type. Do not let the assistant drop a look into a forty-metre measure.
Repair. Storm panels, a bent post. Its own type if you marked it. Not an install day.
Not a visit. “Tell me it’s my land”, “book a time to put the neighbour in his place”, “write a letter that the wall is ours”. The assistant does not book those. It takes a name and a number. The tape goes on the run. A side is not an appointment type you offer to whoever rings.
If you only give the assistant one column called “visit”, it will fill the week with the wrong bodies at the wrong lines.
Moves, who waits, and a morning the book does not have
A caller who says “move Thursday” has not said which visit. Ask the address first. Ask which type. Cancel, then book. If Thursday is still their own measure, say that morning is not free. Do not invent a second Thursday because they sounded rushed.
Who waits on the plot is not a courtesy. A measure with only the angry neighbour, and not the person who asked for the work, is a morning of shouting. Put who must be there in the SMS. A gate look without the remote is not a completed look.
If the book cannot be reached, the only honest sentence is a callback. Guessing a hole is how two plots arrive at the same van.
Install days belong in the same book. A measure at 09:00 on a morning you are setting a run in Voula is not a hole. Mark it closed, or the assistant will offer it.
What it will not put in the book
It will not book a boundary hearing. It will not book “a chat to tell the neighbour”. It will not put a leaf in the road into a free hour as if a van were a slot. It will not offer a measure on an install day. It will not confirm a morning it has not written.
It will not send an SMS that names whose land it is, a price, or Thursday’s install. The confirmation is the type, the window, the address, and who waits on the plot.
If they ask for Saturday because the notary is Monday, the assistant offers a measure if Saturday is in the book. It does not invent an install from the greeting.
What you set first
Give it the types and the minutes they actually take. Mark install days and storm-hold mornings, including August. Write the who-waits line for the SMS. Write the sentence that forbids a side as a visit type. Test a move on a gate look and on a measure, separately, before you let it touch a new run.
Check the first fifty bookings by hand. That is when you find the morning that was two neighbours, filed as a motor look.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
A jammed gate is not always a booking
A leaf in the road is a flagged note or a transfer. It does not become “come at four” unless a human who can see the van says so. If the assistant is allowed to turn every motor into a visit, the book fills with hours nobody can keep, and the real measure for the Koropi wall is pushed to next week.
Teach it the stop: emergency gate stays a flag. Quiet motor look stays a look. Measure stays a measure. The three meet only when you, looking at the van, decide a human should go.
A buyer who wants a measure at 07:40 is still a measure, and 07:40 is not a plot hour unless you marked it. Most crews do not. The assistant offers the next window. It does not tell them the install is Thursday.
Who must be on the plot
A measure without the person who asked for the work is a morning with the neighbour only. Put the name they gave in the booking. The SMS repeats it. If they say “the neighbour will show you”, write that, and flag it. The neighbour is how you arrive to a fight and no tape.
A gate look without the remote is twenty minutes of a closed housing. Ask whether they have the remote. Put that in the note.
Do not let the assistant add a second plot to the SMS who was not on the call. The next olive grove is not this run. A spouse who “might come” is not the owner of the line.
When two visits share one phone
A client rings to move the measure and, in the same breath, wants a look at the drive gate. That is two bookings or one booking and a callback. If the assistant writes both into the same Thursday window, you will do the wall and miss the motor.
Ask which is moving. Book that one. Take the second as a new request, with its own type and its own morning. If they insist it is “the same visit”, say a wall and a motor are not the same visit. Offer two windows. Let them choose.
A caller who wants a measure and also wants you to take a side is one booking and one refusal. Do not create a third type called “measure plus verdict”. There is no such type.
After the SMS goes out
The confirmation is the record. If the type is wrong on the text, the type is wrong at the line. Read the first week’s messages. A measure that went out as “gate service” is how a neighbour brings a lawyer and a list of questions you did not staff.
Reminders go out on the schedule you set. A reminder that names the address and who waits is useful. A reminder that says “we will confirm the boundary” is a side. Do not allow that sentence in the template.
Cancellations come back into the same book. A measure cancelled at 18:00 is a morning you can give to the next plot. A cancellation that sits in a chat until morning is a window you already lost.
If they cancel because they wanted a verdict all along, keep the refusal on the file. Do not rebook them as a look so they will stop asking. A look is a look. A side is still not a visit.
The week you actually staff
April is a week of measures. Mark it. The morning after a storm is a week of repairs and flags. Mark that too. The assistant cannot know the difference unless the book says so.
A two-person crew that tries to book eight measures in a week you already closed for an install will fail in public, at the line, with a buyer who took the morning off. Put the closed mornings in first. Then let it book what is left.
The value in the worked example is a used morning, not a signed run. A measure that nobody attends still cost you the van. A text that names who waits is cheaper than that morning. Put your own figure in. A crew that lives on mesh and a crew that lives on electric gates are not the same book.
Whoever takes the first measure often takes the order. That is why a booking that never reached the book is not only an empty morning. It is a buyer who is now standing on someone else’s plot.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reads the book before offering a morning | Yes, the book the crew works from | Yes | Usually not — takes a message |
| Books evenings and Saturday mornings | Yes, if you marked them | No | Sometimes |
| Treats a gate look as different from a measure | If you marked the two types | Yes | Rarely sees the week |
| Starts with mesh, wall or gate | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what morning |
| Books a session to decide whose land it is | Never — the tape goes on the run | You look at the line, still do not take a side on the phone | Sometimes books "a boundary chat" |
| Sends the confirmation and who must wait on the plot | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of empty plot measures costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people. About 24 booked mornings a month to measure a run, look at a motor, or repair storm panels.
- An empty measure morning is not given to someone else the same day.
- About 10% of booked times arrive with the wrong person, or nobody comes. Check your own figure. Crews vary.
- Recoverable value of a used morning, €180. Put your own figure in. A plot measure and a twenty-minute motor look are not the same.
- A reminder that names who must be on the plot cuts empty times by a third. Challenge this first.
- 24 times × 10% = about 2 empty times a month.
- 2 × €180 = €360 of reserved time sitting empty.
- A third avoided returns about €120 a month.
- Over 10 working months — 10 × €120.
Roughly €1,200 a year, from a text that names who waits on the plot, not only the morning.
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 measure while a post is in the ground?
It reads the same book the crew works from and checks the morning before offering it. A day you have closed because you are on an install, or because the other person is already on a plot, is never offered as a measure, if you marked it. Times to look at a motor can still be offered that day if someone will be in the yard. 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 crew has no record of is worse than no visit. The neighbour turns up at a line and nobody is there with a tape.
What about someone moving an existing morning?
The assistant asks mesh, wall or gate 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 morning is not free. A client who has a gate look and a plot measure on the same phone must say which visit is moving.
Will it book a time to tell the neighbour the wall is ours?
It will book a measure so you can take the line, if you allow that type. It will not book a session in which the assistant itself decides whose land it is. A boundary is not a public appointment with a winner. The tape goes on the run — a person, not the voice on the phone.
Should it book a jammed gate against any free hour?
A gate that will not close, with a car in the road, is a flagged note or a transfer, not a gap at eleven. A quiet motor look is a short visit you mark. The assistant takes the address. It does not invent that a van is free at eleven. It does not put a forty-metre measure into a motor slot.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the conversation, at the moment of booking, including who must be on the plot. The reminder goes out ahead of the time on the schedule you set. Neither requires anyone in the yard to type a number.
Can clients cancel through it too?
Yes, and you should let them, especially on measures after a storm. A cancellation the crew hears about the day before is a morning that can go to someone who still has to have a line taken. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is a morning gone. Cancellations are written back to the book the same way bookings are.
