Book garden visits without mixing hedge and tree
Quick summary
- The assistant reads the book before it offers a day, so a pine on a boundary is never offered as a forty-minute hedge.
- A hedge hour and a tree measure are different bookings. Get that wrong and a chipper sits in a slot reserved for oleander.
- Hedge, irrigation or overhang first. Then height. Then the book.
- Anything that sounds like a side, a fell price, or “cut it from their garden” stays a callback after a walk.
- If the assistant cannot read the book, it takes a callback. It does not guess.
- The assistant texts the day, the type, and who must be there to open the gate.
TL;DR
The trimmer is running. A caller who wants a day will not wait for a callback just to learn whether Saturday is free. An assistant can book those days if it reads the book first, treats a hedge as different from a tree measure, and asks height before it places anything. A photo of a crown is not a visit type. If the book cannot be reached, the assistant does not guess. It takes the request and says so. The assistant texts the day, the type, and who must open.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the types and their real durations before you let it book — hedge, irrigation, tree measure, villa Friday tidy.
- Mark heat weeks you refuse and Saturday mornings in the same book it reads, including August.
- Test a move on an existing round and on a first hedge, separately, before you test a new garden.
- Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with who must be there for that type.
- 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 fell put into a hedge morning.
When someone wants a day and the trimmer is running
Both of you are on a hedge. Cuttings on the pavement. The phone rings in the van.
Someone wants Saturday for a pavement hedge. Someone wants the timer looked at after a dry week. Someone wants a pine on the neighbour’s terrace cut this afternoon. You cannot pick up. The trimmer is still running.
Those three callers are asking for a day. They are not asking whose tree it is. If the assistant treats them as one free Saturday, the pine lands in a hedge hour, and the neighbour is at the gate when you arrive with shears.
You put the assistant on the van number with a forward-on-no-answer rule. It reads the book you already use. It offers only days that are actually free for that type.
Types that cannot share a Saturday
Hedge. Length, height, pavement or courtyard. Saturday mornings if that is when you work houses. Duration you actually use — write it in. The assistant does not shorten it to fit a gap.
Irrigation. After a dry week, timer, drip. Access to the box. Not a plumber’s leak on a floor. Same-week if you marked those days. Not a hedge hour with a timer “while you are there” unless you created that type.
Tree measure. Boundary, overhang, trunk, access for a chipper. Not forty minutes. Not a photo. The assistant books a walk. It does not book a fell from a crown.
Villa Friday tidy. Shut since May, open this weekend. Grass, hedge, needles. A tidy is not a tree. Split them or the Friday steals a fell you cannot do.
Monthly round. Already on the book. Moving Thursday to Friday is a change on that round, not a new first visit. If they also have a pine, that is a second type.
If you do not mark the types, the assistant will fill Saturday with whatever sounded like “the garden”. You will arrive with a trimmer at a tree that needs a chipper, or with a saw at an oleander.
Height before the diary
The diary is the second question. Hedge, irrigation or tree is the first, then height or access.
“About two metres” is not a price. It is a type check. A hedge they want taken to the wall is not a trim. Write the height they said. The gardener confirms on site. The assistant does not invent a day-rate from the number.
Irrigation: who can open the timer box. A villa the owner is not in needs a housekeeper or a neighbour. The SMS says who opens. An empty irrigation visit is usually a locked box, not a greeting problem.
If they ask “just cut it from their side”, that is not a new visit type. It is a refusal. The assistant books the measure they actually need, and flags the side. It does not invent a boundary to make the booking feel complete.
Water on a kitchen floor is not a type on this book. The assistant does not offer a plumber slot. It takes a callback if they still want the garden timer looked at.
What it must not place in the book
A side. Whose tree. How far to cut the neighbour. Those are not types. The visit is a measure. The side stays off the line.
A fell price from a photo of a crown. Overhead lines, lean, chipper access: on site. The assistant takes the photo as offered and does not price it.
A climb. “Go up and have a look.” Never. Flag a phone if a branch is on a car or a tree is on a wire.
A same-day fell into a heat week you closed. August dates belong in the book before you let it offer anything in that month.
If the book cannot be reached, the only honest sentence is a callback. A Saturday that exists only in the caller’s head is how you get a neighbour at the gate and both of you still on a ladder.
Moving a time without doubling it
“Move Thursday” is not enough. Thursday may hold a monthly hedge and a tree measure for the same name.
The assistant asks which visit, then cancels, then books. If it books first, Thursday stays taken by their own hedge and they are told the time is not free. That is how you lose an hour and keep the complaint.
Test this on a round and on a first hedge, separately, before you let it touch a new garden. The first fifty bookings are where you find the fell that landed in a hedge morning.
Cancellations go back into the book the same way. A Saturday freed on Friday afternoon can take irrigation that is still off. A cancellation you only hear when the gate is locked is an hour gone.
Who must be there
The SMS is not a courtesy. It is how the gate opens.
For a hedge: someone who can say how far, if they care, and who can let you onto the pavement side. For irrigation: who opens the timer box. For a tree: who is calling, and whether the neighbour has been told a visit is happening — as a fact, not as a side.
The assistant sends this in the language of the call — 70+ languages. A Greek confirmation to someone who booked in English is how a first hedge misses the time and decides the crew cannot handle them.
Remind them again on the schedule you set. Neither text needs anyone in the van to type.
Dry weeks, Saturdays, and the book you actually work from
Connect the book you already use. Do not keep a paper pad for trees and a phone calendar for hedges. The assistant reads one week. If a heat week is only in your head, it will offer Saturday while both of you refuse to climb.
Mark Saturdays. Mark irrigation after dry weeks. Mark villa Fridays. An assistant that can book is only useful if the closed days are in the same place as the open ones.
A quiet January Tuesday is useful for testing the greeting. It is not the test of whether a pine can still land in a hedge hour. Check Saturdays. Check the week after heat.
How CITT handles the booking
- Your number stays on the van. Forward on no-answer. A call you pick up never leaves the crew. See pricing.
- It asks hedge, irrigation or tree, then height, then looks at the book. Not the other way around.
- It offers only types you marked, with the duration you wrote.
- It refuses a side and a photo-price and still books the visit they need.
- It writes the day into the same calendar the crew already uses, and texts who must open.
- If the book is unreachable, it takes a callback. It does not guess.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
What you set first
Enter the types: hedge, irrigation, tree measure, villa Friday tidy, monthly round. Real durations. Who must be there for each.
Write the sentence that forbids a side and a crown price. Write the same-day flags: branch on a car, tree on a wire, villa tomorrow, irrigation off since a heat week.
Mark Saturday load and heat weeks you refuse. Test a move on a round and on a first hedge. Turn the SMS on at the moment of booking. Then check the first fifty by hand.
A booking the crew cannot keep is worse than a callback. Put that in the notes, in those words, if you have to.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reads the book before offering a day | Yes, the book the crew works from | Yes | Usually not — takes a message |
| Books Saturdays and evenings after work | Yes, if you marked them | No — already on a hedge | Sometimes |
| Treats a hedge as different from a tree measure | If you marked the two types | Yes | Rarely sees the week |
| Starts with hedge, irrigation or tree | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what day |
| Books a side or a fell from a photo | Never — the gardener measures on site | The gardener does, after the trunk | Sometimes books “a cut from pictures” |
| Sends the confirmation and who must open | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of empty hedge hours costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people. About 30 booked times a month for hedges, irrigation, and tree measures.
- An empty hedge hour is not given to someone else the same day.
- About 10% of booked times arrive with the gate locked, or the job is a tree they called a hedge. Check your own figure. Crews vary.
- Recoverable value of a used hour, €65. Put your own figure in. A hedge hour and a tree measure are not the same.
- A reminder that names who must open cuts empty times by a third. Challenge this first.
- 30 times × 10% = about 3 empty times a month.
- 3 × €65 = €195 of reserved time sitting empty.
- A third avoided returns about €65 a month.
- Over a 28-week growing season — 28 weeks is about 7 months, 7 × €65.
Roughly €455 in that season, from a text that names who opens, not only the day.
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 hedge while I am on the trimmer?
It reads the same book the crew works from and checks the day before offering it. A Saturday you have closed because both of you are already on hedges, or because the other person is on a ladder, is never offered as a first visit, if you marked it. Irrigation after a dry week can still be offered on days you marked for that type. 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 client waits at the gate and nobody is free.
What about someone moving an existing round?
The assistant asks hedge, irrigation or tree first, then the name on the file, 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 time is not free. A client who has a monthly hedge and a tree measure on the same phone must say which visit is moving.
Will it book a time to tell me whose tree it is?
It will book a measure, if you allow that type. It will not book a session in which the assistant itself takes a side. Whose tree it is, and how far to cut, is for the gardener on site after the walk. A person, not the voice on the phone.
Should it book a fell against any free hour?
A tree measure is not a hedge hour. Mark those slots. A photo of a crown is not a fell you can drop into a forty-minute oleander. The assistant takes height and access, and offers only the kind of visit you marked. It does not promise a chipper on Saturday from a picture.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the conversation, at the moment of booking, including who must be there to open the gate. The reminder goes out ahead of the time on the schedule you set. Neither requires anyone in the van to type a number.
Can clients cancel through it too?
Yes, and you should let them, especially on first hedges after a dry week. A cancellation the crew hears about the day before is a morning that can go to irrigation that is still off. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is an hour gone. Cancellations are written back to the book the same way bookings are.
