Book handyman visits without mixing a live board
Quick summary
- The assistant reads the book before it offers a time, so a flooding tap is never offered as a wardrobe hour.
- A twenty-minute shelf and a door that will not close are different bookings. Get that wrong and a frame sits in a bracket hour.
- Door, shelf or tap first. Then the address. Then the book. A board is a refusal.
- A flooding tap is not a booking. That call goes to a phone you hold.
- If the assistant cannot read the book, it takes a callback. It does not guess Saturday.
- The assistant texts the time, the type, and both jobs if you bundled two floors in the same block.
TL;DR
You are on a step. A caller who wants a door planed will not wait for a callback just to learn whether Saturday is free. An assistant can book those hours if it reads the book first, treats a shelf as different from a door, and asks door, shelf or tap before it places anything. A dripping tap is a short visit. A wardrobe is an hour. A live board is not a visit type. If the book cannot be reached, the assistant does not guess. It takes the request and says so. Two small jobs in the same block can share a visit if you marked that.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the types and their real durations before you let it book — shelf, tap, door, silicone, flat-pack.
- Mark Saturday block hours and wardrobe days in the same book it reads, including August.
- Test a move on an existing shelf and on a door, separately, before you test a new wardrobe.
- Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with both jobs named if it is a bundle.
- 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 board put into a shelf slot.
When someone wants a time and you are on a step
Both hands are on a shelf. The phone rings.
A tenant wants Saturday at ten for a door that will not close. A shop wants twenty minutes for a dripping tap. Someone in the same block wants a rail. You cannot pick up. The level is still on the sofa.
A caller who only needed to know whether Saturday is free will not wait for you to set the shelf down. They ring the next small-jobs number. An assistant can give them a time that is actually in the book, if the types are marked and if a board is not allowed to land in a shelf hour.
Three visits that are not the same hour
Shelf. Brackets, rail, curtain pole. Short. The assistant offers the duration you marked. It does not turn this into a door conversation because they also asked about the frame.
Door that will not close. Hinge, closer, leaf. Longer. Access is the hall clear and someone in the flat. The assistant does not quote from a photo of a hinge. It does not tell them to plane the leaf.
Dripping tap. Short if it is a drip. A flooding tap is not this type. That rings you.
A wardrobe is a fourth duration you mark, if you take flat-pack. A board is not a fifth. It is a refusal.
If those land in one column called “jobs”, Saturday fills with people who needed twenty minutes while the door that needed an hour is given a bracket slot at the frame.
Bundling in the same block
This van lives on small jobs in the same stairwell. The assistant can add a second job on another floor if you marked bundling and if the duration still fits.
It names both jobs and both floors in the confirmation. It does not add a board. It does not stretch a tap into a wardrobe because they asked at the end of the call.
A bundle that is not written as two lines is how you do the shelf and forget the tap on the fourth.
What must be in the book before it offers a time
The hours you actually run, including Saturday if you take it. The hours you do not. Block mornings you have closed to work one stairwell. August. The visit types with real durations. Whether bundling is on.
A time the van has already given to a door cannot be offered to a wardrobe across town. The assistant has to read the same book you work from, not last week’s pad on the dash.
If the book cannot be reached, the assistant does not invent Saturday. It takes the request, says the van will confirm, and flags you. A person who waits in the hall for a door that was never written down is worse than a callback.
Access the SMS has to name
A shelf visit that arrives to a wall full of furniture is an empty hour. A door visit that arrives to nobody home is the same empty hour. A bundle without floors is a van guessing in the stairwell.
The confirmation has to name the type, the floor, and both jobs if it is a bundle. Wall clear. Hall free. Someone in the flat.
The SMS goes in the language of the call. A German tenant who booked in German and gets a Greek text will miss the wall instruction.
Do not put a price in the confirmation. Do not put a board reset in the confirmation. The text is the time, the type, and the floor.
Moves, cancellations, and “while I have you”
“Move Saturday” is not enough. Saturday may hold a shelf and a door. The assistant asks which job, then the address, then looks at the book. Cancel, then book.
“While I have you, reset the board” is no longer a move. That is a refusal. The assistant keeps the shelf or door move, gives the electrician line, and does not add the board to Saturday.
“While I have you, the tap is flooding” is no longer a move. That is a flagged ring. The assistant stops the diary work and puts the call on your phone.
Cancellations the day before free an hour. No-shows do not. Let them cancel through the assistant. Write it back into the same book.
What it will not book
A live or dead consumer unit. A main switch. “Just a look at the board.” Those are refusals.
A hinge price from a photo. A wardrobe into a week you marked closed. A tap into a Saturday you marked for one block only, if that tap is across the city.
If they insist — “just put the board down, I’ll wait in the hall” — the assistant still refuses the board and still checks the book for the small job.
How CITT handles the book
It reads the calendar the van already uses. It offers only hours that are free for that visit type. It writes the job in at the moment of booking. It texts the time, the type, the floor, and both jobs in a bundle. It can remind them the day before.
It asks door, shelf or tap before it looks at a time. It never books a board. If the calendar is unreachable, it takes a callback.
You see the transcript, the type, the address, and whether they asked for a board the assistant refused.
What you mark first
Visit types and durations. Saturday block hours. August. Bundling on or off. The sentence that forbids a board and a price from a photo. The same-day phone list: flooding tap. The electrician referral line.
Then test. Move an existing shelf. Move an existing door. Book a new bundle. Read the first fifty by hand. That is where a board has been sitting in a shelf hour.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
The hour that looks free and is not
A hole between two shelves on the map is not a wardrobe. Travel across the northern suburbs at eleven is not twenty minutes. If you do not mark travel, the assistant will offer Marousi at 11:00 to a van that is still in Chalandri at 10:40.
Mark areas if you work that way. If you do not, at least mark durations long enough that a door cannot land in a shelf gap.
The tenant who wants “any time Saturday” has not given you a wall. The assistant still needs a window someone will actually be in. A shelf booked against an empty flat is an empty hour with brackets on the sofa.
What the client hears when the type is wrong
They come for a door. You have twenty minutes. You see a frame that needs a longer visit, and you have to leave for a shelf two floors up. They decide you do not do doors. They ring the next van.
That is why the split exists on this phone before the book opens. Door, shelf, tap. Then the address. Then an hour that matches the work. Board refused out loud.
A confirmation that says only “Saturday 10:30, jobs” is how that mix starts. Name the type in the SMS. Name the floor. Name both jobs if it is a bundle.
If they booked a shelf and they also want a door, that is two visits or one longer visit you have marked as combined. The assistant does not squeeze a frame into a bracket hour because they asked at the end of the call.
After the visit is in the book
The van still has to do the work. The assistant does not replace the door visit. It replaces the twenty minutes you would have spent ringing back to say Saturday is free.
When you close a Saturday to one block, the book has to show it. Otherwise the assistant will fill it with wardrobes across town while you are in one stairwell, and the wardrobes will wait in boxes.
When a flooding tap comes in on a day that already has a door, the door stays until you move it. The assistant does not cancel Saturday’s frame because someone in Marousi described water. It puts the tap on your phone. You decide which job moves.
That split — flooding on a phone, small job in a book, board refused — is the whole point of the types. Mix them and you own both the missed door and the consumer unit you are not licensed for.
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 Saturday mornings | Yes, if you marked them | No | Sometimes |
| Treats a shelf as different from a door | If you marked the two types | Yes | Rarely sees the week |
| Starts with door, shelf or tap | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what time |
| Books a live board as a visit | Never — refuses and refers | You refuse if you heard board | Sometimes books "a look" |
| Sends the confirmation and both jobs in a bundle | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of empty door visits costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- One van. About 34 booked times a month for shelves, taps, doors, or wardrobes.
- An empty door hour is not given to a shelf the same morning.
- About 12% of booked times arrive with nobody home, or the wall not clear. Check your own figure. Vans vary.
- Recoverable value of a used hour, €80. Put your own figure in. A door and a twenty-minute shelf are not the same.
- A reminder that names the job and the floor cuts empty times by a third. Challenge this first.
- 34 times × 12% = about 4 empty times a month.
- 4 × €80 = €320 of reserved time sitting empty.
- A third avoided returns about €105 a month.
- Over 11 working months — 11 × €105.
Roughly €1,155 a year, from a text that names the door on the second floor, not only the time.
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 door while I am on a step with a shelf?
It reads the same book the van works from and checks the hour before offering it. A morning you have closed because you are in one block all Saturday is never offered as a wardrobe across town, if you marked it. Shelves can still be bundled in that block if you will be in the stairwell. 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 door the van has no record of is worse than no visit. The client waits in the hall and the job was never written down.
What about someone moving an existing time?
The assistant asks door, shelf or tap first, then the address or the name on the job, and treats the move as one change. Handled as cancel, then book, Saturday is still taken by their own visit, and they are told that time is not free. A client who has a shelf and a door on the same phone must say which visit is moving.
Will it book a time to reset the board?
No. A consumer unit is not a visit type on this van. The assistant refuses and gives the electrician line you wrote. It will book a door, a shelf or a tap if you allow those types. It will not book a session in which it looks at a main. The licensed electrician looks at the board — not this van.
Should it book a wardrobe against any free hour?
A wardrobe is a visit with a duration you mark, not a hole between two shelves. Mark how long you actually take. A rail and a full flat-pack are not the same hour. The assistant offers only the kind of visit you marked. It does not promise a price from a photo of the boxes.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the conversation, at the moment of booking, including both jobs if it is a bundle in the same block, and the floor for each. The reminder goes out ahead of the time on the schedule you set.
Can clients cancel through it too?
Yes, and you should let them, especially on wardrobes when the boxes have not arrived. A cancellation the van hears about the day before is an hour that can go to a door in the same street. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is an hour gone. Cancellations are written back to the book the same way bookings are.
