Book painting visits without mixing colour and facade
Quick summary
- The assistant reads the book before it offers a morning, so a colour visit is never offered as a facade day.
- Samples on a wall and a painting day with drop cloths are different bookings. Get that wrong and a client sits in a morning reserved for a facade.
- Interior or facade first. Then the rooms. Then the book. Colour is chosen on that wall.
- Anything that sounds like a price from a photo, or a colour from a picture, stays a callback.
- If the assistant cannot read the book, it takes a callback. It does not guess. It does not start a facade on a rain day.
- The assistant texts the time, the type, and what to have ready, so the rooms that wait are rooms you can use.
TL;DR
You are on a facade with the roller. 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 colour visit as different from a facade day, and asks interior or facade before it places anything. A photo is a visit. Colour is chosen on site. A price question is not a new visit type. If the book cannot be reached, the assistant does not guess. It takes the request and says so. The assistant texts the time, the type, and what to have ready. It never offers a facade day you have closed because of rain.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the types and their real durations before you let it book — colour visit, interior day, facade, stairwell, woodwork.
- Mark rain days and painting days in the same book it reads, including August heat.
- Test a move on an existing colour visit and on a facade day, separately, before you test a new interior.
- Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with what to have ready 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 morning that was a colour look put into a facade day.
When someone wants a morning and you are on a facade
One of you is on a wall that cannot take rain. The other is cutting in a lived-in living room. The phone rings.
A caller wants Thursday at eleven for samples on the wall. A person who sent a photo this morning wants a figure today. A manager wants ten minutes in the stairwell. You cannot pick up. The coat is still wet.
Those three callers are asking for a morning. They are not asking for the same morning.
The first one needs you, sample cards, and the actual wall in that light. The second needs a visit, not a number from a picture. The third needs a short look, and only if you actually take stairwells. If the assistant treats them as the next free hour, Thursday morning fills with a facade, the colour cards arrive while you are on that wall, and the stairwell is offered on a day the residents do not accept.
The assistant books only if three things are true. The type is one you offer. The morning is free in the book the crew works from. Nothing in the call is a price from a photo, a colour from a picture, or a facade start on a rain day. If any of those fail, it takes a request and says someone will call back.
A person who has to wait for a callback just to learn whether Thursday works has time to ring the next painter. That is why the morning has to be finished on this call. It is also why a guessed confirmation is worse than no confirmation. The person arrives. Nobody is free. The furniture is in the corridor for nothing.
A colour visit is not a facade day
You already know this. The assistant does not, until you teach it.
A colour visit is you, sample cards, and the wall. Someone is there to let you in. They still live in the rooms. The caller is told to leave the walls free of pictures, they look at the cards, they leave.
An interior day is drop cloths, furniture moved, and hours they can live with. You have come off the other wall. The rooms are ready.
A facade day is a weather window. Rain, dew, and Thursday’s forecast all change whether that morning exists. A stairwell is a short look with the manager and a key. Woodwork is not a full interior.
If the assistant cannot tell these apart, you spend Thursday on people who only needed doors, and the person who needed samples is given ten minutes at the door while you still have a roller in your hands.
Give it the types and the real durations before it is allowed to offer anything:
- Colour visit
- Interior day
- Facade day
- Stairwell look
- Woodwork only
- Anything you do not want booked at all
People who just bought a holiday flat often call after they land. The assistant can offer a colour visit tomorrow. It cannot offer a facade tonight if you are not on facades tonight. Do not give a woodwork morning to that evening caller, and do not give a facade to someone who asked for samples.
Interior or facade, then the rooms, then any morning
The first question on this line is not when they are free. The first question is interior or facade.
Those are two jobs. Two kinds of prep. Usually two lengths of visit. A living room is not a facade. A facade is not a stairwell. The confirmation, the reminder, and what to have ready are different.
A caller who is both still gets two notes. If they want samples and also the outside of the block, they get a colour visit and a facade look. Do not squeeze a living room and a weather window into twenty minutes because they arrived as one call.
On a change it is the same question, first. “Move Thursday” is not enough. Thursday might be the colour visit or the facade. Both can share one mobile number. If the assistant picks the first match, it moves the wrong visit.
Ask interior or facade. Then the address or the name on the job. Then find the existing morning. Then move it.
Two clients in the same block are common. Two living rooms on the pad after a dry spell are common. A surname plus “the flat” is not always enough. Take the address. Take the floor. Do not invent a match because the first three letters agree.
If they will not say which visit, it is not a booking yet and it is not a change yet. Take the name and the number and say someone will call back. Do not guess.
Mornings you have already closed
You already know which mornings you paint interiors and which mornings the book is closed because of rain, or because the other person is already on a facade. Put those mornings in the book the assistant reads. If they exist only on a pad next to the van, the assistant cannot see them.
On a closed rain day you still take the phone, or the assistant does. A facade is not offered. A colour visit can still be offered if someone will be on the ground.
If a closed rain day is missing from that book, the assistant will offer 10:00 on a morning both of you are already on a wall, or on a morning the forecast has already killed. The client arrives with the furniture moved. The coat and the visit are then the same hour.
Painting days are for interiors and anything that needs you in the rooms with drop cloths.
August needs its own dates. Some of you stop for two weeks. Some of you leave one person on the books. The published number still rings. Set the closure dates. Do not let the assistant book a facade into a week of midday heat you do not work.
If you have closed facades this month, say so before a facade look is offered. A crew that only does interiors should say so on the first call, not after a booked morning.
Moving a morning that already exists
A caller who already has a Thursday is not making a new booking. They are changing one.
Handled as cancel-then-book, Thursday is still taken by their own visit. The assistant tells them that morning is not free.
The order is: interior or facade, address or name on the job, find the existing morning, release it, place the new one. One change. Reversed, or split into two independent operations, the client is blocked by their own hour.
Let them cancel as well, especially on colour visits. A cancellation the day before is a morning you can give to someone whose samples are still on the table. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is a morning gone. Write cancellations back to the book the same way bookings are written.
A same-day move in a dry spell is tighter. If Thursday is already a list of facades and they want to move a colour visit onto Thursday, refuse the facade morning and offer a colour visit on the ground, or take a callback. Do not squeeze them into the hour before you go back on the wall.
A price from a photo is not a reason to invent a visit type
People ask while they book. A caller moving a colour visit will ask for a figure from the picture. A person booking a facade will ask whether Thursday’s rain will hold. A manager booking a stairwell will ask for a communal number.
None of those is a booking type.
The assistant says the quote comes after the visit. Colour is chosen on that wall. Then it finishes the morning, if there is a type you actually offer. It does not invent a “photo quote”. It does not name a figure to win the booking. It does not pick a colour. It does not promise the last coat before rain.
If the only thing they want is a yes on a figure from a picture, there is no visit type to invent. Take the request. Address. Name and number. Someone will call back after they have seen the wall.
What it must not do, even to be helpful:
- invent a price from a WhatsApp photo
- pick a colour from a picture
- quote last year’s neighbour as this wall
- say the facade will be finished before Thursday’s rain
- say the paint will be dry by Saturday
- book a stairwell as if it were a private living room
Same-day weather window closing, manager waiting, furniture still in on a painting day still bypass ordinary booking. Those are flags to a phone, not a search for the next free colour visit next Wednesday. If the only same-day capacity is a callback from you, say that. Do not invent a 17:00 that does not exist.
Stairwells, woodwork, and a Friday start
Stairwell. The common well of a Greek block. The assistant takes the building and who holds the key. It does not invent a communal price. Mark the hours the residents accept. If they only accept after eight, do not offer ten in the morning.
Woodwork. Doors, frames, radiators. A woodwork morning is shorter. Mark it, or you will sit down for four hours with someone who only needed the doors.
Furniture still in. They booked an interior day and they have not moved the sofa. The assistant can take a move of the day. It does not say you will work around the sofa. That is yours.
A colour visit and an interior day are not the same morning in the book. Mark them as two kinds of visit, or you will turn up with drop cloths for someone who only needed samples.
What the confirmation has to name
At the moment the morning is placed, the assistant sends an SMS in the language of the conversation. The text says the time, the crew, interior or facade, the type, and what to have ready for that type.
The reminder goes out a day or two ahead, on the schedule you set. Its job is that the rooms are ready. It is not a price sentence, not a colour name, and not a way to start a facade in advance.
If a caller replies to the SMS with a price question, that reply goes to you. Configure the path so a person sees it.
If the assistant does not know which type it booked, it should not invent a list. Confirm the time, confirm interior or facade, and stop. A caller asked to empty six rooms they do not have will cancel, and you will read that as a no-show.
Colour visit. Walls free of pictures if they can, someone at home, the rooms they named. Not a request that they choose a colour on the call.
Interior day. Furniture moved or covered, rooms they named, hours they can live with. Not a number said before anyone has stood there.
Facade. Access, who will be there, scaffolding if you have marked it. Not a yes that the last coat will be on before rain.
Stairwell. Key, hours the residents accept. Not a communal figure.
A visit that starts with “I left the furniture in” is a visit you will book again, usually in a week that has no room. The list at confirmation, and the same list in the reminder, is how that is avoided.
When the book cannot be reached
Do not confirm.
If the assistant cannot read the book at that moment, it takes the request as a callback and says so. “Probably booked” is not a state a client can act on, and it is not a state you can use while you are on a facade.
A visit the crew has no record of is worse than no visit. The client turns up with the furniture in the corridor. Nobody is free. They will not book a second time.
The same rule applies to a move. If the assistant cannot see the existing Thursday, it cannot release it and it cannot place Friday. It takes the request. You do the change when the book is back.
What you configure first
- Appointment types and real durations. Colour visit, interior day, facade, stairwell, woodwork — and the ones you do not want booked.
- Which people take which visit. Interiors, facades, stairwells, and the ones you turn away.
- Closed rain days and painting days, in the same book the assistant reads. August dates as well.
- The interior-or-facade step as mandatory on any booking, change or cancellation, then the rooms.
- The callback sentence, verbatim, so a price from a photo does not become a new type, and a colour is not chosen from a picture.
- What to do if the book cannot be reached: take a callback, never a hopeful yes.
Then turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with what to have ready for that type, and the reminder a day or two ahead, in the language of the conversation.
Checking the first fifty
Look at the first fifty bookings by hand. The book entry, the type, interior or facade, the rooms, the duration, whether a rain day sat underneath, whether a photo-price was turned into a visit type.
You will find the morning that was a colour look put into a facade day, the woodwork that needs two hours rather than four, the stairwell that landed on a morning the residents do not accept.
Listen, in those fifty, for a figure. If the assistant has named a number from a WhatsApp photo, or last year’s neighbour as this wall, that is a configuration failure, not a successful booking.
After that, spot-check weekly for a month, and then every dry spell and every Monday after rain specifically. Keep anything that is a price or a colour from a picture as a callback until you have a reason not to.
See pricing for how the product is charged.
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 if you marked them | Yes, if you marked them | No | Sometimes |
| Treats a colour visit as different from a facade | If you marked the two types | Yes | Rarely sees the week |
| Starts with interior or facade | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what morning |
| Books a price from a photo | Never — colour is chosen on site | After they have seen the wall | Sometimes books "a quote call" |
| Offers a facade day on a rain forecast | No — if you closed that day | If they check the forecast | Often from last week's pad |
| Sends the confirmation and what to have ready | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of empty colour visits costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people. About 28 booked mornings a month for colour visits, interior days, or a facade look.
- An empty colour morning is not given to someone else the same day.
- About 10% of booked mornings arrive with the furniture still in, or nobody home. Check your own figure. Crews vary.
- Recoverable value of a used morning, €180. Put your own figure in. A colour visit and a facade day are not the same.
- A reminder that names what to have ready cuts empty mornings by a third. Challenge this first.
- 28 mornings × 10% = about 3 empty mornings a month.
- 3 × €180 = €540 of reserved time sitting empty.
- A third avoided returns about €180 a month.
- Over 11 working months — 11 × €180.
Roughly €1,980 a year, from a text that names the rooms and the furniture, 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 colour visit while I am on a facade?
It reads the same book the crew works from and checks the morning before offering it. A day you have closed because of rain, or because the other person is already in a lived-in room, is never offered as a facade, if you marked it. Colour visits can still be offered that day if someone will be on the ground. 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 turns up with the furniture moved and nobody is free.
What about someone moving an existing morning?
The assistant asks interior or facade first, then the address or the name on the job, 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 colour visit and a facade on the same phone must say which visit is moving.
Will it book a morning to give a price from the photo?
It will book a colour visit, or a look at a facade, if you allow those types. It will not book a session in which the assistant itself names a figure from a picture. Colour is chosen on that wall. The quote is yours after you have stood there — a person, not the voice on the phone.
Should it book a facade against any free morning?
A facade needs a weather window. Mark the rain days. If Thursday is already closed because of the forecast, do not offer it. The assistant takes the building and offers only the kind of visit you marked. It does not promise the last coat before rain.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the conversation, at the moment of booking, including what to have ready for that type. The reminder goes out ahead of the morning on the schedule you set. Neither requires anyone on the ground to type a number.
Can clients cancel through it too?
Yes, and you should let them, especially on colour visits. A cancellation the crew hears about the day before is a morning that can go to someone who still has to choose a colour. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is a morning gone. Cancellations are written back to the book the same way bookings are.
