Visit and materials chase for renovation crews
Quick summary
- You are in a lived-in kitchen. The visit they were going to confirm and the tiles they were going to receive still have to be chased.
- The list is a named address, a visit reminder, or a materials check. Not a second offer from photos.
- Every call starts with the address or the name on the job. If they do not recognise them, the call stops.
- It does not name a start. Missing tiles are a yes or no. What those tiles mean for Monday is a callback.
- If they ask for a figure from the old photos, the assistant writes the question down and says someone will walk the rooms.
- SMS does the first reminder. The voice call is for the key that has still not been left two days before the visit.
TL;DR
You are in a lived-in kitchen. Eight site visits are still unconfirmed and Thursday's start still has no tiles. Nobody is going to spend the afternoon ringing. An assistant works the list you give it: address or name on the job, one purpose. It asks whether the key will be there. It does not say what the offer will be, whether Monday is a start, or whether the dust will be fine. If they ask, it writes the question down and says someone will walk the rooms. It can book a move if that morning is free. It will not ring a tenant's mobile about an owner's kitchen.
Key takeaways
- Build each list from your own jobs: address or name, the number on the job, and one purpose.
- Do not put a tenant's mobile on an owner chase unless that number is the number on the job.
- Write the purpose as a reminder or a chase, not as a question about a figure or a start.
- If the client asks for an offer from the photos, the assistant ends the call and flags the crew to call back.
- Check the book before you speak a morning. Do not read Thursday off last week's pad, and do not offer a start because tiles arrived.
- Keep last year's kitchen and permit answers off the script. The offer comes after the visit.
The lists on the van while you are in dust
The demolition is still open. Eight site visits are still unconfirmed. Thursday’s start still has no tiles. You are not going to spend the afternoon ringing.
That is the outbound problem on this crew. Not a campaign. Not a hunt for new work. A list of people you already know, an address you have already written down, and nobody free to ring because the dust will not wait.
The helper, if you have one, has sent the messages. The voice call is the second attempt. It does not happen. The visit morning sits with nobody at the door, or someone pulls you out of the kitchen at ten because a key never arrived.
Nobody has worked two other lists either. A site visit on Thursday that nobody confirmed, so the morning is empty and the tape never leaves the van. A start that needed a yes on tiles before Monday, left a number, and never confirmed — they have two other crews in the same search, and they will use one of them.
You put the assistant on a list you made. It rings. It talks like a receptionist: the crew name, the address or the name on the job, then the one thing you asked it to do. Then it stops.
Three purposes, and nothing else
Three jobs belong on a list.
A named visit, before the look. Someone at the door. A key with the agency. Occupied or vacant as you wrote it. The assistant names the rooms you wrote down, asks whether they will be there, and offers to note a problem. It does not discuss what the offer will be. It does not rebuild the job on the call.
A materials or start-week reminder. Time, place, who should be there, how to say if they cannot. No sentence that Monday is a start. No “the tiles mean we can begin”. No estimate of the kitchen.
A new-kitchen follow-up. They asked about a kitchen, a bathroom, a whole flat, and never booked. The assistant offers a morning only if the book has one. If you have closed occupied work for the month, it says so on the first line. It does not invent a figure. It does not name a start. It does not promise you can take them on.
Everything else is your call. What the offer will be. Whether Monday is a start. Whether the dust will be fine. Whether they need a permit. Those sentences need you, the rooms, and a decision. They do not belong on a list.
A site visit is you and the rooms. A start week is a crew and dust. If the assistant cannot tell them apart, you spend Thursday on people who only needed a key handover.
The wrong job, the wrong person
The first failure is not a missed reminder. It is the wrong rooms spoken to the wrong person.
A kitchen briefed to a tenant. A start briefed to a neighbour who picked up the owner’s mobile. Last year’s bathroom figures read to a caller who rang about this year’s kitchen. Opening with the address or the name on the job, and stopping when those are not recognised, is how you keep the jobs apart.
The number on the list is the number on the job. A tenant’s mobile does not go on an owner chase unless that mobile is the number you were told to use. A neighbour does not go on a bathroom unless you have an instruction from the family. A former occupant, a number copied off a forwarded message, a mobile that now belongs to someone who sold the flat — not on the list.
If the person who answers does not recognise the address, the assistant stops. It does not explain the rooms so they can “pass it on”. It does not ask them to find the owner. It ends the call and flags you.
If the caller is a client who is both — a visit still open and a start week in the same breath — the assistant records both and does not merge them into one morning. Those are two conversations for you, even if they answered one ring.
The question that is not a chase
Clients ask. They ask on the outbound because that is when they finally have the crew on the phone.
“What’s the offer, roughly?” “Can you start Monday?” “Will the dust be fine?” “Do we need a permit?” Those are offer questions, or a start, or a permit. An assistant that answers has given a decision with no foreman and no visit. An assistant that writes the question down, in the client’s words, and says someone will walk the rooms, has ended the chase.
The call ends there. The assistant does not go through the photos. It does not give a range. It does not say last year’s kitchen. It does not say it should be fine.
If they will not leave the key without a yes on the figure, flag a person. Do not invent one to close the reminder.
The same stop applies to a new-kitchen follow-up. “Just a round figure, I still have the photos” is not a reason to stay on the line. Intake is finished on the phone. The offer is yours after the rooms.
The rule the assistant must obey
One purpose per call. Address or name first. Stop if those do not match. Check the book before speaking a morning. Take questions, do not answer them. Never use a number that is not the number on the job.
Kitchen, bathroom and whole flat may appear as labels on the list, so the right person owns the callback. They are not themes for the assistant to finish. A key chase does not discuss a figure. A materials reminder does not confirm that Monday is a start. A new-kitchen follow-up does not invent an offer or answer a permit.
Occupied start this week, a manager with keys, a tenant who is not on the job — flag those, do not walk anyone through them. If they offer a tile delivery date, take it as a note. If they do not, do not interrogate them on a reminder call.
A morning from last week’s pad
Closed demolition weeks move. Visit mornings move. An outbound that confirms Thursday at 09:00 from last Friday’s pad, after the book has closed the morning because you are already in a kitchen, is worse than no call. The client arrives with the tiles in the corridor on a morning you have given to another demolition.
The assistant has to check the book before it speaks a morning. It never offers a start week you have not signed. Site visits can still be offered if someone will be on the ground. If the book cannot be reached, it does not guess. It takes a callback.
On a closed demolition week you still take the phone. You do not take a new start. Enter the visit mornings. The assistant cannot invent them.
Calls that cannot stay on this list
Three things, said on an outbound, end the purpose and go to a phone.
They still live there and they want a start this week. Take the address, who is speaking, and put it on a number you hold. Do not finish the key chase first. Do not say the dust is fine.
The tiles have arrived and they think that means Monday. A note in the evening list is a note you read after the hour that mattered.
A tenant picked up on an owner job. Do not brief the rooms. End the call. Flag you.
Everything else can wait for the transcript.
What you configure first
- The list shape. Address or name on the job, the number on the job, purpose, person who owns the callback. No second number “just in case” unless that second number is also on the job and you have said so.
- Who stays off the list. Tenant mobiles on an owner’s kitchen, neighbours on a job they are not named on, former occupants, and any number that came off a forwarded message rather than off your own job.
- The three purposes, written so they cannot drift into an offer or a start. Named rooms. Yes or no. Note a problem. Stop.
- The book check on any call that will speak a morning. Closed demolition weeks marked, so a start cannot land on a kitchen you are already in.
- The stop-and-flag when the client asks for a figure, a start, a permit, or whether the dust will be fine.
- The callback sentence, verbatim, even on a new-kitchen follow-up: the offer comes after the visit. Photos are not a figure.
Turn on SMS before the voice list. The first reminder is a text. The voice call is the second attempt: the key that has still not been left two days before the visit, or the kitchen that a text did not turn into a morning. Do not send both at the same minute with different times. The book is the source.
See pricing for how calls are charged.
What these calls sound like
The exchange in the panel above is the shape to expect. The assistant names the crew, the address, and the fact that this is a reminder only. It refuses the start question and the offer question. It records both for the crew. It does not go through the rooms.
A visit reminder is shorter. Identity, address, time, place, who should be there, a path if they cannot. If they cannot, that is a book problem for a person, not a talk about whether Monday is a start.
A materials chase names the item you wrote down. It does not decide that a box means a demolition week. If they raise Monday and you have already closed it, the crew will call back.
A new-kitchen follow-up offers only mornings the book currently has. It does not invent a figure. If you are not taking occupied work this month, that sentence comes first.
If nobody answers, the assistant leaves the message you entered — crew, address, purpose, a number back — or it sends the SMS and stops. It does not leave a second message that starts to describe the rooms.
The assistant answers in the caller’s language, from what you entered. In a Greek crew that is often Greek, English, German and Albanian in the same week. A key chase to a foreign owner is still a chase, not an offer walkthrough in a second language.
Lists that stay on your phone
A client who has gone quiet on a disputed snag. A job where a relative might pick up. A number that may now belong to someone who sold the flat. If a job is too sensitive to ring, it does not belong on the list. You decide that before the assistant dials.
Estimates, “the dust is usually fine”, dates spoken as if a start had been decided, walkthroughs of a permit paper — those sentences belong to a foreman, in a call you meant to make.
March, start week, August
A March week, a start week and an August Friday are not the same list.
March is kitchens and visits. The chase is a named address and someone at the door. If they still live there and they want a start this week, that goes to a phone.
Start week is existing jobs, often after hours, often in more than one language. The chase is materials and a morning, not a sentence that Monday is a demolition day. The failure is a yes on a figure to hurry the key.
An August Friday is one person on the ground and a published number that still rings. Set the closure dates and the sentence for new work. Do not confirm a site visit in a week when the crew is dark.
Teach the assistant the three shapes. If you give it one generic “follow-up” label, it will treat an occupied start like a key reminder.
After the first list
Run a short list first. Ten key chases two days before visits. Ten visit reminders. Five new-kitchen follow-ups. Read every transcript before you add volume.
You are not listening for warmth. You are listening for the extra sentence — the one that was not on the purpose line. The moment it almost named a figure, almost named a start, almost said the dust was fine, almost rang a tenant, almost confirmed Thursday off last week’s pad. Those are visible in the first week if you read the record.
March is when you will want to loosen the list. That is when you must not. Send on the key you have, or flag a person. Do not let the assistant finish the offer question out loud so the morning can move.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Key chase before a site visit | Yes, from your list | When someone has time | If you write a script |
| Visit and materials reminders | Yes | Yes | Sometimes |
| Starts with the address or the name | Yes | Yes | If you insist |
| Names an offer to hurry the key | Never — someone will walk the rooms | The crew does, after the visit | A risk if the script drifts |
| Names a start on the chase call | No — flags the crew | The crew does, after materials | Must not; sometimes does |
| Offers a start the book has not signed | No — checks the book, or takes a callback | If they check | Often from last week's pad |
| Rings a tenant about an owner's kitchen | No — only the number on the job | Only if you said so | A risk if the list was not read |
What unchased keys cost one week of visits
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people, 10 site visits on the book this week, each waiting on a key or someone at home.
- This example treats 4 of those 10 as still missing two days later.
- A morning that sits empty, or is pulled when nobody is at the door at ten, wastes about €220 of reserved time — put your own figure in, not ours.
- A two-day outbound chase recovers half of those missing mornings. Challenge this first; crews vary.
- 4 mornings still open on paper, two days out.
- Half recovered — 2 mornings that move on the key they needed.
- 2 × €220 = €440 of reserved time protected, in one week.
- Several such weeks a year — this example counts four.
About €1,760 a year of crew time, from calls that only ask whether someone will be at the door.
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 tell them which materials are still missing?
It can name the item you put on the list — kitchen tiles, the bathroom door, a key with the agency. It should not rebuild the offer on the call, and it should not decide that a particular box means Monday. If they ask for a figure from the old photos, that is a callback. Someone will walk the rooms.
What if they ask for an offer, on the chase call?
The assistant does not answer. It says someone will walk the rooms, takes the question in the client's words, and ends the chase. A chase that becomes a quote has no reviewer, no visit, and no foreman attached. The transcript still helps — the crew returns a real question rather than “they rang”.
Can it offer a new morning if the key is not there?
Yes, if you allow that purpose and if it checks the book before it offers a morning. It still does not name a start from a box of tiles. A reminder that starts naming a figure has stopped being a reminder. It does not offer a demolition week you have not signed.
Does it still ask for the address when we ring?
Yes. The call opens with the crew name, the address or the name on the job, and it stops if the person on the line does not recognise them. That is how you avoid briefing a tenant about an owner's kitchen, or a neighbour about a bathroom the family has not approved.
Can it chase a site visit from an existing client?
As a morning reminder, yes: we have a time this week, can someone be there, here is who should be at the door. Not as a sentence that the offer is ready, and not as a start. “We still have Thursday at 10:00 for the kitchen look” is reception. “We can start Monday, the tiles are in” is a start decision.
Who decides who is on the list?
The crew. The assistant does not invent people to ring. You export or tick the jobs that need a reminder or a chase, with one purpose each. A list that mixes “will the key be there” with “see if they want the bathroom too” is two jobs, and only the first one belongs here.
