Book roofing visits without mixing drip and re-roof
Quick summary
- The assistant reads the book before it offers a morning, so a storm look is never offered as a re-roof week.
- You on the tiles after a drip and a week of scaffolding are different bookings. Get that wrong and a client sits in a morning reserved for a gutter.
- Storm drip, gutter, re-roof or terrace first. Then which room. Then the book. Stay off the roof is not a visit type.
- Anything that sounds like a climb, a tile from a drip, or a re-roof price from eaves photos stays a callback.
- If the assistant cannot read the book, it takes a callback. It does not guess. It does not offer a roof day on a wind forecast.
- The assistant texts the time, the type, and that they should stay on the ground, so the wet that waits is wet you can see.
TL;DR
You are already on another roof. 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 storm look as different from a re-roof week, and asks drip, gutter, re-roof or terrace before it places anything. A drip is a look. Stay off the roof is the first sentence. 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 that they should stay on the ground. It never offers a roof day you have closed because of wind.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the types and their real durations before you let it book — storm look, gutter, re-roof week, terrace.
- Mark wind days and dry windows in the same book it reads, including August storms.
- Test a move on an existing storm look and on a re-roof week, separately, before you test a new drip.
- Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with stay off the roof and the access you need.
- 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 drip put into a re-roof week.
When someone wants a morning and you are already on a roof
One of you is on tiles that cannot take more wind. The other is at a gutter. The phone rings.
A caller wants Thursday at eleven for a look at a bedroom drip. A person who sent eaves photos this morning wants a re-roof figure today. A manager wants ten minutes on the communal roof. You cannot pick up. The tile is still in your hands.
Those three callers are asking for a morning. They are not asking for the same morning.
The first one needs you on the tiles and a sentence that keeps them on the ground. The second needs a look, not a number from a picture. The third needs a communal look, and only if you actually take communal work. If the assistant treats them as the next free hour, Thursday morning fills with a re-roof week, the drip arrives while you are on that roof, and the communal roof is offered on a morning the wind is still up.
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 climb, a tile from a drip, or a re-roof price from eaves photos. If any of those fail, it takes a request and says someone will call back. Stay off the roof stays in the first reply.
A person who has to wait for a callback just to learn whether Thursday works has time to ring the next roofer — or to open the hatch. 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 with a bucket. Nobody is free. They still should not go up.
A storm look is not a re-roof week
You already know this. The assistant does not, until you teach it.
A storm look is you, the tiles, the drip. Someone is there to let you in, or the manager has a key. The caller is told to stay on the ground and what access you need. They show the wet room. They leave.
A re-roof week is scaffolding, a dry window, and a signed offer. Wind and Thursday’s forecast all change whether that week exists.
A gutter look is one face of the block. A terrace is not tiles.
If the assistant cannot tell these apart, you spend Thursday on people who only needed a downpipe, and the person who needed a look at a drip is given ten minutes at the door while you still have a tile in your hands.
Give it the types and the real durations before it is allowed to offer anything:
- Storm look
- Gutter look
- Re-roof week
- Terrace look, if you take them
- Anything you do not want booked at all
People who just found a drip often call after they empty the bucket. The assistant can offer a look tomorrow. It cannot offer a re-roof tonight if you are not starting tonight. Do not give a gutter to that evening caller, and do not give a re-roof week to someone who asked for a look. Do not give them a climb as a type.
Drip, gutter, re-roof or terrace, then which room
The first question on this line is not when they are free. The first question is what kind of visit this is — and whether they are about to go up.
Those are two jobs if one is a drip and one is a full roof. Two kinds of access. Usually two lengths of visit. A drip is not a re-roof. A gutter is not a terrace. The confirmation, the reminder, and the stay-off-the-roof line are different.
A caller who is both still gets two notes. If they want a look at a drip and also a price for the whole roof, they get a storm look and, only after you have been on the tiles, a re-roof conversation. Do not squeeze a bucket and a week of scaffolding 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 storm look or the re-roof. Both can share one mobile number. If the assistant picks the first match, it moves the wrong visit.
Ask drip, gutter, re-roof or terrace. Then which room. Then the address. Then find the existing morning. Then move it. Stay off the roof stays in the reply.
Two clients in the same block are common. Two drips on the pad after a storm are common. A surname plus “the ceiling” 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. Do not ask them to go up and check.
Mornings you have already closed
You already know which mornings you look at tiles and which mornings the book is closed because of wind. 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 wind day you still take the phone, or the assistant does. A re-roof week is not offered. A storm look can still be offered if someone will be on the ground — and if the tiles are safe enough for you, not for them.
If a closed wind day is missing from that book, the assistant will offer 10:00 on a morning both of you are already on a roof, or on a morning the forecast has already killed. The client arrives with a bucket. The tile and the visit are then the same hour.
Look mornings are for drips and anything that needs you on the tiles without a full re-roof week.
August needs its own dates. Some of you stop for two weeks. The published number still rings. Set the closure dates. Do not let the assistant book a re-roof into a week of storms.
If you have closed terraces this month, say so before a terrace look is offered. A crew that only does tiles 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: drip, gutter, re-roof or terrace, which room, address, 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 looks after a storm. A cancellation the day before is a morning you can give to someone whose bedroom is still dripping. 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 after a storm is tighter. If Thursday is already a list of drips and they want to move a re-roof onto Thursday, refuse the re-roof morning and offer a look on the ground, or take a callback. Do not squeeze them into the hour before you go back on the tiles.
A climb is not a reason to invent a visit type
People ask while they book. A caller moving a storm look will ask if they should go up and send a photo. A person booking a re-roof will ask for a figure from the eaves. A manager booking a communal look will ask if they should send someone onto the ridge.
None of those is a booking type.
The assistant says please stay off the roof. Someone from the crew will look. Then it finishes the morning, if there is a type you actually offer. It does not invent a “photo from the ridge”. It does not name a tile to win the booking. It does not invent a week from eaves photos. It does not promise the roof will be done before the next storm.
If the only thing they want is a yes on a climb, there is no visit type to invent. Take the request. Address. Which room. Name and number. Stay off the roof. Someone will call back after they have been on the tiles.
What it must not do, even to be helpful:
- tell them to go up
- describe a sheet, a brick, a hatch, or a way onto the tiles
- diagnose a drip from a ceiling photo
- invent a re-roof price from eaves photos
- say you will be there in twenty minutes
- book a terrace as if it were tiles if you do not do terraces
Same-day water still coming in, they asked to go up, manager waiting still bypass ordinary booking. Those are flags to a phone, not a search for the next free look 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.
Gutters, communal roofs, and a Friday storm
Gutter. One face of the block. The assistant takes which face. It does not say the tiles are sound. It does not tell them to get a ladder out.
Communal roof. Keys, three ceilings, the manager. Mark the hours the manager opens the door. If they only open on Tuesdays, do not offer Monday. Do not ask the manager to go up.
Access still closed. They booked a look and the hatch is locked from the inside — and they should leave it that way. The assistant can take a move of the morning. It does not say they should open the hatch and wait. That is yours.
A storm look and a re-roof week are not the same morning in the book. Mark them as two kinds of visit, or you will turn up with scaffolding for someone who only needed a tile.
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, drip or re-roof, the type, stay off the roof, and the access you need.
The reminder goes out a day or two ahead, on the schedule you set. Its job is that the wet is reachable and they stay on the ground. It is not a cause sentence, not a tile number, and not a way onto the roof.
If a caller replies to the SMS with a climb 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 drip or re-roof, confirm stay off the roof, and stop. A caller asked to clear a ridge they should not stand on will cancel, and you will read that as a no-show.
Storm look. Access to the building, which room is wet. Not a request that they decide a tile on the call. Not a request that they go up.
Re-roof week. Dry window, who will be there, scaffolding if you have marked it. Not a yes that the week will finish before wind.
Gutter. Which face, access. Not a diagnosis of the tiles.
Terrace. Only if you take them. Not a mix-up with the roof.
A visit that starts with “I went up anyway” is a visit you now own for a reason you did not want. The stay-off-the-roof line at confirmation, and the same line 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 another roof.
A visit the crew has no record of is worse than no visit. The client turns up with a bucket. Nobody is free. They will not book a second time. They may go up while they wait.
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. Storm look, gutter, re-roof week, terrace — and the ones you do not want booked. A climb is not a type.
- Which people take which visit. Roofs, gutters, terraces, and the ones you turn away.
- Closed wind days and dry windows, in the same book the assistant reads. August dates as well.
- The drip-gutter-reroof-terrace step as mandatory on any booking, change or cancellation, then which room, then stay off the roof.
- The callback sentence, verbatim, so a climb does not become a new type, and a re-roof is not priced from eaves photos.
- 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 stay off the roof and the access you need, 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, drip or re-roof, which room, the duration, whether a wind day sat underneath, whether a climb was turned into a visit type.
You will find the morning that was a drip put into a re-roof week, the gutter that needs an hour rather than a day, the communal roof that landed on a morning the manager does not have keys.
Listen, in those fifty, for a climb. If the assistant has told them to go up, or named a tile from a drip, that is a configuration failure, not a successful booking.
After that, spot-check weekly for a month, and then every morning after a storm specifically. Keep anything that is a climb, a cause, or a re-roof price 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 after a storm if you marked a look | Yes, if you marked them | No | Sometimes |
| Treats a storm look as different from a re-roof | If you marked the two types | Yes | Rarely sees the week |
| Starts with drip, gutter, re-roof or terrace | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what morning |
| Books a climb so they can send a photo | Never — stay off the roof | Never, if they know the job | Sometimes books "a photo from the ridge" |
| Offers a roof day on a wind forecast | No — if you closed that day | If they check the forecast | Often from last week's pad |
| Sends the confirmation and stay on the ground | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of empty storm looks costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people. About 18 booked mornings a month for storm looks, gutters, or a re-roof walk.
- An empty look morning is not given to someone else the same day.
- About 10% of booked mornings arrive with no access to the roof, or nobody at the door. Check your own figure. Crews vary.
- Recoverable value of a used morning, €140. Put your own figure in. A storm look and a re-roof week are not the same.
- A reminder that names access and stay off the roof cuts empty mornings by a third. Challenge this first.
- 18 mornings × 10% = about 2 empty mornings a month.
- 2 × €140 = €280 of reserved time sitting empty.
- A third avoided returns about €90 a month.
- Over 11 working months — 11 × €90.
Roughly €990 a year, from a text that names the access and keeps them on the ground, 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 storm look while I am already on another roof?
It reads the same book the crew works from and checks the morning before offering it. A day you have closed because of wind, or because the other person is already at a gutter, is never offered as a re-roof week, if you marked it. Looks 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 a bucket and nobody is free. They still should not go up.
What about someone moving an existing morning?
The assistant asks drip, gutter, re-roof or terrace first, then which room, 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 storm look and a re-roof on the same phone must say which visit is moving.
Will it book a morning so they can go up and send a photo?
No. It will book a storm look if you allow that type. It will not book a session in which the caller climbs. Stay off the roof. Someone from the crew will look. A photo from the ridge is not a visit type.
Should it book a re-roof against any free week?
A re-roof needs a signed offer and a dry window. Mark the wind 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 invent a week from eaves photos.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the conversation, at the moment of booking, including stay off the roof and the access you need. 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 looks after a storm. A cancellation the crew hears about the day before is a morning that can go to someone who still has a drip. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is a morning gone. Cancellations are written back to the book the same way bookings are.
