Book drain visits without mixing a bowl and a tanker
Quick summary
- The assistant reads the book before it offers a window, so a bowl is never offered as an autumn pump.
- A rod look and a restaurant trap are different bookings. Get that wrong and a kitchen sits in twenty minutes reserved for a tanker.
- Backup, smell or pump first. Then septic or sewer. Then the book.
- Anything that sounds like a cause from a smell, a chemical, or a twenty-minute arrival stays a callback.
- If the assistant cannot read the book, it takes a callback. It does not guess.
- The assistant texts the window, whether it is the truck or the reel, and who must be there with the lid key.
TL;DR
You are on a rod. A caller who wants a window will not wait for a callback just to learn whether Thursday is free. An assistant can book those windows if it reads the book first, treats a backup as different from a tanker morning, and asks backup, smell or pump before it places anything. A backup is a note. A pump is a window. A smell is not a new visit type with a cause attached — the technician looks at the pit or puts a camera in the pipe. If the book cannot be reached, the assistant does not guess. It takes the request and says so. The assistant texts the window, the machine, and who holds the lid key.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the types and their real durations before you let it book — rod, camera, tanker pump, grease trap, block stack.
- Mark tanker mornings and reel days in the same book it reads, including August.
- Test a move on an existing pump and on a rod look, separately, before you test a restaurant trap.
- Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with who must be there and which machine.
- 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 bowl put into a tanker morning.
When someone wants a window and you are on a rod
One of you is in a bathroom with the cable. The other is at a lid with the hose. The phone rings.
An owner wants Thursday at nine for the autumn pump. A family wants someone today because the bowl is at the rim. A renovator wants two hours for a camera before they open the floor. You cannot pick up. The rod is still in the stack.
Those three callers are asking for a time. They are not asking for the same time.
The first one needs the truck, a morning, and a lid key. The second needs a human who knows where the van is, not a hole in Thursday. The third needs the reel, not the tanker. If the assistant treats them as the next free hour, Thursday morning fills with a backup that should have been a phone, the pump arrives while you are still on that bowl, and the camera is offered on a morning you have already closed.
The assistant books only if three things are true. The type is one you offer. The window is free in the book the van works from. Nothing in the call is a cause from a smell, a chemical, or a twenty-minute arrival. If any of those fail, it takes a request and says the technician will call back.
A family that has to wait for a callback just to learn whether Thursday works has time to ring the next tanker. That is why the window has to be finished on this call. It is also why a guessed hour is worse than no hour. The owner is at the pit with a key. You are in someone else’s bathroom.
Backup, smell or pump, then the machine, then the book
The order is the split, then whether this needs the truck or the reel, then whether that window exists.
A rod look is not a tanker morning. A tanker morning is not a camera before they open a floor. A camera is not a restaurant trap. Write the types with the minutes and the machine you actually send, or the assistant will do what every rushed person does: drop the next name into the first hole.
Grease traps are their own type. Access is behind the kitchen, after service, or at dawn. If the assistant books a trap as if it were a house pit, you spend the first hour finding out who can move the bins.
Blocks are not houses. The manhole is in the basement, and the key is with the manager. Mark them.
August is not a hole. If the tanker is dark, those days are closed in the same book. A pump booked into a beach week is an owner you then have to call, and a pit that waits until September.
What must not be booked
A diagnosis session. There is no visit called “tell me what the smell is”. If they ask whether it is the septic, that is a smell note and a look, not a Thursday at eleven in which the assistant names a cause.
A twenty-minute arrival. The assistant does not put “someone will be there at 10:20” in the book. It offers a window you marked, or it flags you.
A jet price meeting. They can book a look. They cannot book a number. The quote is yours, after you have lifted the lid.
A tenant opening a communal manhole. The assistant takes who will be there. If nobody with a key is named, it does not confirm the window. It takes a callback.
If the book cannot be reached — the signal in the basement dropped, the calendar is down — the only honest sentence is that someone will call back. A spoken Thursday that never landed is a wasted lid key.
Moving a window without losing the machine
People ring to move the pump, then mention the bowl. Those are two jobs. The assistant moves the pump only after it has septic or sewer and the address. The backup is a separate note, flagged today.
If they say “move Thursday” and they have both a camera and a trap on the file, the assistant asks which one. Cancel-then-book on the wrong type leaves Thursday blocked by a visit they no longer want, and the trap sitting on a morning that belongs to someone else.
Test this on a real pump and a real rod look before you let it touch a restaurant. The first fifty bookings are where you find the hour that was a bowl dropped into a tanker morning.
What the SMS has to carry
The window. Truck or reel. The address. Who must be there with the lid key. If it is a block, the name of the manager. If it is a look, the line that the cause comes after the visit, not from the smell.
A reminder that only says “Thursday 09:00” is how you arrive to a locked gate. A reminder that names the septic past Koropi and Maria with the key is how the morning starts on time.
Send it in the language of the call. A German owner of a village house who booked in German and gets the text in Greek will miss the window, and you will miss the pit.
What you set first
Write the visit types with minutes and machines. Mark who is out on Monday. Mark August. Give it the sentence that forbids a cause from a smell. Give it the same-day list: sewage at the bowl, yard flooding, lid lifting. Let cancellations write back to the book.
Then book one pump, move it, cancel it, and read the book with your own eyes. If Thursday is still taken by a visit that no longer exists, do not open the rest of the week.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
Tanker mornings are not bathroom minutes
A rod in a third-floor toilet is a bag and a pair of hands. A septic outside Koropi is a different day. The truck has to get there. The lid, the hose, the run to the disposal — that is not a gap between two bowls.
If the assistant only knows “drain visit”, it will offer the owner the half hour you left after a rod. You will spend that half hour explaining why the truck has to come back. The owner will ring the van that already knew the pit was a morning.
Write the minutes you actually stay. A house pump is not a restaurant trap. A camera in a hallway is not a tanker. The book has to carry those as different types, or Thursday fills with the wrong machine.
Building managers book for three flats at once. That is still one stack if the manhole is communal, and three visits if each flat has its own branch. The assistant asks. A single Thursday morning cannot hold three separate bowls unless you marked it that way.
The lid key is part of the booking
No key, no pump. The confirmation that does not name who opens the gate is how you idle on the road. The assistant asks, on every tanker morning, who will be there. If the caller is a tenant who does not have the pit key, the morning is not confirmed. It becomes a callback to the owner.
Some of you leave a key in a box. Some of you have a copy. Mark that on the house, not as a guess on the call. The assistant should not tell a stranger that a key is in a box.
Sunday lunch, if you take it, lives in the same book. An autumn pump does not belong there. A bowl does. If you do not mark the difference, the assistant will offer a Sunday pump to someone who only needed a note, and you will drive the truck for a job that could have waited until Monday.
What a good booking sounds like
Split. Machine. Address. Key. Window that exists. Refusal of the cause, said out loud, if they asked. SMS in the language they used.
There is no “come at 10:20”. There is no “it is the septic, from the smell”. There is no quote from a bowl. There is no tanker dropped into a rod gap.
If the assistant is friendly and still puts a bowl into a tanker morning, you own that hour. Put the person who rang about the rim at 13:10 on a note, and put the pump on a window the book can honour.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reads the book before offering a window | Yes, the book the van works from | Yes | Usually not — takes a message |
| Books evenings and Sunday lunch | Yes, if you marked them | No | Sometimes |
| Treats a bowl as different from a pump | If you marked the two types | Yes | Rarely sees the week |
| Starts with backup, smell or pump | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what window |
| Books a cause from a smell | Never — the technician looks at the pit | The technician does, at the lid | Sometimes books "a septic chat" |
| Sends the confirmation and who holds the lid key | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of empty tanker mornings costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people. About 24 booked windows a month for pumps, camera looks, or a grease trap.
- An empty tanker morning is not given to someone else the same day.
- About 10% of booked windows arrive with no lid key, or nobody comes. Check your own figure. Vans vary.
- Recoverable value of a used tanker morning, €160. Put your own figure in. A restaurant trap and a rod look are not the same.
- A reminder that names who holds the lid key cuts empty mornings by a third. Challenge this first.
- 24 windows × 10% = about 2 empty tanker mornings a month.
- 2 × €160 = €320 of reserved time sitting empty.
- A third avoided returns about €107 a month.
- Over 11 working months — 11 × €107.
Roughly €1,177 a year, from a text that names the key, not only the hour.
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 septic pump while I am on a rod in someone else's bathroom?
It reads the same book the van works from and checks the window before offering it. A day you have closed because the tanker is already on a restaurant trap, or because the other person is on backups, is never offered as a pump, if you marked it. Rod looks can still be offered that day if someone will be in a bathroom. 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 window the van has no record of is worse than no window. The owner turns up with a lid key and the truck is elsewhere.
What about someone moving an existing window?
The assistant asks backup, smell or pump first, then septic or sewer, then the address 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 window is not free. A client who has a rod look and an autumn pump on the same phone must say which visit is moving.
Will it book a time to tell them what the smell is?
It will book a look at the pit, or a camera, if you allow those types. It will not book a session in which the assistant itself names a cause from the odour. A smell is work at the lid or on the reel. The technician looks — a person, not the voice on the phone.
Should it book a restaurant trap against any free hour?
A grease trap is a tanker morning and access behind the kitchen. Mark how long you actually need. The assistant takes the shop and who will be there. It does not drop a two-hour trap into a twenty-minute rod gap. It does not treat a trap as a house pit.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the conversation, at the moment of booking, including whether it is the truck or the reel and who must be there with the lid key. The reminder goes out ahead of the window 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 autumn pumps after a dry week. A cancellation the van hears about the day before is a morning that can go to someone who still has a bowl at the rim. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is a tanker unused. Cancellations are written back to the book the same way bookings are.
