Book solar surveys without mixing a photo and a paper drop
Quick summary
- The assistant reads the book before it offers a morning, so a photo-lead is never offered as a paper drop.
- A terrace survey and an inverter look are different bookings. Get that wrong and a client sits in twenty minutes reserved for a tape.
- New array, stopped system or papers first. Then the roof and three-phase. Then the book.
- Anything that sounds like kilowatt-hours from a photo, a payback, or a connection month stays a callback.
- If the assistant cannot read the book, it takes a callback. It does not guess.
- The assistant texts the window, the roof type, and which papers to have ready.
TL;DR
You are on a terrace with the tape. 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 survey as different from a paper drop, and asks new array, stopped system or papers before it places anything. A photo is a survey. A paper is a drop. A kilowatt-hour question is not a new visit type — the figure comes after the tape. If the book cannot be reached, the assistant does not guess. It takes the request and says so. The assistant texts the window, the roof, and what to bring.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the types and their real durations before you let it book — terrace survey, tiled roof, inverter look, paper drop, battery look.
- Mark survey mornings and desk days in the same book it reads, including August.
- Test a move on an existing survey and on a paper drop, separately, before you test a field.
- Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with the roof type and the paper list.
- 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 photo put into a paper drop.
When someone wants a morning and you are on a terrace
One of you has the tape on a parapet. The other is at a desk with a grid letter. The phone rings.
A lead wants Thursday at nine for a terrace survey. A client wants ten minutes to drop papers. A household wants a look at a red inverter this afternoon. You cannot pick up. The tape is still on the wall.
Those three callers are asking for a time. They are not asking for the same time.
The first one needs you, three hours, and access to the roof. The second needs a desk and a folder. The third needs a garage look, not a terrace morning. If the assistant treats them as the next free hour, Thursday morning fills with a paper drop, the survey arrives while you are still in that folder, and the inverter 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 morning is free in the book the shop works from. Nothing in the call is a kilowatt-hour from a photo, a payback, or a connection month. If any of those fail, it takes a request and says the shop will call back.
A lead who has to wait for a callback just to learn whether Thursday works has time to ring the next installer. That is why the morning has to be finished on this call. It is also why a guessed hour is worse than no hour. The client is at the gate with a ladder. You are on someone else’s terrace.
New array, stopped system or papers, then the book
The order is the split, then the roof type, then whether that morning exists.
A terrace survey is not a tiled morning. A tiled morning is not an inverter look. An inverter look is not a paper drop. Write the types with the minutes you actually spend, or the assistant will do what every rushed person does: drop the next name into the first hole.
Fields, if you take them, are their own type. Access is a gate and a drive, not a stairwell. If the assistant books a field as if it were a Glyfada terrace, you spend the first hour finding out who opens the chain.
Three-phase or not belongs on the booking. A single-phase house is not the same array. Ask before the morning is confirmed.
August is not a hole. If the shop is dark, those days are closed in the same book. A survey booked into a beach week is a lead you then have to call, and a roof that waits until September.
What must not be booked
A production session. There is no visit called “tell me the kilowatt-hours from the photo”. If they ask, that is a survey note, not a Thursday at eleven in which the assistant reads a table.
A connection month. The assistant does not put “the grid will take you in June” in the book. It offers a survey or a paper drop, or it flags you.
An install before the tape. They can book a survey. They cannot book Thursday’s fit-out because they are in a hurry.
If the book cannot be reached, the only honest sentence is that someone will call back. A spoken Thursday that never landed is a wasted ladder.
Moving a morning without losing the roof
People ring to move the survey, then mention the papers. Those are two jobs. The assistant moves the survey only after it has the address and the roof type. The papers are a separate note.
If they say “move Thursday” and they have both a survey and an inverter look 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.
Test this on a real survey and a real paper drop before you let it touch a field. The first fifty bookings are where you find the hour that was a photo dropped into a desk morning.
What the SMS has to carry
The window. Terrace or tiles. The address. Which papers to have ready. The line that the figure comes after the tape, not from the photo.
A reminder that only says “Thursday 09:00” is how you arrive to a locked stairwell. A reminder that names the Glyfada terrace and the grid letter is how the morning starts on time.
Send it in the language of the call.
What you set first
Write the visit types with minutes. Mark who is out on Monday. Mark August. Give it the sentence that forbids a figure from a photo. Give it the same-day list: burning, smoke. Let cancellations write back to the book.
Then book one survey, 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.
Terrace mornings are not desk minutes
A paper drop is a folder and a pair of hands at the desk. A terrace survey is a different day. The tape, the shade, the parapet, whether the next block eats the afternoon — that is not a gap between two stamps.
If the assistant only knows “solar visit”, it will offer the lead the half hour you left after a paper drop. You will spend that half hour explaining why you have to come back. The lead will ring the shop that already knew the roof was a morning.
Write the minutes you actually stay. Tiles are not a terrace. A battery look on an existing array is not a new survey. The book has to carry those as different types, or Thursday fills with the wrong ladder.
Building managers book for three flats at once. That is still one terrace if the roof is shared, and three surveys if each flat has its own. The assistant asks. A single Thursday morning cannot hold three separate roofs unless you marked it that way.
Access is part of the booking
No access, no survey. The confirmation that does not name who opens the stairwell is how you idle in the street. The assistant asks, on every terrace morning, who will be there. If the caller is a tenant who does not have the roof key, the morning is not confirmed. It becomes a callback to the owner.
Saturday surveys, if you take them, live in the same book. A paper drop does not belong there. A grant-week survey might. If you do not mark the difference, the assistant will offer a Saturday drop to someone who only needed a stamp, and you will drive for a job that could have waited until Monday.
What a good booking sounds like
Split. Roof. Three-phase or not. Address. Morning that exists. Refusal of the kilowatt-hours, said out loud, if they asked. SMS in the language they used.
There is no “come at 10:20”. There is no “the photo is about ten kilowatt”. There is no connection in June. There is no tiled roof dropped into a paper gap.
If the assistant is friendly and still puts a photo into a desk morning, you own that hour. Put the person who rang about the terrace at 11:10 on a survey, and put the papers on a drop the book can honour.
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 shop works from | Yes | Usually not — takes a message |
| Books evenings and Saturday surveys | Yes, if you marked them | No | Sometimes |
| Treats a survey as different from a paper drop | If you marked the two types | Yes | Rarely sees the week |
| Starts with new array, stopped system or papers | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what morning |
| Books a kilowatt-hour session from a photo | Never — the figure comes after the tape | The survey does, on the roof | Sometimes books "a production chat" |
| Sends the confirmation and which papers to bring | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of empty survey mornings costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people. About 22 booked mornings a month for surveys, inverter looks, or a paper drop.
- An empty terrace morning is not given to someone else the same day.
- About 10% of booked mornings arrive with the wrong papers, or nobody comes. Check your own figure. Shops vary.
- Recoverable value of a used survey morning, €180. Put your own figure in. A terrace survey and a paper drop are not the same.
- A reminder that names the papers cuts empty mornings by a third. Challenge this first.
- 22 mornings × 10% = about 2 empty survey mornings a month.
- 2 × €180 = €360 of reserved time sitting empty.
- A third avoided returns about €120 a month.
- Over 11 working months — 11 × €120.
Roughly €1,320 a year, from a text that names the papers, 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 terrace survey while I am on someone else's roof?
It reads the same book the shop works from and checks the morning before offering it. A day you have closed because you are already on a terrace, or because the other person is in papers, is never offered as a survey, if you marked it. Paper drops can still be offered that day if someone will be at the desk. 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 morning the shop has no record of is worse than no morning. The client turns up with a ladder and nobody is free.
What about someone moving an existing morning?
The assistant asks new array, stopped system or papers first, 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 morning is not free. A client who has a survey and a paper drop on the same phone must say which visit is moving.
Will it book a time to tell them how many kilowatt-hours the roof will make?
It will book a survey, if you allow that type. It will not book a session in which the assistant itself reads a production figure from a photo. The figure comes after the tape — a person on the roof, not the voice on the phone.
Should it book a tiled roof against any free hour?
Tiles are a different morning from a flat terrace if you marked them that way. Access, safety, and time on the roof change. The assistant takes the roof type. It does not drop a tiled survey into a twenty-minute paper gap. It does not promise Thursday's install before the tape.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the conversation, at the moment of booking, including the roof type and which papers to have ready. The reminder goes out ahead of the morning on the schedule you set. Neither requires anyone in the shop to type a number.
Can clients cancel through it too?
Yes, and you should let them, especially on surveys after a grant week. A cancellation the shop hears about the day before is a morning that can go to someone who still has a photo on the other line. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is a tape unused. Cancellations are written back to the book the same way bookings are.
