Book tiling visits without mixing wet-room and splashback
Quick summary
- The assistant reads the book before it offers a morning, so a format match is never offered as a wet-room measure-up.
- A twenty-minute look at two cracked 20×20s and a bathroom measure-up are different bookings. Get that wrong and a client sits in a slot reserved for a fall.
- Measure-up, wet-room, format match or terrace first. Then the room. Then the book.
- Anything that sounds like a price, a fall that is right, or a start before the tape stays a callback.
- If the assistant cannot read the book, it takes a callback. It does not guess.
- The assistant texts the morning, the type, and what to leave clear, so the floor you arrive to is a floor you can tape.
TL;DR
You are on a bathroom floor. 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 format match as different from a wet-room, and asks which room before it places anything. A photo is a measure-up. A start day is not a measure-up. A fall question is not a new visit type — you see the floor. If the book cannot be reached, the assistant does not guess. It takes the request and says so. The assistant texts the morning, the type, and what to leave clear.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the types and their real durations before you let it book — measure-up, wet-room, format match, terrace, start day.
- Mark plumber weeks, tile-not-arrived days and August in the same book it reads.
- Test a move on an existing format match and on a wet-room measure-up, separately, before you test a new bathroom.
- Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with the list of what to leave clear 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 hour that was a wet-room put into a splashback look.
When someone wants a morning and you are on a floor
One of you is kneeling on old 20×20. The other is setting a splashback across town. The phone rings.
A owner wants Thursday morning for a bathroom tape. A person whose shower ponds wants someone today. A client wants twenty minutes to match two cracked tiles. You cannot pick up. The adhesive is open.
Those three callers are asking for a morning. They are not asking for the same morning.
The first one needs you, a tape, and a floor. The second needs a wet-room look, a level, and a fall you have not seen. The third needs a short format match, and only if you still have that 20×20. If the assistant treats them as the next free hour, Thursday morning fills with a splashback look, the wet-room arrives while you are matching two tiles, and the bathroom tape is offered on a morning the plumber has not left.
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, a fall decision, or a start before the tape. 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 crew. 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 empties the bathroom. Nobody is free.
A format match is not a wet-room measure-up
You already know this. The assistant does not, until you teach it.
A format match is twenty minutes on a floor. Someone is there to see two cracked 20×20s. You stay on the other bathroom. The caller is told to leave the pieces out.
A wet-room measure-up is you, a tape, a level, and the fall to the drain. You have come off the other floor. The shower is not in use. The floor is clear.
A kitchen splashback is a wall, not a floor. A start day is adhesive and boxes that have actually arrived. A terrace after frost is outdoor work with a weather window.
If the assistant cannot tell these apart, you spend Thursday on people who only needed two tiles matched, and the person who needed an hour on a fall is given twenty minutes at the door.
Give it the types and the real durations before it is allowed to offer anything:
- Bathroom or wet-room measure-up
- Format match
- Kitchen splashback
- Terrace look
- Start day after a quote
- Anything you do not want booked at all
People who just had a plumber out often call after the pipes are capped. The assistant can offer a measure-up tomorrow. It cannot offer a start today if the tiles are still at the yard. Do not give a format match to that caller, and do not give a wet-room a twenty-minute look when they asked for a tape on the fall.
Which room, then the job, then any morning
The first question on this line is not when they are free. The first question is which room, and whether this is a measure-up, a wet-room, a format match, a terrace or a start.
Those are different jobs. Different floors. Usually different lengths of visit. A shower without a tray is not two cracked tiles. A start is not a first tape. The confirmation, the reminder, and what to leave clear are different.
A caller who is both still gets two notes. If they want a bathroom taped and also two 20×20s matched in the hall, they get a measure-up and a short look. Do not squeeze a fall and a format 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 format match or the wet-room tape. Both can share one mobile number. If the assistant picks the first match, it moves the wrong visit.
Ask which job. Then the address or the name on the file. Then find the existing morning. Then move it.
Two clients on the same landing are common. Two bathrooms in one block after a plumber’s week are common. A surname plus “the bathroom” is not always enough. Take the floor. Take the room. 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 tape bathrooms and which mornings the book is closed because the tiles have not arrived, or because you are in a wet-room that cannot be left. Put those mornings in the book the assistant reads. If they exist only on a pad on the van dash, the assistant cannot see them.
On a closed morning you still take the phone, or the assistant does. A start is not offered. A format match can still be offered if someone will be near.
If a closed morning is missing from that book, the assistant will offer 09:00 on a day both of you are already on a floor. The client arrives with the furniture off. The wet-room and the new tape are then the same morning.
Start days are for work you have already quoted and agreed.
August needs its own dates. Some of you close 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 measure-up into a week when nobody is with the van.
If you have closed wet-rooms this month, say so before a fall visit is offered. A crew that does not do terraces should say so on the first call, not after a booked look.
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: which job, address or name on the file, 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 measure-ups after a plumber has delayed. A cancellation the day before is a morning you can give to someone whose shower is still holding water. 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 plumber has left three floors is tighter. If Thursday is already a list of wet-rooms and they want to move a splashback onto Thursday, refuse the splashback and offer a later window, or take a callback. Do not squeeze them into the hour before you go back on the fall.
A fall question is not a reason to invent a start
People ask while they book. A owner moving a measure-up will ask whether the fall will be right. A person booking a bathroom will ask for a round figure. A client booking a start will ask whether the tiles can go down without you seeing the floor.
None of those is a booking type.
The assistant says someone has to see the floor. Then it finishes the morning, if there is a type you actually offer. It does not invent a “fall chat”. It does not name a price to win the booking. It does not say the fall is fine. It does not pretend Thursday is a start because the plumber named it.
If they press — “just put a start in, the plumber is out” — the assistant still refuses the start. It can offer a measure-up if that morning is free. The start stays yours, after the tape and the quote.
Water through to the flat below is not a booking. It is a flag to a phone you actually hold. The assistant collects a name and a number while it is connecting. It does not tell them to lift tiles.
What to leave clear, in the same text as the morning
A measure-up on a floor still covered in laundry is not a measure-up. A wet-room with the shower in use is not a wet-room look. A format match with the cracked tiles already thrown out is a visit you cannot finish.
The assistant texts the morning, the type, and what to leave clear — furniture off the floor, laundry out, shower not in use, the two cracked pieces left out. That text is the difference between a morning you can use and a morning you drive to and leave.
If they booked in English, the text goes out in English. If they booked in Greek, it goes out in Greek. 70+ languages. The reminder follows the same language.
Do not let the assistant text a start list for a measure-up. The boxes do not need to be in the bathroom for a tape. They need to be in the bathroom for a start. Mix those lists and the client thinks you are beginning on a morning you only meant to measure.
What you set first
Give it the types and the real durations. Mark plumber weeks, tile-not-arrived days, and August. Require which room and which job before any morning. Turn on the SMS with the clear-floor list 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 wet-room that was put into a splashback look, and the start that was offered before the tape.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
A plumber’s Thursday is not a hole in the book
The plumber said Thursday. Three flats heard it. None of those floors is yours until you have been on them with a tape, and the boxes are in.
If the assistant treats “the plumber is out Thursday” as a start, you own three mornings you cannot keep. Book the measure-up. Hold the start until the quote is agreed and the tiles have arrived. If the tiles have not arrived, move the morning. Do not keep Thursday just to sound fast.
A frost morning is the same shape with different weather. Terrace looks need a dry window. Do not let the assistant put a terrace on a day you have already closed because it is raining.
The book the crew already uses is the only book. A second list on paper next to the trowel is how a morning gets offered twice.
What these bookings sound like
The order is the job, then the room, then a morning the book can honour, then the refusal said out loud. There is no round figure over a bathroom nobody has taped. There is no “the fall will be fine”. There is no start because a plumber named Thursday.
If the assistant is friendly and still puts a start in, you own that morning. Put the person who rang about the wet-room at 11:10 on a measure-up, not on a start day the boxes cannot support.
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 and Saturday mornings | Yes, if you marked them | No | Sometimes |
| Treats a format match as different from a wet-room | If you marked the two types | Yes | Rarely sees the week |
| Starts with which room and which job | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what morning |
| Books a start before the tape | Never — the quote is after the measure-up | Only after the quote is agreed | Sometimes books "a start chat" |
| Sends the confirmation and what to leave clear | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of empty measure-ups costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people. About 28 booked mornings a month to measure a bathroom, look at a format, or start a floor.
- An empty measure-up morning is not given to someone else the same day.
- About 12% of booked mornings arrive with the old furniture still on the floor, or nobody is in. Check your own figure. Crews vary.
- Recoverable value of a used morning, €180. Put your own figure in. A wet-room measure-up and a twenty-minute format match are not the same.
- A reminder that names what to leave clear cuts empty mornings by a third. Challenge this first.
- 28 mornings × 12% = about 3 empty mornings a month.
- 3 × €180 = €540 of reserved time sitting empty.
- A third avoided returns about €180 a month.
- Over 10 working months — 10 × €180.
Roughly €1,800 a year, from a text that names the floor, not only the morning.
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 measure-up while I am on a bathroom floor?
It reads the same book the crew works from and checks the morning before offering it. A morning you have closed because you are on a wet-room, or because the tiles have not arrived, is never offered as a start, if you marked it. Format-match looks can still be offered that day if someone will be near. 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 bathroom empty and nobody is free.
What about someone moving an existing morning?
The assistant asks which job first — measure-up, wet-room, format match, terrace or start — then the address or the name 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 format match and a bathroom measure-up on the same phone must say which visit is moving.
Will it book a morning to decide whether the fall is right?
It will book a measure-up so you can see the floor, if you allow that type. It will not book a session in which the assistant itself says the fall is fine. The fall is yours, after a level on that floor. A person, not the voice on the phone.
Should it book a start against any free morning because the plumber said Thursday?
A start is adhesive, tiles that have arrived, and a floor the plumber has actually left. Mark start days as their own type. The assistant does not put Thursday in the book because a plumber named it. If the tiles have not arrived, that is a move, not a start. The assistant takes the room and offers only the kind of visit you marked.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the conversation, at the moment of booking, including what to leave clear for that type — furniture off the floor, laundry out, the shower not in use. The reminder goes out ahead of the morning on the schedule you set. Neither requires anyone on the van to type a number.
Can clients cancel through it too?
Yes, and you should let them, especially on measure-ups after a plumber has delayed. A cancellation the crew hears about the day before is a morning that can go to someone whose shower is still holding water. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is a morning gone. Cancellations are written back to the book the same way bookings are.
