Book waterproofing visits without mixing look and terrace
Quick summary
- The assistant reads the book before it offers a morning, so a look at a stain is never offered as a terrace day.
- Standing at the wet and laying membrane on a dry window are different bookings. Get that wrong and a client sits in a morning reserved for a cellar.
- Cellar, terrace or bathroom first. Then where they see the water. Then the book. A photo is not a cause.
- Anything that sounds like a diagnosis from a stain, or bitumen versus membrane from a picture, stays a callback.
- If the assistant cannot read the book, it takes a callback. It does not guess. It does not offer a terrace day on a rain forecast.
- The assistant texts the time, the type, and what access you need, so the wet that waits is wet you can see.
TL;DR
You are on a terrace with membrane. 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 look as different from a terrace day, and asks cellar, terrace or bathroom before it places anything. A stain is a look. A cause is after you have stood there. 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 what access you need. It never offers a terrace day you have closed because of rain.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the types and their real durations before you let it book — look, cellar day, terrace day, bathroom membrane.
- Mark rain days and dry windows in the same book it reads, including August storms.
- Test a move on an existing look and on a terrace day, separately, before you test a new cellar.
- Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with the access you need 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 morning that was a look put into a terrace day.
When someone wants a morning and you are on a terrace
One of you is on membrane that cannot take rain. The other is in a cellar with a torch. The phone rings.
A caller wants Thursday at eleven for a look at a bedroom stain. A person who sent a photo this morning wants a cause today. A manager wants ten minutes on the communal terrace. You cannot pick up. The roll is still open.
Those three callers are asking for a morning. They are not asking for the same morning.
The first one needs you at the stain and on the terrace above. The second needs a look, not a name 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 terrace day, the stain arrives while you are on that membrane, and the communal terrace is offered on a morning rain is still falling.
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 cause from a photo, a system from a picture, or a terrace day on a rain forecast. 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 arrives with a bucket. Nobody is free.
A look is not a terrace day
You already know this. The assistant does not, until you teach it.
A look is you, the stain, the cellar, the terrace. Someone is there to let you in, or the manager has a key. The caller is told what access you need, they show the wet, they leave.
A terrace day is membrane or bitumen and a dry window. Rain and Thursday’s forecast all change whether that morning exists.
A cellar day is tanking, injection, hours in a wet room. A bathroom membrane is before the tiler, not a leak.
If the assistant cannot tell these apart, you spend Thursday on people who only needed a bathroom floor, and the person who needed a look at a stain is given ten minutes at the door while you still have a roll in your hands.
Give it the types and the real durations before it is allowed to offer anything:
- Look
- Cellar day
- Terrace day
- Bathroom membrane
- Anything you do not want booked at all
People who just found a stain often call after they empty the bucket. The assistant can offer a look tomorrow. It cannot offer a terrace tonight if you are not on terraces tonight. Do not give a bathroom membrane to that evening caller, and do not give a terrace day to someone who asked for a look.
Cellar, terrace or bathroom, then where they see the water
The first question on this line is not when they are free. The first question is cellar, terrace or bathroom.
Those are two jobs if one is a leak and one is a membrane before tiles. Two kinds of access. Usually two lengths of visit. A cellar is not a terrace. A terrace is not a bathroom. The confirmation, the reminder, and the access are different.
A caller who is both still gets two notes. If they want a look at a stain and also a bathroom membrane, they get a look and a membrane visit. Do not squeeze a cause and a tiler date 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 look or the terrace day. Both can share one mobile number. If the assistant picks the first match, it moves the wrong visit.
Ask cellar, terrace or bathroom. Then where they see the water. Then the address. Then find the existing morning. Then move it.
Two clients in the same block are common. Two stains on the pad after rain 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.
Mornings you have already closed
You already know which mornings you look at wet and which mornings the book is closed because of rain. 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 rain day you still take the phone, or the assistant does. A terrace day is not offered. A look can still be offered if someone will be on the ground.
If a closed rain day is missing from that book, the assistant will offer 10:00 on a morning both of you are already on membrane, or on a morning the forecast has already killed. The client arrives with a bucket. The roll and the visit are then the same hour.
Look mornings are for stains and anything that needs you at the wet without a full terrace day.
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 terrace into a week of storms.
If you have closed cellars this month, say so before a cellar look is offered. A crew that only does terraces 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: cellar, terrace or bathroom, where they see the water, 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 rain. A cancellation the day before is a morning you can give to someone whose cellar is still wet. 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 rain is tighter. If Thursday is already a list of terraces and they want to move a look onto Thursday, refuse the terrace 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 membrane.
A cause from a photo is not a reason to invent a visit type
People ask while they book. A caller moving a look will ask if it is the roof. A person booking a terrace will ask bitumen or membrane. A manager booking a communal look will ask for a communal cause.
None of those is a booking type.
The assistant says someone has to see the wet. Then it finishes the morning, if there is a type you actually offer. It does not invent a “cause call”. It does not name a system to win the booking. It does not say it is the roof. It does not promise the terrace will be done before the next rain.
If the only thing they want is a yes on a cause from a picture, there is no visit type to invent. Take the request. Address. Where they see the water. Name and number. Someone will call back after they have stood there.
What it must not do, even to be helpful:
- diagnose from a photo of a stain
- pick bitumen or membrane from a picture
- quote last year’s neighbour as this stain
- say the terrace will be finished before Thursday’s rain
- say it is the roof
- book a communal terrace as if it were a private cellar
Same-day water still coming in, manager waiting, tiler on Friday 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.
Bathroom membranes, communal terraces, and a Friday tiler
Bathroom membrane. Before the tiler. The assistant takes the date the tiler is booked, if they have one. It does not promise the membrane will be in before that date. It does not say the fall is ready from a photo.
Communal terrace. Keys, three ceilings below, the manager. Mark the hours the manager opens the door. If they only open on Tuesdays, do not offer Monday.
Access still closed. They booked a look and the terrace door is locked. The assistant can take a move of the morning. It does not say you will work from the bedroom only. That is yours.
A look and a terrace day are not the same morning in the book. Mark them as two kinds of visit, or you will turn up with membrane for someone who only needed a torch.
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, cellar or terrace, the type, 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. It is not a cause sentence, not a system name, and not a way to start a terrace in advance.
If a caller replies to the SMS with a cause 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 cellar or terrace, and stop. A caller asked to empty a terrace they do not own will cancel, and you will read that as a no-show.
Look. Access to the room, the terrace or the cellar they named. Not a request that they decide a cause on the call.
Terrace day. Dry window, who will be there, access. Not a yes that the last metre will be on before rain.
Cellar day. Key, water if it is still there. Not a diagnosis.
Bathroom membrane. Tiler date if they have one. Not a promise that Friday is enough.
A visit that starts with “the terrace is locked” is a visit you will book again, usually in a week that has no room. The list at confirmation, and the same list 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 a terrace.
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.
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. Look, cellar day, terrace day, bathroom membrane — and the ones you do not want booked.
- Which people take which visit. Terraces, cellars, bathrooms, and the ones you turn away.
- Closed rain days and dry windows, in the same book the assistant reads. August dates as well.
- The cellar-terrace-bathroom step as mandatory on any booking, change or cancellation, then where they see the water.
- The callback sentence, verbatim, so a cause from a photo does not become a new type, and a system is not named from a picture.
- 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 the access you need for that type, 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, cellar or terrace, where they see the water, the duration, whether a rain day sat underneath, whether a stain-cause was turned into a visit type.
You will find the morning that was a look put into a terrace day, the bathroom membrane that needs two hours rather than a day, the communal terrace that landed on a morning the manager does not have keys.
Listen, in those fifty, for a cause. If the assistant has named the roof from a photo, or last year’s neighbour as this stain, that is a configuration failure, not a successful booking.
After that, spot-check weekly for a month, and then every morning after rain specifically. Keep anything that is a cause or a system 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 rain if you marked a look | Yes, if you marked them | No | Sometimes |
| Treats a look as different from a terrace day | If you marked the two types | Yes | Rarely sees the week |
| Starts with cellar, terrace or bathroom | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what morning |
| Books a diagnosis from a stain photo | Never — someone has to see the wet | After they have stood there | Sometimes books "a cause call" |
| Offers a terrace day on a rain forecast | No — if you closed that day | If they check the forecast | Often from last week's pad |
| Sends the confirmation and the access needed | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of empty looks costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people. About 22 booked mornings a month for looks, cellar days, or a terrace window.
- An empty look morning is not given to someone else the same day.
- About 10% of booked mornings arrive with no access to the terrace, or nobody at the cellar. Check your own figure. Crews vary.
- Recoverable value of a used morning, €160. Put your own figure in. A look and a terrace day are not the same.
- A reminder that names the access cuts empty mornings by a third. Challenge this first.
- 22 mornings × 10% = about 2 empty mornings a month.
- 2 × €160 = €320 of reserved time sitting empty.
- A third avoided returns about €105 a month.
- Over 11 working months — 11 × €105.
Roughly €1,155 a year, from a text that names the cellar key and the terrace, 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 look while I am on a terrace?
It reads the same book the crew works from and checks the morning before offering it. A day you have closed because of rain, or because the other person is already in a cellar, is never offered as a terrace day, 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.
What about someone moving an existing morning?
The assistant asks cellar, terrace or bathroom first, then where they see the water, 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 look and a terrace day on the same phone must say which visit is moving.
Will it book a morning to say what the stain is?
It will book a look if you allow that type. It will not book a session in which the assistant itself names a cause from a picture. The cause is yours after you have stood at the wet — a person, not the voice on the phone.
Should it book a terrace against any free morning?
A terrace needs a dry window. Mark the rain 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 pick bitumen or membrane from a photo.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the conversation, at the moment of booking, including the access you need for that type. 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 rain. A cancellation the crew hears about the day before is a morning that can go to someone who still has water on a cellar floor. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is a morning gone. Cancellations are written back to the book the same way bookings are.
