Access and dry-window chase for waterproofing
Quick summary
- You are on a terrace. The look they were going to confirm and the cellar key they were going to leave still have to be chased.
- The list is a named address, a look reminder, or a dry-window check. Not a second cause from a photo.
- Every call starts with the address or the name on the job. If they do not recognise them, the call stops.
- It does not name the leak. Missing access is a yes or no. What that stain means is a callback.
- If they ask whether it is the roof, the assistant writes the question down and says someone will see the wet.
- SMS does the first reminder. The voice call is for the terrace door that is still locked two days before the look.
TL;DR
You are on a terrace. Eight looks are still unconfirmed and Thursday's cellar still has no key. Nobody is going to spend the afternoon ringing. An assistant works the list you give it: address or name on the job, one purpose. It asks whether the terrace door will be open. It does not say what the stain is, whether it is bitumen or membrane, or whether the bucket can be left. If they ask, it writes the question down and says someone will see the wet. It can book a move if that morning is free. It will not ring a neighbour's mobile about someone else's cellar.
Key takeaways
- Build each list from your own jobs: address or name, the number on the job, and one purpose.
- Do not put a neighbour's mobile on a stain chase unless that number is the number on the job.
- Write the purpose as a reminder or a chase, not as a question about a cause or a system.
- If the client asks whether it is the roof, the assistant ends the call and flags the crew to call back.
- Check the book before you speak a morning. Do not read Thursday off last week's pad, and do not offer a terrace on a rain day.
- Keep last year's neighbour and cause names off the script. Someone has to see the wet.
The lists on the van while you are on a terrace
The membrane is still open. Eight looks are still unconfirmed. Thursday’s cellar still has no key. You are not going to spend the afternoon ringing.
That is the outbound problem on this crew. Not a campaign. Not a hunt for new work. A list of people you already know, an address you have already written down, and nobody free to ring because the terrace will not wait.
The helper, if you have one, has sent the messages. The voice call is the second attempt. It does not happen. The look morning sits with a locked door, or someone pulls you off the membrane at nine because a cellar key never arrived.
Nobody has worked two other lists either. A look on Thursday that nobody confirmed, so the morning is empty and the torch never leaves the van. A terrace that needed a yes on access before the rain, left a number, and never confirmed — they have two other crews in the same search, and they will use one of them.
You put the assistant on a list you made. It rings. It talks like a receptionist: the crew name, the address or the name on the job, then the one thing you asked it to do. Then it stops.
Three purposes, and nothing else
Three jobs belong on a list.
A named look, before the morning. Terrace door open. Cellar key. Someone at home. The assistant names the wet you wrote down, asks whether access will be there, and offers to note a problem. It does not discuss what the stain is. It does not rebuild the cause on the call.
A dry-window or access reminder. Time, place, the access you need, how to say if they cannot. No sentence that it is the roof. No “bitumen will fix it”. No estimate of the terrace.
A new-look follow-up. They asked about a cellar, a terrace, a bathroom membrane, and never booked. The assistant offers a morning only if the book has one. If you have closed cellars for the month, it says so on the first line. It does not invent a cause. It does not pick a system. It does not promise you can take them on.
Everything else is your call. What the stain is. Whether it is bitumen or membrane. Whether the bucket can be left. Whether it will stop this winter. Those sentences need you, the wet, and a decision. They do not belong on a list.
A look is you and the wet. A terrace day is membrane and a dry window. If the assistant cannot tell them apart, you spend Thursday on people who only needed a door opened.
The wrong job, the wrong person
The first failure is not a missed reminder. It is the wrong wet spoken to the wrong person.
A stain briefed to a neighbour. A cellar briefed to a tenant who picked up the owner’s mobile. Last year’s terrace figures read to a caller who rang about this year’s cellar. Opening with the address or the name on the job, and stopping when those are not recognised, is how you keep the jobs apart.
The number on the list is the number on the job. A neighbour’s mobile does not go on a stain chase unless that mobile is the number you were told to use. A tenant does not go on a terrace unless you have an instruction from the owner. A former occupant, a number copied off a forwarded message, a mobile that now belongs to someone who sold the flat — not on the list.
If the person who answers does not recognise the address, the assistant stops. It does not explain the stain so they can “pass it on”. It does not ask them to find the owner. It ends the call and flags you.
If the caller is a client who is both — a look still open and a terrace day in the same breath — the assistant records both and does not merge them into one morning. Those are two conversations for you, even if they answered one ring.
The question that is not a chase
Clients ask. They ask on the outbound because that is when they finally have the crew on the phone.
“Is it the roof?” “Bitumen or membrane?” “Can I leave the bucket?” “Will it stop this winter?” Those are cause questions, or a system. An assistant that answers has given a decision with no technician and no look. An assistant that writes the question down, in the client’s words, and says someone will see the wet, has ended the chase.
The call ends there. The assistant does not go through the photo. It does not give a range. It does not say last year’s neighbour. It does not say it should be fine.
If they will not leave the door open without a yes on the cause, flag a person. Do not invent one to close the reminder.
The same stop applies to a new-look follow-up. “Just tell me if it is the roof, I still have the photo” is not a reason to stay on the line. Intake is finished on the phone. The cause is yours after the wet.
The rule the assistant must obey
One purpose per call. Address or name first. Stop if those do not match. Check the book before speaking a morning. Take questions, do not answer them. Never use a number that is not the number on the job.
Cellar, terrace and bathroom may appear as labels on the list, so the right person owns the callback. They are not themes for the assistant to finish. An access chase does not discuss a cause. A dry-window reminder does not confirm that the last metre will beat the rain. A new-look follow-up does not invent a diagnosis or pick a system.
Water still coming in, a manager waiting, a neighbour who is not on the job — flag those, do not walk anyone through them. If they offer a tiler date, take it as a note. If they do not, do not interrogate them on a reminder call.
A morning from last week’s pad
Closed rain days move. Look mornings move. An outbound that confirms Thursday at 09:00 from last Friday’s pad, after the book has closed the morning because of rain, is worse than no call. The client arrives with a bucket on a morning you have given to a terrace — or to weather.
The assistant has to check the book before it speaks a morning. It never offers a terrace day you have closed because of rain. Looks can still be offered if someone will be on the ground. If the book cannot be reached, it does not guess. It takes a callback.
On a closed rain day you still take the phone. You do not take a terrace. Enter the look mornings. The assistant cannot invent them.
Calls that cannot stay on this list
Three things, said on an outbound, end the purpose and go to a phone.
Water is still coming in. Take the address, who is speaking, and put it on a number you hold. Do not finish the door chase first. Do not tell them to open a wall.
The tiler is Friday and the membrane is not in. A note in the evening list is a note you read after the hour that mattered.
A neighbour picked up. Do not brief the stain. End the call. Flag you.
Everything else can wait for the transcript.
What you configure first
- The list shape. Address or name on the job, the number on the job, purpose, person who owns the callback. No second number “just in case” unless that second number is also on the job and you have said so.
- Who stays off the list. Neighbour mobiles on someone else’s cellar, tenants on a job they are not named on, former occupants, and any number that came off a forwarded message rather than off your own job.
- The three purposes, written so they cannot drift into a cause or a system. Named wet. Yes or no. Note a problem. Stop.
- The book check on any call that will speak a morning. Rain days marked, so a terrace cannot land on a wet Thursday.
- The stop-and-flag when the client asks for a cause, a system, or whether they can leave the bucket.
- The callback sentence, verbatim, even on a new-look follow-up: someone has to see the wet. A photo is not a cause.
Turn on SMS before the voice list. The first reminder is a text. The voice call is the second attempt: the door that is still locked two days before the look, or the cellar that a text did not turn into a morning. Do not send both at the same minute with different times. The book is the source.
See pricing for how calls are charged.
What these calls sound like
The exchange in the panel above is the shape to expect. The assistant names the crew, the address, and the fact that this is a reminder only. It refuses the cause question and the system question. It records both for the crew. It does not go through the stain.
A look reminder is shorter. Identity, address, time, place, the access you need, a path if they cannot. If they cannot, that is a book problem for a person, not a talk about whether it is the roof.
A dry-window chase names the building and the forecast window. It does not decide whether the last metre will beat the rain. If they raise Thursday and you have already closed it, the crew will call back.
A new-look follow-up offers only mornings the book currently has. It does not invent a cause. If you are not taking cellars this month, that sentence comes first.
If nobody answers, the assistant leaves the message you entered — crew, address, purpose, a number back — or it sends the SMS and stops. It does not leave a second message that starts to describe the stain.
The assistant answers in the caller’s language, from what you entered. In a Greek crew that is often Greek, English, German and Albanian in the same week. An access chase to a foreign owner is still a chase, not a cause walkthrough in a second language.
Lists that stay on your phone
A client who has gone quiet on a disputed leak. A job where a relative might pick up. A number that may now belong to someone who sold the flat. If a job is too sensitive to ring, it does not belong on the list. You decide that before the assistant dials.
Estimates, “it looks like the terrace”, dates spoken as if a system had been decided, walkthroughs of a report — those sentences belong to a technician, in a call you meant to make.
After rain, terrace week, August
A rain week, a terrace week and an August Friday are not the same list.
After rain is looks and access. The chase is a named address and a door. If water is still coming in, that goes to a phone.
Terrace week is existing jobs, often after hours, often in more than one language. The chase is a dry window and a morning, not a sentence that the stain is diagnosed. The failure is a yes on a cause to hurry the key.
An August Friday is one person on the ground and a published number that still rings. Set the closure dates and the sentence for new work. Do not confirm a look in a week when the crew is dark.
Teach the assistant the three shapes. If you give it one generic “follow-up” label, it will treat water still coming in like a door reminder.
After the first list
Run a short list first. Ten access chases two days before looks. Ten look reminders. Five new-look follow-ups. Read every transcript before you add volume.
You are not listening for warmth. You are listening for the extra sentence — the one that was not on the purpose line. The moment it almost named a cause, almost picked a system, almost treated a cellar and a terrace as the same booking, almost rang a neighbour, almost confirmed Thursday off last week’s pad. Those are visible in the first week if you read the record.
After rain is when you will want to loosen the list. That is when you must not. Send on the access you have, or flag a person. Do not let the assistant finish the cause question out loud so the morning can move.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access chase before a look | Yes, from your list | When someone has time | If you write a script |
| Look and dry-window reminders | Yes | Yes | Sometimes |
| Starts with the address or the name | Yes | Yes | If you insist |
| Names a cause to hurry the key | Never — someone will see the wet | The crew does, after the look | A risk if the script drifts |
| Picks bitumen or membrane on the chase call | No — flags the crew | The crew does, on the terrace | Must not; sometimes does |
| Offers a terrace the book has closed for rain | No — checks the book, or takes a callback | If they check | Often from last week's pad |
| Rings a neighbour about someone else's cellar | No — only the number on the job | Only if you said so | A risk if the list was not read |
What unchased terrace doors cost one week of looks
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people, 14 looks on the book this week, each waiting on a terrace door or a cellar key.
- This example treats 5 of those 14 as still missing two days later.
- A morning that sits empty, or is pulled when the terrace is locked at nine, wastes about €160 of reserved time — put your own figure in, not ours.
- A two-day outbound chase recovers half of those missing mornings. Challenge this first; crews vary.
- 5 mornings still open on paper, two days out.
- Half recovered — 2 mornings that move on the access they needed.
- 2 × €160 = €320 of reserved time protected, in one week.
- Several such weeks a year — this example counts four rain weeks.
About €1,280 a year of crew time, from calls that only ask whether the terrace door will be open.
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 tell them which access is still missing?
It can name the item you put on the list — terrace door, cellar key, manager on the landing. It should not rebuild the cause on the call, and it should not decide that a particular stain is the roof. If they ask from the old photo, that is a callback. Someone will see the wet.
What if they ask whether it is the roof, on the chase call?
The assistant does not answer. It says someone will see the wet, takes the question in the client's words, and ends the chase. A chase that becomes a diagnosis has no reviewer, no look, and no technician attached. The transcript still helps — the crew returns a real question rather than “they rang”.
Can it offer a new morning if the terrace is locked?
Yes, if you allow that purpose and if it checks the book before it offers a morning. It still does not name a system from a picture. A reminder that starts naming a cause has stopped being a reminder. It does not offer a terrace on a day you closed for rain.
Does it still ask for the address when we ring?
Yes. The call opens with the crew name, the address or the name on the job, and it stops if the person on the line does not recognise them. That is how you avoid briefing a neighbour about a cellar, or a tenant about a terrace the owner has not approved.
Can it chase a look from an existing client?
As a morning reminder, yes: we have a time this week, can you leave the terrace open, here is the access we need. Not as a sentence that the stain is diagnosed, and not as a system. “We still have Thursday at 10:00 for the look” is reception. “It is the terrace, bitumen will fix it” is a cause.
Who decides who is on the list?
The crew. The assistant does not invent people to ring. You export or tick the jobs that need a reminder or a chase, with one purpose each. A list that mixes “will the door be open” with “see if they want the bathroom membrane too” is two jobs, and only the first one belongs here.
