What was said
What this says
Current to 10 Oct 26Liam Doherty reports depot account managers using the brain to spot delivery exception patterns, wants all six depots on it, and accepts a light-touch renewal heads-up. Starter seats have room. He is focused on proving value.
What happened: Marcus Bell reviewed usage, tickets and the contract on 1 Mar 2024. Daily active users are two or three, up from almost none the quarter before, after the depot account managers were trained.
Customer view: Liam says the single view across exceptions, calls and accounts is why he bought it. One retail account was caught early, though he does not claim the brain saved the contract.
Commercial: Liam wants all six depots on the brain, which fits inside the fifteen Starter seats. The Starter renewal is on 1 Dec 2024, and he says he is more interested in making sure it is worth it.
Watch: usage is concentrated in two depot managers. Liam asked that the retail customer is not named outside.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Who was there
BB-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Marcus Bell to send half-hour training slots for the depot managers for the following week.
- Marcus Bell to sketch the depot page and send a short usage note to Liam.
- Liam Doherty to give Marcus the names of managers to onboard by Monday.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Usage rests mainly on two depot managers, so a departure or absence would cut questions asked.
- Liam wants proof the brain is worth the Starter fee before the 1 Dec 2024 renewal.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Rolling out to all six depots and later some finance staff would deepen use within the fifteen seats.
- A depot-level page and a monthly usage summary give Liam material to show his boss.
Transcript
- Marcus Bell NoneHi Liam, can you hear me alright? I've just joined.
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah, loud and clear. Afternoon, Marcus. Give me a second, I'm just shutting the door, there's a forklift doing laps outside the office.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo problem, take your time. Is that Trafford Park today?
- Liam Doherty NoneTrafford Park, yeah. Friday afternoon and everyone's trying to get the last loads out before the weekend. Honestly it's carnage, but the good kind. Right, door's shut. Hello.
- Marcus Bell NoneHello again. How's the week been?
- Liam Doherty NoneBusy, in a good way. Better than the last couple of weeks anyway. How's Manchester treating you? Still raining?
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's Manchester, so yes. Dry for about an hour at lunch, which we all celebrated. Right, I'll share my screen and say what I'd like to cover, if that's alright. Can you see it?
- Liam Doherty NoneYep, I see a usage page. Go on.
- Marcus Bell NoneSo this is a check-in, nothing heavy. Three things really. One, how the usage is looking since the depot account managers came on. Two, the tickets you've raised, so we're both clear where we are. And three, a look ahead at the contract so there are no surprises later in the year. Sound okay?
- Liam Doherty NoneLove that. Yeah, that's good. I've got a list of my own as well, but let's start with yours.
- Marcus Bell NoneGreat. I've pulled the numbers, and honestly they're the nicest I've had for you. If I look at a typical day over the last month, you've got two or three people active in the brain. That doesn't sound like a lot, I know, but the quarter before that it was barely anyone, so it's a big jump from a very small base.
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah, it was basically me and one other, and I was mostly poking around. Then we sat the depot account managers down and, I mean, a couple of them just got it.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's what it looks like in the data. Who are you seeing asking the most?
- Liam Doherty NoneTwo of the depot managers, the Trafford Park one and one of the others. They've started asking it which retail accounts have had a run of delivery exceptions, and whether the calls with those customers say anything. Before, they'd have had to open three systems and then ring me.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight, so the exceptions tickets and the calls and the account, all in one place.
- Liam Doherty NoneOne view, that's the point. That's exactly why I bought it. Sorry, I don't want to sound like a sales brochure.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo, say it again, that's useful for me to hear. Can I ask, is it spotting anything early yet? Like a retail contract going wrong, before the customer rings you?
- Liam Doherty NoneA bit, yeah. There was one retail account where the exceptions were creeping up and the account manager picked up on a tone in a call. We got ahead of it and had a proper conversation. I'm not saying the brain saved the contract, but we weren't blindsided, which is the thing.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's good to hear. Mm. I'll make a note of that one, if that's alright, because it's the sort of story that's worth having written down for later.
- Liam Doherty NoneSure. Just don't name the customer in anything that goes outside.
- Marcus Bell NoneOf course. Shall I show you what it looks like for one of the managers? Give me a question, any question, and I'll type it in.
- Liam Doherty NoneOkay. Ask it which of our retail accounts have had the most delivery exceptions this month, and whether anything in the calls backs that up.
- Marcus Bell NoneTyping that in. Bear with me, it takes a few seconds. Mm. Right, there we go. So it's pulled the accounts with the most exceptions, and underneath it's got call snippets and a couple of ticket summaries. Can you read that?
- Liam Doherty NoneI can. Oh, that's the one I was worried about. Top of the list. And the call note's there, the one where they asked about service levels. Mm.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight, and that's the sort of thing a manager can ask before a review, instead of going off to three places.
- Liam Doherty NoneThat's it. That's the whole thing.
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay, tickets. You've raised three over the last month, and one of those was marked high priority. I wanted to check it landed properly for you.
- Liam Doherty NoneThe high priority one, yeah. That was me being a bit impatient, to be fair. One of the feeds hadn't come through when the managers needed it first thing. It got picked up quickly and it's been fine since.
- Marcus Bell NoneGood. And the other two?
- Liam Doherty NoneJust how-to stuff. One of the managers couldn't work out how to filter by depot, and the other was about permissions on a page. Both sorted. No complaints, honestly. Support's been decent.
- Marcus Bell NoneGreat. I'd say that's a healthy pattern, actually. Few tickets, answered, and people asking how to do more with it rather than telling us something's broken.
- Liam Doherty NoneThat's fair.
- Marcus Bell NoneOn seats, you've got fifteen licensed and you're nowhere near that on a daily basis. But I'd guess that's about to change if the depots keep coming on.
- Liam Doherty NoneThat's what I wanted to ask. Can we get the depots on it? All six. Right now it's two managers properly using it and a few dabbling. If I roll it out to all of them, does that blow the fifteen?
- Marcus Bell NoneSix depots, so six managers plus you plus a couple of analysts, you'd still be inside fifteen. Are you thinking just the depot account managers, or the ops managers as well?
- Liam Doherty NoneJust account managers for now. Maybe a couple of finance people later, when they see it.
- Marcus Bell NoneThen you've got room. Let me just check what's allocated at the moment. Right, that's fine. I'd suggest we don't add anyone until they've had a short session, otherwise they log in once, don't know what to ask, and never come back.
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah, completely. I did that with another tool once and it was a graveyard within a month.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight. So can I offer to run a short training session for the depot managers? Remote, and the shorter the better, with people asking their own questions on their own accounts. Shall we book half an hour for next week, just to get something in the diary?
- Liam Doherty NoneLove that. Half an hour is perfect, they won't give me more. Do it at the end of the day when the last loads are away, around four.
- Marcus Bell NoneI'll send you some options. And I'll keep it to real questions about their accounts, not a feature tour.
- Liam Doherty NoneYes please.
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay, last bit, and it's light touch. Your contract. You're on Starter at nineteen and a half thousand a year, it started on 1 Dec 2023, and the term runs to 30 Nov 2024, so it renews on 1 Dec 2024. I'm not here to talk about price or anything, that's Tom's side, but I wanted you to know I'll look at usage again closer to the time, so that when you speak to Tom there's a proper picture.
- Liam Doherty NoneFine by me. Honestly I'd be doing the same thing. Is Tom going to ring me?
- Marcus Bell NoneNot about this today. He'll come in nearer the time. If you want to chat with him sooner, just say and I'll set it up.
- Liam Doherty NoneNo, no, it's fine. I'm more interested in making sure it's worth it. Let's see where the usage gets to.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's what I'd say too. Anything else on your list?
- Liam Doherty NoneTwo things. One, can we get a view that's by depot rather than by account? Sorry, I don't know if that's a page or something else.
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's probably a page. If you tell me what you'd want on it, I can sketch one out and we can look at it in the training.
- Liam Doherty NoneBrilliant. Number two, I'd love a simple monthly summary I can show my boss. Who asked what, how often. Nothing fancy.
- Marcus Bell NoneI can do that. I'll put the usage numbers together as a short note, bullets, and send it over. Should that go to you only, or to your boss as well?
- Liam Doherty NoneMe first. I'll forward it.
- Marcus Bell NoneDone. Right, so to recap: I send the training slots for next week, I sketch the depot page idea, and I send a short usage note. You decide which managers come in, and give me the names.
- Liam Doherty NoneYep. I'll get you the names by Monday.
- Marcus Bell NonePerfect. Thanks, Liam, really good to hear it's landing.
- Liam Doherty NoneCheers, Marcus. Have a good weekend, hope it dries up.