Brackwell Freight Ltd / B-Brain – Qbr
Callcompleted
Brackwell Freight Ltd: documents · 2024-04-02 14:15
Liam Doherty confirms broader depot use, no tickets and a retail account kept. He asks for a one-page value note for his boss and a possible transport data connector. He sees no need to move beyond Starter yet.
What was said
What this says
Current to 10 Oct 26Liam Doherty confirms broader depot use, no tickets and a retail account kept. He asks for a one-page value note for his boss and a possible transport data connector. He sees no need to move beyond Starter yet.
What happened: the 2 Apr 2024 review showed two or three people active on a typical day, close to double the prior quarter. Questions per week are climbing and records indexed are rising steadily.
Customer view: Liam says managers now ask the brain instead of him, and the work that took the best part of a morning is now a question and a coffee. His boss asks what they are getting for the money.
Commercial: Liam asked about a transport system connector, which needs engineer review and a check against Starter connector limits. He is not expecting to outgrow Starter yet, and renewal is on 1 Dec 2024.
Watch: a decent share of questions still comes from one or two people.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Theme
Usage growth and value case
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
B-Brain
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Marcus Bell to draft the one-page value note and read it with Liam the following week.
- Liam Doherty to send the transport system details and depot manager names by the end of the week.
- Marcus Bell to reorder the depot page with account manager names and set up a session with the new depot manager.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- A decent share of questions still comes from one or two people, a key-person risk.
- Liam's boss judges value on surprises avoided and time saved, so a weak value note could hurt the renewal.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A transport-system connector could deepen use, subject to engineer review and the Starter connector limit.
- A few ops people have asked for access, which could widen use if usage settles.
Transcript
Marcus Bell NoneHi Liam, I'm in. Can you hear me?
Liam Doherty NoneHearing you fine. Afternoon, Marcus. Can you hear me? I'm on the laptop speakers, the headset's gone walkabout.- Marcus Bell NoneYou're a bit echoey but perfectly understandable. If it gets bad we'll swap.
- Liam Doherty NoneCheers. Right, sorry, I've got a sandwich, I'll try not to chew at you.
- Marcus Bell NoneHa, you're fine. Late lunch?
- Liam Doherty NoneBack-to-back with the depots all morning. Quarter's been manic. Always is, mind.
- Marcus Bell NoneI can imagine. Well, thanks for making time for the review. Let me share my screen and say what I'd like to cover, and then you can tell me what I've missed. Can you see it?
- Liam Doherty NoneI see it. Brackwell, quarterly review. Nice. Go on.
- Marcus Bell NoneSo four things. First, usage across the quarter, who's using it and what they're asking. Second, what that's meant for you in practice, the stories. Third, what's next on the rollout and anything you need from us. And fourth, a short look at the contract and the year ahead. If we run short on time I'd rather spend it on two and three.
- Liam Doherty NoneLove that. Same.
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay. I've pulled the numbers. The headline is that on a typical day over the last month there are two or three people active in the brain. Compared with the quarter before, that's close to double. It's still small against your fifteen licensed seats, but the direction is right, and, more to the point, it's the same people coming back, which is the thing I look for.
- Liam Doherty NoneThat's right. It's the depot managers mostly. And me, obviously.
- Marcus Bell NoneYeah, you're probably still the heaviest user, but you're not the only one anymore. When we last spoke it was a lot of you and a couple of others. Now it's got a bit of a spread.
- Liam Doherty NoneThat's because I stopped answering their questions. I just said, ask the brain.
- Marcus Bell NoneHa. That works. And it's a fair point, actually, because questions asked is the best single measure I've got of whether it's valuable to you. Let me show you the chart.
- Liam Doherty NoneGo on.
- Marcus Bell NoneSo this is questions per week across the quarter. It's climbing, a bit lumpy, there's a dip in the middle I'd guess is a holiday week, and then it picks up. Does that match what you saw?
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah, we had a few people off. And one of the depots had a system change so they weren't at their desks much.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight. Fine. I wouldn't read anything into the dip then.
- Liam Doherty NoneNo.
- Marcus Bell NoneWhat I would flag, and I'm saying it as housekeeping, not a worry, is that a decent share of the questions still come from one or two people. On any account that's worth keeping an eye on, because if those people are off or move on, the usage drops. So the thing I'd like to do is spread it across more of the depot managers.
- Liam Doherty NoneSure, that's what the sessions were for. A few more depots have come on since we did the training. Can we get the depots on it, all of them, is the next step really.
- Marcus Bell NoneGreat. Tell me about the ones that have come on. Who's the most enthusiastic?
- Liam Doherty NoneThe Trafford Park manager, no question. And the one at the smallest depot, funnily enough. She asks it things I'd never have thought of. She asks it for the calls where a customer mentioned a delay and then compares that to the exceptions tickets.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's exactly what it's built for. Is she asking in plain English?
- Liam Doherty NoneCompletely. She types it like she'd say it to a colleague. No filters, nothing.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's good, and that's where I'd like to get everyone to. Okay, let me move to the stories bit. You told me a while back about a retail account where the exceptions were creeping up.
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah, we kept that one. It's still with us, in fact. I won't go into the detail, but the account manager had the whole picture before the review meeting. Calls, tickets, the lot. It changed the tone of the meeting. Instead of them listing complaints, we'd already got our answers ready.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's a good one. Can I put that in the summary for your boss, without the name?
- Liam Doherty NonePlease do. That's the kind of thing he cares about. He asks me every so often what we're getting for the money.
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay, so let's talk about that, because I think it's the most useful thing we can do today. What would he want to see? If you were him.
- Liam Doherty NoneHonestly, not charts. He'd want to know, has it stopped us getting surprised, and has it saved the managers time. That's it.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight. On time, what would you say the managers used to do before? Like a Monday morning, say.
- Liam Doherty NoneThey'd lose a chunk of it. Pulling the exceptions from one place, looking up the account in another, scrolling through call notes. Then ringing me because it didn't quite add up. Probably the best part of a morning, if they were being thorough. And a lot of them weren't being thorough, which was the problem.
- Marcus Bell NoneAnd now?
- Liam Doherty NoneNow it's a question and a coffee.
- Marcus Bell NoneHa, I'll borrow that. Okay. So what I can do is a one-page value note. Questions asked this quarter against last, who's asking, two or three examples like the retail account, and your own words on the time. I'd have it written so you can forward it as it is.
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah, that'd be great. Keep it short. He won't read a second page.
- Marcus Bell NoneOne page. Promise. Shall we book half an hour next week so I can read it to you before you send it? Then it's your words, not mine.
- Liam Doherty NoneYes. Perfect.
- Marcus Bell NoneGood. Let me go back a step. Let me show you something else on usage, because I want to talk about records. That's the amount of data the brain has indexed from your systems, and it's a good sign that it's staying current. Here, it's rising steadily. No flat spots. So the nightly refresh is doing its job and the sources are healthy.
- Liam Doherty NoneThat's good. I didn't know you could see that.
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's one of the first things I look at, because if it goes flat and nobody's complained, that's usually a source that's quietly stopped loading. Often because someone changed something at the customer end, and nobody thought to tell anyone.
- Liam Doherty NoneThat's me, that's exactly what I'd do. Change a field and forget. Okay, so if we change anything on the helpdesk side, I should tell you.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat would help a lot. Just drop me a line and I'll keep an eye out. Okay, and tickets. You've had none at all in the last month, which is lovely. Is that real, or have people just stopped bothering?
- Liam Doherty NoneIt's real. Nothing's been broken. The training got rid of most of the how-to questions as well. If something went wrong I'd be chasing it, you know me.
- Marcus Bell NoneI do. Okay. That tells me we're in a good place. Next, the rollout. Where are we on the depots, and who's still to come?
- Liam Doherty NoneSo, most of them have had a go. There's one depot where the manager's new, and I've not had the chance to sit down with him. And then there's a couple of ops people who've seen what the account managers are doing and asked for access.
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay. On seats, you've got fifteen. Let me check how many are assigned. Right, you're comfortably inside it, so there's room for the new manager and a couple of ops people. I'd just say, same as before, give them half an hour first.
- Liam Doherty NoneYep. Could you do the new manager's one with him? I think it lands better coming from you than from me.
- Marcus Bell NoneHappy to jump on a call. Give me a couple of times and I'll fit around his loads.
- Liam Doherty NoneBrilliant, I'll ask him.
- Marcus Bell NoneNow, the stuff you've asked for before. The depot page. I've got a rough version here. It lists each depot, its exceptions, and the accounts with the most calls in the last period. It's not perfect, but is that roughly it?
- Liam Doherty NoneOh, that's pretty much it. Can you swap the order, so the worst depot is at the top?
- Marcus Bell NoneYes, easy. Anything else you'd want on it?
- Liam Doherty NoneMaybe a note of who the account manager is, so I don't have to remember. Otherwise it's spot on.
- Marcus Bell NoneSorted. I'll tidy it and send you the link.
- Liam Doherty NoneLove that. One view, that's the point.
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay. Before the contract, is there anything you wanted from us that I've not covered? I'd rather hear it now.
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah, one thing. I've been wondering whether we could pull anything else in. Like, there's stuff on the transport side that sits outside the helpdesk and the CRM, to do with the exceptions. Would that be possible?
- Marcus Bell NoneIt might be. That's a connector question and I'd want one of our engineers to look at what that system gives out before I say yes. I don't want to promise something and then it turns out the source can't do it. Can you get me a name of the system and who looks after it on your side?
- Liam Doherty NoneSure. I'll get you something by the end of the week.
- Marcus Bell NoneThanks. And I'd say, because you're on Starter, we'd also need to look at how many connectors you've got in use, so there's a bit of homework on my side too. I'll come back to you once I know.
- Liam Doherty NoneFair enough. No rush.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight. The contract, then. You've been with us since 1 Dec 2023. You're on Starter at nineteen and a half thousand a year, and the term runs to 30 Nov 2024, so the renewal date is 1 Dec 2024. Everything's been invoiced and paid as it should be, nothing outstanding on our side.
- Liam Doherty NoneYeah, finance would have shouted if there was anything.
- Marcus Bell NoneHa, I'm sure. So what I'd say is, I look after how you're using it and I'll make sure the value note is there. Anything to do with price or terms, that's Tom's job, and I'd rather he came in with the full picture. I'd suggest we bring him in a few months before the renewal, so there's no rush.
- Liam Doherty NoneOkay. That makes sense. Will he want to see the one-pager?
- Marcus Bell NoneI'd share it with him, yes, if you're happy. It's what he'd want in front of him.
- Liam Doherty NoneGo for it.
- Marcus Bell NoneThanks. And Liam, I'll ask something a bit direct. Looking ahead, are you expecting the team to grow, or the depots to need more than they've got? Because if you're heading beyond what Starter is built for, it's better to know now, and Tom could talk it through.
- Liam Doherty NoneHonestly, not yet. We've got plenty of room on the seats. I'd rather see the usage settle first. If the managers keep going the way they are, then we'll have the conversation.
- Marcus Bell NoneFair. I'll watch it and tell you if anything changes. I'd rather that than push you.
- Liam Doherty NoneAppreciate that. You're the least salesy person I deal with. No offence to Tom.
- Marcus Bell NoneHa, none taken. He'd agree. Right, let me go through the actions to make sure I've got them all.
- Marcus Bell NoneOne, the one-page value note, drafted by me, and we read it together next week. Two, the depot page, reordered with the account manager names, sent to you. Three, I set up a half hour with the new depot manager. Four, you send me the transport system details so I can ask an engineer. And five, I keep watching the usage and records, and you tell me if you change anything on the helpdesk. Did I miss any?
- Liam Doherty NoneNo, that's the lot. I'll get the names and the system details to you by the end of the week.
- Marcus Bell NonePerfect. Thanks, Liam. It's a good quarter. Honestly the best one I've seen for the account.
- Liam Doherty NoneCheers, Marcus. I'm pleased with it. Speak soon.
- Marcus Bell NoneSpeak soon. Bye.
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