What was said
What this says
Current to 11 Oct 26Lauren Pilkington said activity is a little down and wants a sentence to show £20k a year is earning its keep. Marcus Bell flagged that she asks a large share of the questions and offered a usage summary and a consultant session.
What happened: Marcus Bell reviewed Starter usage with Lauren Pilkington. Activity is a gentle slope down on the last quarter, with only a few people in week to week.
Customer view: Lauren needs to be able to justify the £20k a year if someone senior asks. She says getting people to use it matters more than any missing feature.
Watch: Lauren is a big part of the questions asked, which Marcus called fragile. Consultants still go back to their inboxes.
Commercial: Lauren said they may talk again about how many people are on it if the session goes well. Contract runs to 30 Apr 2026, and pricing was left to Priya Raman.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Who was there
BB-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Marcus Bell to send the short usage summary to Lauren this week.
- Marcus Bell to offer slots for a thirty-minute consultant session on a mid-week afternoon.
- Lauren Pilkington to check a good afternoon with her team.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Activity is slightly down and only a few people use the brain week to week.
- Lauren Pilkington asks a large share of the questions, which is a key-person risk.
- She must justify £19,500 a year internally and needs a value sentence.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- A consultant session on their own client list could widen use.
- Lauren said they may revisit how many people are on it after the session.
Transcript
- Marcus Bell NoneHello Lauren, can you hear me alright?
- Lauren Pilkington NoneHi Marcus, yeah, loud and clear. Sorry, I've literally just come off another call, give me a second to find my notes.
- Marcus Bell NoneNo rush at all. Good afternoon, by the way. How's the week treating you? Short one after the bank holiday.
- Lauren Pilkington NoneHa, yes, everything's landed on a Tuesday. Honestly it's been a lot of chasing. Quick one before we start, though. One of the consultants asked me this morning if she can see a client's complaints next to their open roles, on one page. Can the consultants see that?
- Marcus Bell NoneYes, that's what the client pages are for. I'll show you in a minute, I'm just going to share my screen. What I wanted to cover today is usage, the one ticket you've had, and then anything on your side. Does that work?
- Lauren Pilkington NoneGo for it.
- Marcus Bell NoneRight, so this is the account view for Grisedale. You're on Starter, fifteen licensed users, and the contract runs to 30 Apr 2026, so we're a long way off renewal. I just like to check in properly at this point in the year. I've pulled the numbers.
- Lauren Pilkington NoneMm. Go on then, how bad is it?
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's not bad. Activity is a bit down on the last quarter. Not a cliff, more of a gentle slope. There are only a few people really in there week to week, so when a couple of them are away it shows straight away.
- Lauren Pilkington NoneYeah, that'll be holidays, and a couple of people out and about with clients. And honestly some of them still go back to their inboxes because it's habit. I keep telling them, look it up first, but, you know.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's pretty normal at this stage. What I'd say is, the people who are using it are using it for the right things. Client look-ups, open roles, the complaints view. Nothing's broken, nothing's stuck.
- Lauren Pilkington NoneGood. Because I'll be honest, we're paying nineteen and a half thousand a year, so £19,500, and I need to be able to say it's earning that. If someone senior asks me, I want a sentence ready.
- Marcus Bell NoneFair enough. I'm not going to get into the commercial side, that's Priya's side, but I can give you something to say on the value. Do you want me to put a short usage summary together that you can share internally?
- Lauren Pilkington NoneOh, that'd save us hours. Yes please. Something simple. Who's asking what, roughly, and what it's replaced.
- Marcus Bell NoneOkay. Happy to. I can show who's asking questions and what sort of things, not the full detail of every question, just the shape.
- Lauren Pilkington NoneThat's perfect. Is it, um, is it mostly me? I've got a feeling it's mostly me.
- Marcus Bell NoneIt's a fair share, yes. I wouldn't say it's only you, but you're a big part of it. And that's the one thing I'd flag, really. If it's too much on one person, it's a bit fragile. Not a problem today, just something to nudge.
- Lauren Pilkington NoneRight. Yeah. That's fair. I do tend to be the one who goes and looks, and then I tell people the answer, which defeats the point.
- Marcus Bell NoneHa, it does a bit. So one idea is I run a short session for the consultants. Half an hour, on their own client list, so they see it's quicker than asking you. Shall we book thirty minutes?
- Lauren Pilkington NoneYes. Please. Not on a Friday, they'd all be half out of the door. Mid-week, afternoon, maybe. I'll check with them and come back.
- Marcus Bell NonePerfect. Now, the ticket. You raised one in the last month. It's closed and nothing high priority, so I'm not worried, but is there anything about how that went that you'd want me to take back?
- Lauren Pilkington NoneNo, that was fine. It got sorted, nobody had to chase. I only raised it because I wasn't sure whether it was me or the system, and it turned out to be me.
- Marcus Bell NoneThat's what the helpdesk is for, so please keep doing that. Better to ask than to leave something sitting.
- Lauren Pilkington NoneWill do. Can I ask one more? The consultant's question from earlier. Can she see the complaints on the same page as the roles?
- Marcus Bell NoneYes. Look, if I open this client here, you've got the account details at the top, then open roles, then the complaints and anything that's come in from their emails and tickets underneath. It's all one page.
- Lauren Pilkington NoneOh, right, I'd been sending her to two different places. So the, sorry, can you scroll back up?
- Marcus Bell NoneSure. There. Roles on the left, complaints below. And you can ask in the chat as well, something like what's the history with this client, and it pulls the same thing together.
- Lauren Pilkington NoneBrilliant. I'll tell her. She'll be thrilled, she's been keeping a note on her phone, bless her.
- Marcus Bell NoneHa, well that's exactly the kind of thing it should replace. Anything else on your side? Anything you wish it did?
- Lauren Pilkington NoneNot really today. It's more getting people to use it than the thing itself. If the session goes well, maybe we talk again about how many people are on it. But that's later.
- Marcus Bell NoneUnderstood. So to wrap up. I'll send the short usage summary, I'll offer a few slots for the consultant session, and you'll check with the team on a good afternoon. I'll get that over to you this week.
- Lauren Pilkington NoneLovely. Thanks Marcus, that was useful, I'm glad I made time.
- Marcus Bell NoneThanks, Lauren. Speak soon.
- Lauren Pilkington NoneTa, bye.