Harcastle Environmental / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Harcastle Environmental · 22 Jul 2026 12:30
Nicola Brearley is happy with the brain and usage is rising, but only a small share of the sixty Growth users are active. She cannot commit renewal budget alone and wants the value case before Christmas.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Nicola Brearley is happy with the brain and usage is rising, but only a small share of the sixty Growth users are active. She cannot commit renewal budget alone and wants the value case before Christmas.
What happened: On the 22 Jul 2026 check-in Marcus covered usage, support and the renewal timetable. Nicola said the brain now answers which depot and which round in about a minute.
Usage: Just under thirteen of sixty licensed users are active on an average day, up by about half on the previous quarter. Two account managers ask a big share of the questions, which is a key-person risk.
Renewal: The contract runs to 10 Apr 2027, with renewal on 11 Apr 2027. Nicola is happy but needs finance and the budget holder, and wants complaints and contracts evidence, not click counts.
Watch: The contracts team may want access, which could mean a few more users or a new connector. Lewis Kerr owns the commercial side.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Usage growth and renewal prep
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Nicola Brearley to send Marcus Bell the account managers by depot and the contracts team's three questions by the end of the week.
- Marcus Bell to sketch the dashboard, check the complaint category request and brief Lewis Kerr on the renewal timetable.
- Nicola and Marcus to have usage, a few cases and the price together before Christmas.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Nicola cannot commit budget alone, as the renewal goes past finance and the budget holder.
- Two account managers ask a large share of the questions, so usage depends on a few people.
- BG-Demo cannot prove a complaint was prevented without Harcastle's own before and after cases.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The contracts team may want the same view, which could be a few more users or a new connector.
- The Growth dashboards builder could give Nicola missed collections by round, complaints open past a day and invoices alongside a miss.
- Depot-by-depot sessions could lift active use well beyond just under thirteen of sixty.
Transcript
Marcus BellHello Nicola, can you hear me alright? I think I'm coming through a bit quiet on my side.
Nicola BrearleyLoud and clear. Afternoon, Marcus. Sorry, I've got half a sandwich on the go, bear with me.- Marcus BellHa, no problem at all, it's lunchtime. Eat, eat. How's the week been?
- Nicola BrearleyDon't ask. Right, well, do ask, because it's the first thing on my mind. Worst complaint this week was a café group in Leeds. Three missed collections on the same round, three days running, and the first the account manager heard of it was the owner ringing up on the Friday.
- Marcus BellOh, that's not great. Was that one of the ones you could see in the brain, or did it come in from the side?
- Nicola BrearleyWell, that's the thing. The tickets were all there. Missed-collection tickets, the two calls from the café, the invoice that went out with the service charge on it. All in one place. What we didn't have was somebody looking at it before the owner picked up the phone. Which depot, which round, that's the question I keep asking, and now at least I can answer it in about a minute.
- Marcus BellRight. So the view is doing what you wanted, it's more about the habit of looking.
- Nicola BrearleyExactly that. Which is partly why I said yes to this call, actually. I want to talk about who's looking and who isn't.
- Marcus BellPerfect, because that's where I wanted to start as well. Let me share my screen. Can you see that? It's the usage summary for Harcastle.
- Nicola BrearleyYes, I can see it. Bit small. Oh, that's better.
- Marcus BellGood. So I've pulled the numbers, and I'll try to keep this practical. Three things I want to cover. Usage, anything that's been bothering you on the support side, and then a quick word on the renewal timetable, just so nothing surprises you. Shall we go in that order?
- Nicola BrearleyFine by me. Usage first. Go on.
- Marcus BellSo you have sixty licensed users on the Growth plan. On an average day over the last month, just under thirteen of them are actually active. Which is a small slice of sixty, I'll be honest about that. But the direction is the good news. That's up by about half compared with the previous quarter.
- Nicola BrearleyUp by half. Right. Okay. That's the account managers in the Wakefield office mostly, I'd guess.
- Marcus BellMostly, yes, and a few from the customer services side. If I click into the questions people are asking, it's a lot of the same shape. Which customer, what's open, what did we say to them last. Collections history, then invoices.
- Nicola BrearleyWhich is exactly what I sold it on internally. Let's see it from the customer's side. If they ring up, the person answering should already know what happened last week.
- Marcus BellMm. And it looks like more of them are doing that now. One thing I'd flag, and it's only a thing to watch, not a worry, is that a fair few of the questions come from a handful of people. Your two most active account managers are asking a big share of them.
- Nicola BrearleyYeah. That'll be the two I've been leaning on. They're keen. The rest, to be fair, I haven't pushed.
- Marcus BellThat's useful to know. Because if either of those two were off for a fortnight, you'd feel it in the numbers. Not a crisis, just worth spreading.
- Nicola BrearleyNo, fair. That's a fair point. I'd rather it was ten people asking one question than one person asking ten.
- Marcus BellHa, yes. That's about it.
- Nicola BrearleySo what would you do? If it were your team.
- Marcus BellHonestly, I'd run a short session with the account managers who haven't really got going. Not a big training day. Thirty minutes, on their own customers, so they see their own accounts come up. That's what tends to make it stick. People don't come back for a demo, they come back because it answered something about their Tuesday.
- Nicola BrearleyTheir Tuesday. I like that. Right, so on their own accounts, not a generic walkthrough.
- Marcus BellYes. And I'm happy to jump on a call with each small group if you'd prefer it split by depot. Whichever's easier to get people into a room for.
- Nicola BrearleySplit by depot would be better, honestly. Different shift patterns. The northern lot are never in the same place as the Wakefield lot at the same time. Which depot, which round, you know me.
- Marcus BellI do. So I'd need from you a list of who's who. Just names and which depot, and I can tick off who's logged in at all and who hasn't. It'll give us a clean picture.
- Nicola BrearleyI can do that. I'll get it out of the rota. Give me till the end of the week.
- Marcus BellThat's plenty. Thanks. Right, shall I carry on to the other bits?
- Nicola BrearleyPlease. Actually, hang on. Before you do. Can I ask something about the sixty? Is there any reason that we couldn't just give everyone a login and let them get on with it?
- Marcus BellNo reason at all. You've got sixty included and you're nowhere near using them, so there's headroom. It's just that handing out logins on their own doesn't tend to change much. It's the session that does it.
- Nicola BrearleyYeah, no, that tracks. I've seen it with the route planning tools years ago. Everyone gets a licence, nobody opens it.
- Marcus BellExactly. Okay. Support side. I'm looking at the tickets and honestly there's nothing to show you. Nothing open, nothing raised in the last month. Nothing high priority.
- Nicola BrearleyWhich is either very good or very suspicious.
- Marcus BellHa. Fair. I did wonder that myself. Usage is going up, so I don't think it's silence before anything. If people were stuck they'd be using it less, not more. But let me ask you straight. Is there anything that's been annoying the team that they've just put up with?
- Nicola BrearleyLet me think. Not really broken, no. The overnight refresh has been there when they come in. Nobody's said the figures are old. There was one chap who said he wished he could see the complaint category more easily, but that's a wish, not a fault.
- Marcus BellOkay, that's useful. Can you send me that one? Even a line. I'll see whether it's a setting or something for the dashboards builder, which you've got as part of Growth.
- Nicola BrearleyI will. Dashboards, yes. I keep meaning to have a proper go at that myself.
- Marcus BellWell, that's a good one for the session. If you want a single view of missed collections by round, by week, with the complaints alongside, that's quite a quick thing to build. I wouldn't promise it'll look perfect first go, but you'd see where it's heading.
- Nicola BrearleyThat would actually be gold. Because at the moment when I do the weekly look at it, I'm stitching things together in my head. Three things I'd want on it. Missed collections by round, complaints open longer than a day, and which customers have had an invoice go out in the same week as a miss.
- Marcus BellThat last one's clever. The invoice landing on top of a missed collection.
- Nicola BrearleyThat's the one that really makes people angry. You didn't empty my bin and you've billed me for it. Nobody wants that call.
- Marcus BellNo. Right. Let me note that down. Missed collections by round, complaints open past a day, invoices alongside a miss. I'll sketch it before the session so you've got something to react to.
- Nicola BrearleyLovely. What's the fix and who owns it, that's the other thing I always say. If it's showing something wrong, who's on it?
- Marcus BellFor the dashboard it's me to get you the first draft. For anything it shows you about the rounds themselves, that's yours, obviously. I can only show you the problem.
- Nicola BrearleyHa, yes, I'll take the rounds. That's not yours to fix.
- Marcus BellGood. Right, so, that's usage and support. Let me stop sharing for a second. I'll come back to the renewal. Is it okay if I touch on that now? It's a way off, so I won't dwell.
- Nicola BrearleyYes, go on. It's April, isn't it?
- Marcus BellApril next year. The contract runs to 10 Apr 2027 and the renewal date on our side is 11 Apr 2027. So there's plenty of runway. I just like to say it out loud early, so it's not a letter that lands on your desk out of nowhere.
- Nicola BrearleyOkay. And that's the same as what we're paying at the moment, give or take?
- Marcus BellAt the moment it's £52,000 a year. That's what's on the order form and it's what's been invoiced, so those two agree, and nothing's overdue. I've checked that with our finance team. The commercial side of the renewal, what it looks like and so on, that's Lewis Kerr. He looks after the account, I look after how you're getting on with it.
- Nicola BrearleyRight, so if I've got a question about the number, it's Lewis.
- Marcus BellThat's it. I don't get into the price side, I'd only get it wrong. But I'll make sure he knows what we've talked about today, so you don't have to say it twice.
- Nicola BrearleyGood. Because I'll be honest, I'm happy with it, but I can't commit budget on my own. It goes past finance and the person who holds the budget before anything's agreed. I'd be going in asking, not telling.
- Marcus BellUnderstood. And that's normal. What would help you when you go in there? What do they want to see?
- Nicola BrearleyHonestly, what it's saved us. Or what it's stopped. They think in complaints and in contracts that go sour. If I can show fewer repeat complaints, or that we caught problems earlier, that's what moves them. Not how many people clicked on it.
- Marcus BellThat's a good steer. So the usage numbers are the supporting detail, and the story is the complaints and the contracts. Hmm. Can I be straight with you about that?
- Nicola BrearleyPlease do.
- Marcus BellI can show you how often people ask about complaints and how many accounts have been looked at before a call came in. What I can't do from our side is prove a complaint was prevented. That needs your data, the before and after. So it'd be worth you or someone on your team picking a handful of cases that you know went well because someone spotted it early.
- Nicola BrearleyLike the café group.
- Marcus BellWell, the café group's a bit of the opposite, isn't it? That's the one that nearly got away. Although if the story is we saw it, we got to it on the Friday, we kept the account, that's still a story.
- Nicola BrearleyWe kept the account, just. Yes. I mean, it was a rough one. But they're still with us, and the account manager had the whole history in front of her when she rang back, so she didn't have to ask them to repeat themselves.
- Marcus BellThat's the bit that matters, I think. Not having to ask someone to repeat themselves.
- Nicola BrearleyNo, it really is. Okay. So the plan for the renewal conversation is that I write down a few cases, you give me the usage, Lewis gives me the number.
- Marcus BellThat's exactly it. And we've got time. I'd suggest we aim to have all of that sitting together well before the new year. That way you're not rushing it in March.
- Nicola BrearleyBefore Christmas would be better, to be honest. Everything in this business goes quiet in January and then it's budget season.
- Marcus BellBefore Christmas it is. I'll put it in my notes. And I'll pick up the formal notice with you in good time, I won't leave it.
- Nicola BrearleyLovely. Can I ask you something slightly different?
- Marcus BellOf course.
- Nicola BrearleyThere's talk in the business about pulling in the contracts side as well. The people who negotiate with the bigger customers. They've seen what the account managers have, and they've started asking whether they could get the same sort of view. Would that be a different thing? A different plan?
- Marcus BellIt depends what they want to see. If it's the same data in the same place, and it's more people from the same company, it might just be a few more users. You've got a lot of room in the sixty already. If they want something new connected, a different system, that's a different conversation and I'd want Lewis on it.
- Nicola BrearleyOkay. So I shouldn't promise them anything.
- Marcus BellI'd say yes in principle, let me find out what it takes. That's safe. Then if you can tell me what system they'd want in, or what question they'd be trying to answer, I'll know what to ask.
- Nicola BrearleyRight. I think it's mostly contract terms and renewal dates for the big commercial customers. Things they'd otherwise go hunting for in a shared folder.
- Marcus BellMm. That could well be something we can reach. I don't want to say it's definitely simple until I've looked, but it doesn't sound exotic.
- Nicola BrearleyFine. I'll ask them to write down three questions they'd want answered and send them over.
- Marcus BellPerfect. Three questions is a great place to start. Honestly, that's better than a long wish list.
- Nicola BrearleyLists of three, it's my one trick.
- Marcus BellHa, I'd noticed. Right, anything else on your side? Anything on the nightly refresh, anything people have been grumbling about that we haven't touched?
- Nicola BrearleyNo, honestly. It's been a quiet one from that point of view. I'd be telling you if it wasn't. I'm not one for letting a complaint sit overnight.
- Marcus BellNo, I know you're not. That's partly why I like looking after the account. I get told quickly.
- Nicola BrearleyHa. Well. Speaking of which, the next time we do one of these, can we do it with a couple of the account managers on? I'd like them to say what they actually use it for, in their own words. Rather than me translating.
- Marcus BellI'd love that. That's the best sort of review, honestly. Who would you bring? The two keen ones?
- Nicola BrearleyThe two keen ones and one who's not really started. That'll tell you more than anything.
- Marcus BellThat's a good call. The one who's not started will tell us what's in the way. Could be something dull like they don't know where to find it.
- Nicola BrearleyIt'll be that, I bet. Or they think it's for management.
- Marcus BellHa, yes. That's more common than you'd think. Right, shall I read back what I've got, so we both leave knowing who's doing what?
- Nicola BrearleyYes please. What's the fix and who owns it. Go.
- Marcus BellSo from me. One, I send you a short summary of today's numbers, usage and the tickets, by the end of the week. Two, I sketch the dashboard with missed collections by round, complaints open past a day, and invoices that landed alongside a miss. Three, I check that complaint category request and tell you if it's a setting. Four, I let Lewis know about the renewal timetable and the idea of the contracts team coming in.
- Nicola BrearleyThat's four, you've gone over my three. But fine. Go on, mine.
- Marcus BellHa, sorry. Yours. One, the list of account managers by depot, by the end of the week. Two, the line about the complaint category. Three, the contracts team's three questions. And then four, a few cases that show the brain helped, whenever you get a minute, but there's no rush, it's before Christmas.
- Nicola BrearleyOkay. Four each, then. Fair. I'll get the cases together as and when they happen, I'll keep a note.
- Marcus BellThat's the easiest way. Don't go digging, just jot it down when one happens.
- Nicola BrearleyWill do. And the sessions, the thirty minutes by depot. When could you do them?
- Marcus BellOnce I've got the list from you I can look at my diary and send some options. I'm based up in Manchester so Wakefield and the northern depots are easy for me to work around, and it's all on video anyway.
- Nicola BrearleyVideo's fine. People prefer it, saves them leaving the yard.
- Marcus BellRight. Then I'll send options as soon as I've got your list. Shall we book the next proper review for a few weeks out, so that the sessions have happened by then and we've got something to look at?
- Nicola BrearleyYes. Not too soon. Give people a chance to actually use it. I'd say the back end of the quarter.
- Marcus BellBack end of the quarter, with the account managers on. I'll send an invite and you can move it if it clashes with anything.
- Nicola BrearleyPerfect. And Marcus, thank you. This was more useful than I thought it'd be. I came in thinking it was going to be a tick-box.
- Marcus BellHa, that's kind. Honestly, it's easy to be useful when the numbers are going the right way. You've done the hard bit, getting people to look. We just need more of them looking.
- Nicola BrearleyMore of them looking, before the customer rings. That's the whole thing. Right, I'd better go and deal with the rest of my sandwich and about forty emails.
- Marcus BellGo on, enjoy what's left of your lunch. I'll get that summary over to you and put the invite in. Anything you think of, just shout. Happy to jump on a call.
- Nicola BrearleyWill do. Speak soon then. Thanks, Marcus.
- Marcus BellThanks, Nicola. Take care, bye for now.
- Nicola BrearleyBye bye.
Callsmade from