Getting started
About two weeks, and most of it is us.
From the first call to your nights being covered. Building for your company starts the day you come on, and nearly all of that time is us learning how your company works, not you filling anything in.
01 What happens
- Day one
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A twenty minute call.
You tell us what happens to your phone after six o'clock today. We tell you what would change and roughly what it would cost. If it is not worth it for a company your size we say so on that call.
- Week one
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We learn your business and write the rules down.
- One longer conversation, about an hour, usually split into two.
- We collect: what you do, where you go, your prices, your hours, your on-call rota, and which customers have contracts.
- We write your night rules out in plain sentences. You read them and correct them until they are right.
- We set up the number. Your main line does not change. All that changes is what happens to calls outside your hours.
- Week two
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It runs alongside you, and you listen.
- Your real calls, and you get every recording and every write-up the same night.
- You tell us what it got wrong. Usually it is wording, occasionally it is a rule.
- We fix it the next day, not in the next release.
- When you are happy, it goes live for the nights and weekends properly.
- After that
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One piece at a time, in your order.
Quoting is the obvious one to take next, because that is where the money is sitting. Then follow-ups, then the everyday messages, then the website. Taking all six in the first month is a bad idea and we would talk you out of it.
02 What we need from you
About three hours, spread over two weeks.
- An hour of somebody who genuinely knows how the company runs. Usually the owner, sometimes the dispatcher, never the newest person.
- Your price list, in whatever state it is actually in. A spreadsheet is fine. A photo of a laminated sheet is fine.
- Your on-call rota, and who to ring when the first person does not answer.
- Access to your phone number, so out-of-hours calls can be pointed at us. Your provider does this; we tell you exactly what to ask for.
- Twenty minutes a day in week two to read the write-ups and tell us what is wrong.
That is the whole list. If it starts needing more than that, we have built the wrong thing.
03 How pricing works
Two parts, both agreed in writing before anything is switched on.
Part one
A monthly fee
For the system existing and being kept working. It does not change with how busy you are, and it covers everything you have switched on.
Part two
A share of what it brings in
A percentage of the work that came in through the system and would otherwise have been missed. Quiet month, small bill.
Both numbers are worked out with you on the call, from the size of your company and what your own phone log shows. They are agreed in writing before anything is switched on.
What counts as "brought in by the system"?
It is agreed with you before anything starts and written into the agreement, because this is the part that turns into an argument twelve months later if it is left vague.
There are three sensible versions: every job booked through the system, only the jobs captured outside your office hours, or a flat share of a defined line of work. They are very different deals and the right one depends on your company. What is not negotiable is that it is written down, and that every job it applies to appears on a list you can check line by line.
Do you need to see our accounts?
No. We need the invoiced value of the specific jobs on the attribution list, and nothing else. Not your turnover, not your margins, not your other customers.
If that is still more than you want to share on day one, the first arrangement can be the monthly fee only, with the share added later once there is a track record to argue about.
What happens to the data?
Call recordings and customer details are personal data under GDPR. The arrangement for them is settled in writing before the first call is answered, not afterwards. What is kept, for how long, where, and who is the controller.
How do we stop?
You point your number back at whatever it was doing before. That takes an afternoon and we will help you do it.
The notice period is agreed in writing before anything is switched on, along with what happens to your records when you go. Both are on the table at the start, not raised for the first time when you want to leave.
04 Talk to us
Tell us what happens to your phone after six.
That one answer tells us most of what we need to know. Twenty minutes on a call and you will have a straight opinion, including "not yet" if that is the right one.
- Booking
- The link opens our diary. Pick a slot that suits you and it is confirmed there and then. The call can be in Dutch or in English.
- +32 493 39 44 59
- Hours
- Any. That is rather the point.