Strensall Merchants / BG-Demo – Training
Callcompleted
Strensall Merchants · 12 Jun 2025 16:30
Hamza Akhtar trained Ashok Patel and Karen Oxley on chat, search, pages and dashboards. Karen found it useful for pre-visit checks. Ashok is rolling out cautiously, one branch at a time, and the cross-branch account merge is incomplete.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Hamza Akhtar trained Ashok Patel and Karen Oxley on chat, search, pages and dashboards. Karen found it useful for pre-visit checks. Ashok is rolling out cautiously, one branch at a time, and the cross-branch account merge is incomplete.
What happened: Hamza ran a hands-on training on 12 Jun 2025. Karen, a non-technical branch manager, used chat, search and a shared page on a real trade customer.
Customer view: Karen found it useful and said it was like a folder she keeps on her desk. Ashok tests each new source on one branch first and says the account merge is about ninety per cent done.
Commercial: Hamza said the customer has a hundred and sixty seats, is nowhere near that yet, and usage is climbing. Rollout starts with branch managers and the trade-credit team, then key account.
Watch: Email is not yet connected and the quotes source is not connected. Comparisons with last year are unreliable until the old account codes are mapped, which could weaken trust if users hit wrong answers.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Onboarding training, early rollout
Importance
praise
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Hamza sends a one-page question sheet written in builders' merchant language.
- Ashok finishes the North East late deliveries dashboard and sends Karen the link.
- Karen tries it on three or four of her own customers and feeds back to Ashok.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The account merge is incomplete, so year-on-year answers may mislead early users.
- Email and quotes sources are not yet connected, which limits what users can ask.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Usage is climbing well inside the seat count, with more branch managers and key account staff to onboard.
- Karen will promote the tool to other branch managers and wants a North East late-deliveries dashboard.
Transcript
Hamza AkhtarHello, can you hear me all right?
Ashok PatelYes, loud and clear. Afternoon, Hamza.- Hamza AkhtarAfternoon. Karen, are you with us? I can see you've joined but I've got no sound.
Karen OxleySorry, sorry, I was on mute. Can you hear me now? I've literally just got back from a branch visit, so I'm sat in the car with the laptop on the steering wheel.- Hamza AkhtarThat's fine, we can hear you. Glad it's not raining on you.
- Karen OxleyOh, it's been chucking it down all day. Typical, the one afternoon I want to look professional.
- Hamza AkhtarYou look fine. Right, we've got a good chunk of time today, so what I'd like to do is keep it hands-on. Ashok, you know the admin side well already, so I'll lean on you for the setup bits. Karen, you're the one I want to hear from most, because you're the person who actually needs this on a Monday morning.
- Karen OxleyYeah, go on, make it easy for me. I'm not technical. I just want to know what's going on with a customer before I walk into the branch.
- Hamza AkhtarThat's exactly the use. Ashok, do you want to say where you've got to since last time, so Karen knows what she's looking at?
- Ashok PatelYes. So, what I changed since last time. I switched on the delivery source, but I tested it on one branch first, just the one, and checked the loads against what the depot system says. It matched, so I rolled it out to the rest of the North East this week. And I've joined up the trade accounts, so there's one account per customer across every branch, rather than the same builder showing up three times under three branch codes.
- Karen OxleyOh, that'll be a relief. Half my arguments with credit control are because nobody can agree which account a builder actually is.
- Ashok PatelRight, that's the idea. I'd say it's about ninety per cent there, though, and I don't want to overstate it. There are a few where the data says otherwise, where the account name is spelt differently and the account numbers don't line up. Those I've left alone rather than guess.
- Hamza AkhtarWhich is sensible. Better a duplicate you can see than a merge you can't undo. Okay, let me share my screen. Can you both see the B-Viz home page?
- Karen OxleyI can see a big search box and some recent pages.
- Ashok PatelSame here.
- Hamza AkhtarPerfect. So there are three things you'll use. Chat, where you ask a question in plain English. Search, where you're looking for a specific thing. And pages, which are saved views, a bit like a file on one customer that keeps itself up to date. Let's start with chat, because it's the quickest win. Karen, give me a trade customer you know well.
- Karen OxleyErm. Let me think. A roofing contractor I deal with a lot. I'll have to read you the name off my phone, hang on.
- Ashok PatelWhich account number is that? If you have it, it's safer than the name.
- Karen OxleyI haven't got the number on me. Sorry. I only know them by name and by who answers the phone.
- Hamza AkhtarThat's absolutely fine, that's how most people know them. Type the name in and we'll see what it offers. This is a good example of why Ashok's merging matters.
- Karen OxleyRight, typing. Oh, it's come up with one account and it says it's linked to four branches. That looks right.
- Hamza AkhtarGood. Now ask it something real. What would you actually want to know before you walked in?
- Karen OxleyWhether they've got anything overdue, and whether we've let them down on a delivery recently. Because if we have, I want to know before they bring it up.
- Hamza AkhtarThen ask it just like that. Don't tidy it up.
- Karen OxleyOkay. Is this customer overdue on anything, and have we had any late or missed deliveries to them lately. Enter.
- Karen OxleyOh. It's thinking. Oh, it's come back with a little summary. It says nothing overdue on the ledger, and two deliveries late in the last few weeks, with the dates. And it's got links underneath.
- Hamza AkhtarThose links are the bit I'd like you to get into the habit of using. Every answer shows where it came from, so you can click through to the delivery record or the credit entry. If something sounds off, you check the source, you don't just trust the sentence.
- Ashok PatelWhich is why I like it. If it ever disagrees with the ledger, I want to be able to see why. So far when I've tested it, it has matched, apart from timing.
- Karen OxleyWhat do you mean, timing?
- Ashok PatelThe data refreshes overnight. So if a payment came in at lunchtime today, it won't show until tomorrow morning. It should all be loaded by seven, on working days, so first thing you'll have yesterday's position.
- Karen OxleyOkay, that's fine. I'm not ringing anyone about an invoice at ten past seven anyway.
- Hamza AkhtarHa, no. But it's worth knowing. If you ever think it's showing something old, tell Ashok, because a source that has stopped loading is a different problem from a wrong answer.
- Ashok PatelYes, and we did have a couple of tickets recently on that kind of thing. They were answered, and I'd rather people raised them than worked around them.
- Hamza AkhtarAgreed. Now, let's try a follow-up, because chat remembers what you've just asked. Karen, ask it which of the late deliveries was the bigger order, without naming the customer again.
- Karen OxleyWhich of those was the bigger order. Enter. Right, it's thinking again.
- Karen OxleyIt's saying the earlier one was bigger, and it's listed what was on it. Oh, that's useful, it was a timber order and the other one was just fixings.
- Hamza AkhtarThere you go. That's the sort of thing you'd have had to ring the depot about.
- Karen OxleyHonestly, I would have rung the depot, then waited for someone to ring me back, then forgotten.
- Hamza AkhtarLet me show search now. It's different. Chat gives you an answer, search gives you the things. So if I type the customer's name and filter to calls, I get the call recordings and notes that mention them. Same for emails and for tickets.
- Karen OxleyIs that the calls our key account team makes?
- Hamza AkhtarYes, whatever has been connected. Ashok, remind me which call and email sources are live for you at the moment?
- Ashok PatelThe branch system, the credit ledger, the delivery source from this week, and the call recordings for the key account teams. Email is next, but I want to test it on one team before I switch it on for anyone else. There are a lot of mailboxes and I'd rather not find out about a problem across the whole group.
- Hamza AkhtarSensible. Okay, Karen, you try search. Put in the same customer, and click calls.
- Karen OxleyOkay. Oh, there's a few. There's one from the key account lady about a pricing discussion. I didn't know that was going on.
- Hamza AkhtarWhich is the point, really. You were about to walk into that branch without knowing it. Open it, there should be a short summary at the top.
- Karen OxleyYes, got it. Right. That's helpful. I'd have said the wrong thing.
- Ashok PatelJust so everyone's clear, you can only see what your role allows. Karen sees her region. I've set it up so a branch manager doesn't see the credit notes for other regions, for instance.
- Karen OxleyGood, because I don't think the Midlands lot want me looking at their numbers, and I don't want to be looking.
- Hamza AkhtarRight, pages. This is where it gets more lasting. Instead of asking the same questions every Monday, you build a page for a customer or a branch, and it keeps itself current. Ashok, have you made one yet?
- Ashok PatelOne for a trial branch. It has the open orders, the deliveries due this week, the credit position and the last few calls. I can share it so you can see how it looks.
- Hamza AkhtarYes, please share the link, and Karen, you open it. And let's not worry about the design, it's the content that matters.
- Karen OxleyOkay, I've got it. Oh, that's quite good actually. It's like the folder I keep on my desk, only I haven't had to write it up.
- Hamza AkhtarThat's the best description I've heard. Now, you can ask chat to change a page too. Try telling it to add a section for open quotes.
- Karen OxleyAdd a section for open quotes. Hang on. Hmm, it says it can't find quotes.
- Ashok PatelThat's me. Quotes live in a source I haven't connected yet. I'll look at that, but I'll test it on one branch first, as ever. I'll let you know when it's there.
- Karen OxleyNo problem. Better that than it making something up.
- Hamza AkhtarExactly, and it won't make something up if it hasn't got the source. It tells you. Last thing on features, the dashboards builder. Ashok, this is mostly for you and your team, but Karen should know it exists.
- Ashok PatelYes. I've started on a dashboard of late deliveries by branch, matched to the ledger. The idea is that when someone asks why a region's figures look odd, I can point at one view that reconciles to the ledger and not a spreadsheet I made by hand.
- Karen OxleyCould I get one of those for the North East? Just branches, just late ones. The area director asks me the same thing every month.
- Ashok PatelI can build that, yes. It's nearly done. I'll send it you once I've checked the numbers against the ledger for two or three branches. I don't want to give you something that's nearly right.
- Hamza AkhtarGood. Quick word on how many people will use this, because that was in the plan. You've got a hundred and sixty seats and you're nowhere near that yet, but usage is climbing nicely, I can see it on our side. Is the rollout still branch managers first?
- Ashok PatelBranch managers and the trade-credit team first, then key account. I'd like a few more people like Karen trying it on real customers before I open it wider, so we find the awkward questions early.
- Karen OxleyI can help with that. I'll tell the other managers it's worth ten minutes. Though they'll want the cheat sheet, because nobody reads anything.
- Hamza AkhtarI'll write that. A single page of example questions, in builders' merchant language, not ours. What would you want on it, Karen?
- Karen OxleyIs this customer overdue. What have we delivered late. Who spoke to them last. What are they buying less of than last year. That last one would be brilliant.
- Hamza AkhtarLet's try it now, actually. Ask it what they're buying less of compared with last year.
- Karen OxleyOkay. Compared with last year, what is this customer buying less of. Enter. Oh, it's thinking quite hard.
- Karen OxleyIt says insulation and plasterboard are down, and timber is about level. But it says the history only goes back so far for that account. Is that normal?
- Ashok PatelThat's honest of it, and it's right. The account only joined up recently across branches, and before that the history sits under the old codes. I've started mapping those. I wouldn't read too much into a comparison until that's done.
- Hamza AkhtarThat's exactly the right caution. So, treat it as a prompt for a conversation, not a verdict. Good place to pause. Any questions before we wrap up?
- Karen OxleyJust one. If I ask something and it gets it wrong, who do I tell?
- Hamza AkhtarTell Ashok first, with the question and a screenshot. He'll know whether it's the data or the question, and he'll raise it with us if it's ours to fix.
- Ashok PatelA screenshot really does help. And the account number, if you have it.
- Karen OxleyWhich I never have. Right, I'll try. I'll get the number off the page, now I know it's there.
- Hamza AkhtarSo next steps. I send the one-page question sheet. Ashok finishes the North East late deliveries dashboard and sends Karen the link, and looks at the quotes source when he has time. Karen, try it on three or four of your own customers before your next branch visit and tell Ashok what's useful and what isn't.
- Karen OxleyWill do. Thanks, Hamza, that was far less painful than I thought.
- Ashok PatelThanks, Hamza. I'll send my notes on the delivery source tomorrow. Speak soon. Ashok.
- Hamza AkhtarCheers both. Enjoy the rest of the afternoon, Karen, and dry off.
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