Ade & Bisi Salami

Solar PV & battery · ENQ-8902 · Portishead BS20 · arrived Thursday 20 August, 20:14

Survey booked in 13 minutes

Response clock

Every step below happened on a Thursday evening with nobody in the office

Out of hours

What arrived

Received

Thursday 20 August 2026, 20:14:02

Channel

Website enquiry form

Time on form

2 min 51 sec — they were engaged

Told us

Solar and a battery, Portishead, "before the winter"

Source

Organic search · no lead cost

Consent

Ticked to be contacted · number not on the opt-out list

The form asks for four things. Everything else you need to price a job comes out of the conversation, which is why the form stays short — a long form is the other way to lose an enquiry at 20:14 on a Thursday.

First contact — 90 seconds

Ninety seconds is deliberate rather than instant. An SMS that lands the same second the form submits reads as a robot; a minute and a half reads as somebody who saw it come in. The delay is a setting.

Channel

SMS, with email as fallback if no reply in 20 minutes

Sent

20:15:32

Identifies itself

Yes — names Thornbeck and says it is an assistant

Opt-out

STOP handled automatically and honoured across all channels

Escalation

Anything it cannot answer goes to a human, flagged

The conversation

20:15:32

ThornbeckHi Ade — thanks for your enquiry about solar and a battery in Portishead. I'm Robin, Thornbeck's booking assistant, so I can get you a survey slot tonight. Is your roof pitched and tiled, or flat? Reply 1 for pitched, 2 for flat, 3 if you're not sure. Reply STOP to opt out, or call 01275 496 118 to speak to someone.

20:17:05

Ade1 — it's a 1930s semi, tiled

20:17:19

ThornbeckGreat, that's the easy kind. Two quick ones: which way does the main roof face, and roughly what do you spend on electricity a month?

20:19:44

AdeMostly south facing, nothing shading it. About £180 a month

20:20:02

ThornbeckThat's a good fit. Last two: are you the homeowner, and is the property listed or in a conservation area?

20:21:30

AdeYes we own it. Not listed as far as I know

20:21:48

ThornbeckPerfect. Tom, our surveyor, is in Portishead next week. He can come Tuesday 26th at 10:00 or Wednesday 27th at 14:00 — reply A or B and I'll hold it. Takes about an hour.

20:27:11

AdeB please

20:27:26

ThornbeckBooked — Tom Casey, Wednesday 27 August at 14:00. I've emailed a confirmation. If you can dig out a recent electricity bill and make sure he can get to the loft hatch and the fuse board, he'll be able to give you numbers on the day. Anything else, just reply here.

Eight exchanges, thirteen minutes, no human involved. The transcript is kept on the job.

Where it stops. It books surveys. It does not quote, it does not advise on system size or savings, it does not discuss grants or finance, and it never claims to be a person. Anything outside that goes to Nia the next working morning with the transcript attached. Those limits are set once and are the reason it can be trusted on a Saturday night.

What it captured

Roof: pitched, tiled 1930s semi Orientation: south No shading reported Spend: £180/month Homeowner confirmed Not listed / conservation Survey: Wed 27 Aug 14:00

Every one of these is a question Tom would otherwise ask on the doorstep. He arrives already knowing whether the job is worth an hour of his time.

Sent to Tom

SurveyWed 27 Aug, 14:00

Travel from previous18 min

Indicative size4.4 kWp + 5 kWh

Indicative value£12,800

BringBattery siting options

Survey booked — 13 minutes 24 seconds

Slot held

Wednesday 27 August, 14:00

Offered

Two slots, both real gaps in Tom's diary

Geography checked

Yes — 18 minutes from his previous job

Confirmation

Email and calendar invite, 20:27

Reminder

SMS the morning of the survey

Reschedule

Customer can move it themselves from the portal

The assistant only ever offers slots that exist and that make geographic sense. A booking engine that fills a diary badly costs more in wasted travel than it wins in speed.

Surveyor attending

Added to Tom's route
Thu 20 Aug, 20:27 · third job of the Wednesday
Confirmation and calendar invite sent
Thu 20 Aug, 20:27
Reminder due
Wed 27 Aug, 08:00 · SMS with Tom's name and arrival window
Survey
Wed 27 Aug, 14:00
Design and quote
Target: same day as the survey

The same enquiry, the way it works today

What would have happened to Ade without any of the above

Thursday 20:14 — enquiry arrives
Automatic acknowledgement sent: "thanks, we'll be in touch"
Friday 09:40 — first call attempt
13 hours later · no answer, Ade is at work
Friday 16:20 — second attempt
Voicemail left
Monday — call back
Ade has had two surveys booked since Thursday night

Nothing in that sequence is anyone's fault. Nia was not at her desk at 20:14 on a Thursday, and should not have been. The enquiry did not need Nia. It needed an answer.

Rules it works inside

Agreed once, applied every time

Rule	Setting	Why
First message delay	90 seconds	Instant reads as a robot
Quiet hours	21:30 – 07:30	Nothing sent overnight; queued to 07:30
Maximum messages	5, then stop	No badgering
STOP	All channels	Honoured immediately and permanently
Identifies as assistant	Always	In the first message, every time
Escalate to a human	Any off-script reply	Price, grants, complaints, distress
Never says	Price, savings, grants	Those need a survey and a person

These messages answer an enquiry the customer made, which is a service message rather than marketing — but opt-out is still offered and honoured, because the one thing worse than a slow reply is an unwanted one.