IT
ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE WITH AI Beesley & Fildes has launched Otis: an autonomous AI agent designed to allow
merchants to always be available when customers call. BMJ learns more. I
ndependent builders merchant Beesley & Fildes has been available during branch hours for more than two centuries. But now, thanks to an automated Artificial Intelligence agent called Otis, the merchant’s expertise is available every hour of every day, without a single call having to go unanswered. Otis, developed in partnership with Optiflow Technologies, can search live inventory, generate multi-line quotations, process trade account enquiries, manage complaints and integrate directly into the merchant’s CRM platform, driving sales growth around the clock and converting website traffic into qualified leads and quotations, even when no branches are open.
Early Performance
When Otis first went live through a deliberately controlled soft launch, it was already converting at more than twice the industry baseline within two weeks according to Optiflow Technologies CEO Chris Fagan.
“The builders’ merchant sector is one of the last industries where the majority of sales still depend on someone picking up the phone. “Every missed call, every overnight email, every customer who couldn’t get a price and went elsewhere — that’s revenue walking out the door. Otis closed that gap. “Every enquiry answered, every quote delivered, every sales opportunity captured, at any hour, without adding headcount. Real customers, real quotes, real sales. For merchants who are serious about growth, that’s not a nice- to-have. It’s a competitive necessity.”
they are running, and expect an answer straight away. A merchant that can only reply during counter hours misses that window; one whose website can answer, price and take the order does not.
Wider Rollout
Optiflow Technologies is currently working with a select group of merchant partners and is actively expanding across the sector. Future development will extend the platform’s capabilities across procurement, customer operations and sales analytics, giving merchants a single intelligent layer across their entire business.
So far, according to Optiflow, of the orders placed through Otis, 58% now arrive outside opening hours, and a further 15% of its conversations end in a basket compared to the usual online conversion rate of one to three per cent. That 58% is trade captured overnight and at weekends that would otherwise have waited until the next working day, or gone to whoever was open.
The pattern is not unique to one branch. Buyers now research and place orders in the evenings and at weekends, around the jobs
“Otis has changed when the trade buys from us” adds Beesley & Fildes commercial director, James Beesley. “We are taking orders long after the branch has closed, and during the day it handles the routine stock and quantity questions that used to tie up the counter.” Otis sits on the merchant’s website and answers the enquiries that normally reach the counter or the phone line: product questions, stock checks, quantity calculations, quotes and Click & Collect orders. A customer types or speaks in ordinary language, and Otis replies with the relevant products, live prices and a next step. A customer can also upload a photo of a part for Otis to identify, open a trade account, or raise a complaint that is logged and routed to the right person.
Otis is fully integrated with the merchant’s own systems, so the stock and prices it gives are live. On the website, Otis can work out a quantity and builds the basket, day or night. The agent comes in three forms: the website version, Otis Depot kiosks for the trade counter, and a lighter build designed for smaller businesses.
Fagan continues: “We want Otis to be the normal way a merchant answers a customer, whether that is online, at the counter or overnight. Answer every enquiry quickly and you take more of the trade, and that is now open to anyone, not only the large groups.” BMJ
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September 2026
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