01. Try to become your own customer.
Open your website on your phone. Find the right service, ask a question and try to book. Time yourself. If you get confused, so will the person who has never heard of you. Fix the biggest point of friction first.
02. Write down your ten most common questions.
Ask the people who answer your phone. Turn their best answers into clear website content: service areas, process, availability rules, pricing approach and next steps. This also gives a future AI agent something useful to work from.
03. Follow one enquiry all the way through.
Where does it arrive? Who owns it? What happens when that person is away? Draw the actual process, including the awkward bits. Automating a confusing process usually creates confusion at a higher speed.
04. Give every enquiry an owner.
A shared inbox is not a strategy. Decide who responds, how quickly your team can reasonably reply, and who covers holidays. Set an internal notification for anything that has sat unanswered longer than your agreed target.
05. Give your AI a rulebook, not free rein.
Create an approved reference document with facts the assistant can use and questions it must hand to a person. Include outdated information it should avoid, who updates the document, and actions it cannot take without approval.
06. Film the answer you give every day.
Pick one real customer question. Film a clear 30-second answer with someone who knows the subject. Use a real location, decent light and understandable audio. Useful beats a dramatic video that explains absolutely nothing.
07. Make your ad and landing page agree.
If an ad promises a specific service, the next page should explain that service immediately. Match the offer, imagery and next step. Don’t make a ready-to-book customer solve a navigation puzzle.
08. Track twenty enquiries to an outcome.
Use a simple sheet: date, source, service, response time and outcome. Mark whether each enquiry became a booking or sale. Your first dashboard doesn’t need to look like mission control; it needs to answer a useful question.
09. Find one repeat task worth retiring.
Look for a task your team does the same way every week, such as copying a form into your CRM. Document the normal path and the exceptions. Start small, compare the output and keep a way for a person to correct mistakes.
10. Make one person responsible for keeping it current.
Websites, booking rules and AI answers go stale. Choose an owner and a recurring review date. Check forms, contact details, opening hours and any automation connected to them. A clever system still needs someone to look after it.