What Your Assistant Needs to Know

Lesson 6 · taught by Pip · free preview

Here is the plain idea: an AI assistant doesn't arrive knowing your business — you have to tell it. The good news is that what it needs is short, plain, and mostly already in your head. Get this knowledge down on paper and you're most of the way to an assistant that's genuinely useful at night.

Think of a sharp new hire on their first night shift. They're capable and willing, but they can only answer what you've taught them. The teaching is the work — and it's far less than you'd think.

The starter kit of facts

Almost every after-hours question is answered by a handful of things. Write these out, plainly, the way you'd explain them to that new hire:

• Hours — regular, holidays, and what "open" really means (walk-ins? appointment only?).
• Services — what you do, what you don't do, and the difference between similar-sounding things customers confuse.
• Prices or ranges — even "installs start around $X" or "most jobs run $Y–$Z." A range beats silence.
• Location and area — where you are, how far you travel, parking, directions.
• Booking rules — how someone gets on the calendar, lead time, deposits, cancellations.
• The questions you answer ten times a week — the real ones, in your customers' words, with your real answers.

That last bullet is gold. The questions you're sick of answering are exactly the ones that pile up at night.

Write it the way you'd say it

You don't need to write a manual or learn any special format. Write it like you talk. "We're open 8 to 5 Monday through Friday, closed weekends, but we do take emergency calls Saturday morning." Plain sentences are perfect — that's the language the assistant learns from, and the language it answers in.

A useful trick: imagine the new hire just asked you the question, and type your spoken answer. If it would satisfy a real customer, it'll satisfy the assistant.

Decide what's public and what isn't

One important line to draw. Some of your knowledge is fine for anyone to hear — hours, services, general pricing. Some is not — a customer's account balance, private records, anything sensitive.

Public-facing answers come from the public knowledge you write down. Anything sensitive or private has to be handled differently and far more carefully — locked behind real security, never just sitting in the assistant's open notes. For after-hours coverage, you'll be amazed how much value lives entirely in the public pile. Start there; it's safe and it's plenty.

Keep it current

Knowledge isn't a one-time chore. Your hours change for a holiday, you add a service, your prices move. When the facts change, update what the assistant knows — same as you'd tell that new hire. A stale answer ("we close at 5" when you now close at 6) erodes trust fast. Building the knowledge takes an afternoon; keeping it fresh takes minutes now and then.

Your turn

Open a blank note and spend twenty minutes on just the first three items: hours, services, and prices. Write them exactly as you'd say them aloud. You've now built the core of what an assistant needs — and a handy reference for any human who covers your phones too.

🔦 You know what to feed it. Next, the part owners worry about most: keeping it safe, honest, and never making promises you didn't authorize.