You ask a tool to draft a reply to a customer. Or a short FAQ. Or a note about your hours.
The draft comes back fast. It sounds confident. Then you catch it: a closing time you don't use. A fee you don't charge. A promise you would never make.
The tool isn't trying to trick you. It doesn't know your business. When it doesn't know, it fills the gap. That's the risk.
I run a business. I like using AI for drafts. I don't like sending a polished answer that isn't true.
So before I ask a tool to speak in my voice, I want the facts written down.
The facts usually live in your head
In a lot of small businesses, the real answers aren't on a page. They're in one person's memory.
What time you actually close on Friday. Whether you take a deposit. What you do, and what you politely turn down. How long you usually take to reply. What happens if someone needs to cancel.
You know this stuff because you live it. A new person on the team may not. An AI tool definitely doesn't.
So when you say, "Write a reply about our hours," the tool has to guess. Guessing is how a clean-looking email ends up wrong.
Write a short fact sheet
This is not a handbook. It's one short page you keep current.
I'd put things like this on it:
- Who you are, and what you actually sell or do
- Hours, including the days you're closed and any holiday hours you already know
- Where you work with customers, if that matters
- What you don't do. This one matters. It stops a draft from offering something you don't provide
- How you handle quotes, bookings, cancellations and refunds, in the words you already use with people
- How fast you usually reply, but only if that line is true
- The questions customers ask all the time, and the real answers
- Any line that must be said the same way every time, like a deposit rule or a warranty sentence you already stand behind
Keep it plain. If you wouldn't say it out loud to a customer, don't put it on the page.
What stays off the page
Leave private things out.
Don't put customer names, invoices, payment details or passwords on this sheet. Don't put employee pay or private staff notes. Don't put a price or a policy you haven't actually decided.
The sheet should be safe enough that you'd be willing to paste it into a draft. If a line would get you in trouble if it leaked, it doesn't belong there.
How I'd use it
Keep the sheet in a normal document you can copy.
When you want a draft, paste the sheet first. Then write the request under it.
Tell the tool something like this: use only what's on the sheet. If the answer isn't there, say so. Don't invent a policy, a price, a date or a promise.
Then you read the draft. You change anything that isn't right. Only then does it go out.
That last step is the job. The tool writes. You decide.
Keep it current, or it becomes a new problem
An old fact sheet is worse than none. It will help the tool repeat the wrong thing with a straight face.
When you change your hours, change the sheet the same day. When you change a refund rule, change it there before you ask for any new drafts.
Once a month, read the whole page. If you'd hesitate to say a line to a customer, fix it or cut it.
And if two people on your team would answer the same question in two different ways, that's a gap. Agree on the real answer and write it down.
This is different from cleaning up your public listings
Cleaning your website and your public profiles still matters. That's what customers and AI assistants see when they look you up.
This sheet is for the work you do in private: the emails, the FAQ drafts, the replies you ask a tool to help with. It gives the tool the same facts you'd give a new hire on their first week.
You can do both. I'd start with this one. It takes an hour, and it can stop a wrong answer from going out under your name.
The simple point
AI is useful for drafting. It is not a substitute for knowing your own business.
If the facts are only in your head, the tool will fill in the rest. Sometimes it will get lucky. Sometimes it will sound sure and still be wrong.
Write the facts down first. Then ask for the draft. Then read it.
What's the one question customers ask you all the time that still isn't written down anywhere in your business?
— Nathan Brumand, founder of Loppee.com