Many business owners know they want to do something with AI, but not where to start. As a result it stays at an intention, or a tool is bought that nobody uses.
Good preparation does not have to take weeks. With the five steps below you will know within a few hours what you want to automate, what that requires and what you can expect from it.
Step 1: map out your recurring work
Start with a simple list. For one week, write down which tasks keep coming back. Think of:
- Customer questions you answer more than once a day
- Phone calls you miss or that pull you out of your work
- Scheduling, rescheduling and confirming appointments
- Quotes, emails and documents that are always made in the same way
- Social media posts that are left undone
You do not need to measure anything. A list of tasks and an estimate of the time is enough to see where most of the work is.
Step 2: choose one process to start with
It is tempting to tackle everything at once. Don't. Choose one process that occurs often, follows fixed rules and is immediately noticeable once it is taken over.
For many businesses that is the phone or customer service: the work is predictable, it comes back every day and every missed enquiry costs money. Once that first part is running well, you expand from there.
Step 3: gather what the AI needs to know
An AI agent is as good as the information it is given. So gather in advance what a new employee would also need to learn:
- Your services, prices and opening hours
- The frequently asked questions and the answers you give to them
- Your service area and any exceptions
- The tone in which you talk to customers
- When a question needs to be passed on to a person
Is none of this written down yet? Then this is a good reason to record it straight away.
Step 4: list your systems
Automation only really works when the AI can work together with the tools you already use. Make an overview of your calendar, your CRM, your helpdesk, your email, your webshop and your accounting.
You do not have to connect anything yourself. The overview does help to quickly determine what is possible and how much work the setup takes. Flowix connects with more than 100 tools and platforms.
Step 5: decide when it is a success
Agree in advance what you want to achieve. Not in vague terms, but specifically: no more missed calls outside office hours, customers who get an answer straight away, or a colleague who has time for other work again.
With a clear goal you can assess after a month whether the solution does what it should, and where adjustments are needed.
Common mistakes
- Starting too big. If you want to automate everything in one go, you often get nowhere.
- Choosing the tool before the process. First decide what you want to solve, then choose the means.
- Not involving the team. The people who do the work now know best where things go wrong.
- Expecting it to run by itself. An AI agent also gets better when you keep adjusting it.
What to bring to a demo
With this preparation you get more out of a demo call. Bring:
- Your list of recurring tasks
- The process you want to start with
- An overview of the systems you use
- What you want to see changed in a month's time
In a free 30-minute demo we go through this together and show you what we can custom-build for your business.