AI Core
Never Miss an Enquiry
AI receptionists, follow-up and lead handling for UK service businesses.
In development
Course 02 · AI in your business
In developmentAI Assistants for Trades and Local Service Businesses
Use the AI assistant you already have to write quotes, replies, job reports, review responses and posts in half the time, in your own voice, without putting customer data where it should not go.
Overview
ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini in the working week: quotes, replies, job reports, review responses and posts.
Before
“The assistant on your phone is sometimes brilliant and sometimes rubbish, it never sounds like you, you are unsure about putting customer details in it, and quotes still take an evening.”
After
“One assistant set up with the right privacy setting, saved instructions that know your business and voice, and a dozen tested prompts for the jobs you do every week, used with placeholders and checked before anything is sent.”
What this course is about
The job finishes at four. The paperwork finishes at ten. The quote you meant to send on Tuesday goes out on Friday, and by then the customer has booked someone else. Most people in the trades have tried ChatGPT by now, and many have had it write something that sounds like a bank, or invent a guarantee they do not offer.
This course is the working week of a service business, done with an AI assistant. Every lesson starts from a real job artefact (an enquiry, a site note, a voice memo, a review) and ends with something ready to send, after three checks: facts, promises and voice. It works with whichever assistant you already have, whether that is ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot or Gemini, and the method is the same in all four.
Three habits run through it. Check before send: the assistant drafts, you decide. Placeholders: customer names, addresses and numbers stay out of the prompt and go in at the end. Your voice: a profile built from your own emails, so replies sound like you.
Who it is for
UK tradespeople and local service businesses, mostly one to ten people: plumbers, heating engineers, electricians, builders, decorators, cleaners, gardeners, locksmiths, mobile mechanics, computer repair, beauty and pet services. It is also for the partner or office manager who does the admin, and for anyone with an assistant on their phone who wants it to be useful. No technical knowledge is needed.
It is not for anyone who wants AI to answer customers on its own, or who hopes it will price jobs or fill in certificates. It will not, and the course teaches you not to let it.
How it is taught
Twenty-nine short, phone-friendly lessons across eight modules, most under eight minutes, with a prompt library of worked prompts and trade variants, a safe-use card for the van, and templates. You practise on your own work throughout. The course ends with your own working week kit: saved instructions, a voice profile, a library of at least ten tested prompts, and a weekly routine. There is no certificate.
Tools covered
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Microsoft Copilot
- Gemini
Outcomes
What you will be able to do.
- Set up one assistant with the correct plan and training setting, and explain the difference between a personal and a business account.
- Apply the traffic-light data rule and the placeholder habit to any task in under a minute.
- Write a five-part brief (reader, task, facts, format, rules) that produces a usable first draft in one or two attempts.
- Build a voice profile from your own writing so drafts pass the 'would I say this?' test.
- Produce a customer quote email from rough site notes, with scope, exclusions and assumptions in plain English, without the assistant setting any price.
- Turn a voice note or rough job notes into a customer job report and an internal job record.
- Draft replies to positive, mixed and negative reviews that follow CMA guidance and Google policy.
- Turn notes about a real job into a social post that makes no claim you cannot back up.
- Save and reuse at least 10 tested prompts as a personal library, with a check step for each.
What you leave with
- 01 One assistant set up, with its plan and training setting recorded on a safe-use card
- 02 A voice profile and saved business instructions
- 03 A quote email, a job report and a payment reminder set drafted from your own notes
- 04 Three review replies and a review-request message for every customer
- 05 Two social posts and service page or profile text, checked against the 'can I prove it?' rule
- 06 A personal library of at least 10 tested prompts and a weekly routine
Curriculum
8 modules, 31 lessons.
Every module ends with a practical output on your own business. Open a module to see its lessons.
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01 Set up safely
One assistant set up properly, with the data habits that make everything later safe: the right setting, the traffic-light rule and the placeholder habit.
- 1.1 Which assistant should I open?
- 1.2 Switch the right settings
- 1.3 The traffic-light rule and the placeholder habit
- 1.4 On the phone: voice notes and photos
Practical output One assistant set up with its setting recorded, the traffic-light rule on a card, and one dictated site note with no names.
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02 How to ask
A repeatable way to get a usable draft first or second time: the five-part brief, a voice profile built from your own emails, and saved instructions set up once.
- 2.1 The five-part brief
- 2.2 Your voice profile
- 2.3 Improving a draft without starting again
- 2.4 Saved instructions: set it up once
Practical output A voice profile, saved business instructions, and one five-part prompt you wrote yourself.
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03 Enquiries and customer emails
Faster, better replies to the messages that arrive every day, from first replies and polite refusals to rebooking, supplier chasers and the awkward customer.
- 3.1 First reply to a new enquiry
- 3.2 Saying no, or not yet, politely
- 3.3 Asking for the information you need
- 3.4 Confirmations, reminders and rebooking
- 3.5 Suppliers and chasing
- 3.6 The awkward customer
Practical output At least five real replies drafted and sent after checking, with times noted.
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04 Quotes, job notes and paperwork
The paperwork that eats evenings, done faster and more clearly. The assistant never sets the price or does the sums.
- 4.1 From site notes to quote email
- 4.2 Scope, exclusions and assumptions in plain English
- 4.3 Extra work and variations
- 4.4 Voice note to job report and job record
- 4.5 Invoice covering notes and payment reminders
- 4.6 Standard wording you reuse
Practical output A quote email, a job report and a reminder set, each drafted from your real notes using placeholders and checked.
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05 Reviews and reputation
Replying well to reviews and asking for them within the CMA's and Google's rules.
- 5.1 The rules in five minutes
- 5.2 Replying to positive, mixed and negative reviews
- 5.3 Asking for reviews properly
Practical output Three review replies drafted to the rules, and a review-request message for every customer.
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06 Social posts and local marketing
Regular, honest posts from real work without sounding like everyone else, plus service page and business profile text.
- 6.1 From a real job to a post
- 6.2 Seasonal and advice posts
- 6.3 Service page and business profile text
Practical output Two posts and profile text, each checked against the 'can I prove it?' rule.
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07 Admin and back office
The reading, summarising and tidying that eats time between jobs, including knowing which part of a document to read in full yourself.
- 7.1 Summarise a long document, then read the bit that matters
- 7.2 Spreadsheets: tidy, sort, explain
- 7.3 First drafts of notices and simple policies
Practical output One document summarised with the key clauses read in full, and one cleaned spreadsheet.
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08 Make it a habit
Turning the course into a kit you use every week: a personal prompt library, a weekly routine, and what to do when a draft goes wrong.
- 8.1 Build your prompt library
- 8.2 The weekly routine and what to do when it goes wrong
Practical output The capstone: a personal prompt library and a weekly routine in your calendar.
Fit
Who it is for.
UK tradespeople and local service businesses of 1 to 10 people, and the partner or office manager who does their admin.
You will get most from it if
- A smartphone or computer and an email account.
- A free account with at least one assistant (set up in Module 1).
It is not for
- Anyone deciding whether AI is right for the business, costing a pilot or writing an adoption plan. That is Course 01.
- Anyone who wants chatbots, automations or agents that answer customers without a person. That is Courses 03 and 04.
- Anyone hoping AI will price jobs, calculate VAT, write safety certificates or produce risk assessments on its own.
- Anyone wanting reviews, testimonials or customer quotes generated. The course will not do that.
- Anyone looking for a ranking of assistants or the latest features, or for legal advice.
Questions
Before you ask.
Which assistant do I need?
Any of ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini. The free versions are enough to start, and every prompt works in all four.
Is it safe to put customer details in?
The course teaches you not to need to. You use placeholders and add the real details afterwards. It also shows where each assistant's privacy setting is.
Will it write my prices?
No. You set prices; the assistant writes the words around them.
Can I do it on my phone?
Yes. Lessons are short and the mobile apps are covered.
Will the prompts go out of date?
Every prompt is re-tested each quarter and the library is updated.
Is there a certificate?
No.
Interested in more than one? Choose several courses on one form.
Where this leads
More from “AI in your business”.
- AI Advanced
AI Agents for Business Operations
Choose one process for an AI agent, decide what it may do and who checks it, then build, test and run it safely.
In development - AI Core
AI for Small Business Owners
The practical foundations: where AI fits your business, what it costs and what it must not touch.
In development