Canned responses for the enquiries you answer every week
Look through your sent folder and you'll spot the same handful of replies, written from scratch every time, slightly differently, usually in a hurry.
Where it hurts
The same questions come in over and over. Your prices, your areas, your availability, how to book. Each one gets a fresh answer typed out, which is time you don't have and consistency you don't get.
When you're busy, the quick replies get terse and the detailed ones get skipped. The customer who asks a fair question gets a two-line answer that reads like you couldn't be bothered, and off they go.
There's also the knowledge stuck in one person's head. When they're off, everyone else fumbles the standard answers because nobody wrote them down, so the replies wobble depending on who's at the keyboard.
What I'd build
I'd start with the templates themselves: ready-made replies for the enquiries you answer every week, written with you so they sound like your business, covering the awkward ones like turning work down politely. In Outlook that's Quick Parts, in Gmail it's templates, sitting right there as you write. Then the layer that makes them earn their keep: an AI step that reads each incoming enquiry, picks the right reply, and fills in the customer's name, the job and the specifics, so what lands in your drafts is a finished answer waiting for a once-over, not a blank to fill in. You approve and send; nothing goes out unchecked. And because the wording lives in the templates, the answers stay consistent whoever's at the keyboard.
What changes
- Common replies take seconds instead of a rewrite each time
- Drafts arrive pre-filled with the customer's details, ready to approve
- Answers stay consistent whoever happens to send them
- Even the busy-day replies read warm and complete
Related fixes
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