Artificial intelligence · Method

No project starts without a specification.

This is not administrative box-ticking. That document is what becomes the agent’s behaviour: what it may say, what it must refuse, and who it hands over to.

A workshop wall covered in notes and working boards pinned up

Key points

  • Preparation Around three hours on your side, then a validation session together
  • Go-live After acceptance with you, never before
  • Follow-up A review at thirty days, every time
The path

The stages, in this order.

Only one really asks for your time: the specification. The rest is our work.

Phase 01

Before the decision

  1. Understanding the need

    What costs you the most time today? You talk, we listen: everything else follows from this.

  2. Proposal

    One module, two at most. Never a feature we do not already run in production.

  3. Specification

    Filled in by you, with your own procedures. It is real work on your side, and you should know that before committing.

Phase 02

The scoping

  1. Detailed specification

    Gone through point by point, then agreed by both sides. It is the reference in case of disagreement.

  2. Handover

    Completed questionnaire, decision chart, sample replies, access confirmed.

Phase 03

After go-live

  1. Acceptance and go-live

    We review the behaviour with you, then the agent goes into service.

  2. Thirty-day review

    Thirty days after go-live. We look at what worked, what was escalated for nothing, and we correct it.

Your part of the work

The questionnaire, as it is.

We publish it so you know, before committing, what will be asked of you. A precise agent comes from a precise specification: there is no other lever.

AYour business and your jobsabout 15 min

So the agent understands your trade before writing a single reply.

  • Your specialities, and above all the ones you do not take on
  • Your area, and how far you travel
  • Number of calls per week, and the hours they come in
  • Who answers the phone today, and during which hours
  • The three requests you receive most
  • Your hours, your on-call rota, your closing days
BYour urgency and pricing rulesabout 2 h

The most important section. It is what stops the agent promising what you cannot deliver.

  • What you call an emergency, and what can wait until Monday
  • The first safety step to tell the customer, fault by fault
  • What triggers an immediate alert: gas, electricity, water damage
  • Call-out fee, fixed price, quote: what may be stated and what may not
  • Your realistic lead times by type of job
  • What the agent may never decide alone
CYour tools and your accessabout 30 min

We ask for no password in this document.

  • Your quoting and invoicing software
  • Calendar, mailbox, phone line and call diversion
  • How requests reach you today
  • Who, on your side, can open an access
DYour tone and your standard repliesabout 30 min

So the agent speaks like you, not like a switchboard.

  • Formal or informal address, opening and closing formulas
  • Five to ten real replies you have already given
  • The words you never use
  • The name the agent introduces itself with

Example taken from the trades and callouts range. Healthcare, accounting and recruitment each have their own, built on the same principle.

The safeguards

And if the agent gets it wrong?

It proposes, a rule checks, you decide what matters. It can propose something silly; it cannot carry it out, because anything that commits money waits for your decision.

The situation The agent You
Common question: delay, tracking, availability Answers on its own, with the real data Nothing to do
A case covered by your written rules Applies the rule, exactly as written Nothing to do, barring exceptions
Request above your threshold Gathers the file and prepares the reply Decides and approves
Goodwill gesture, discount, exception to policy Promises nothing Rules on it
Aggressive customer, threat of proceedings Transfers immediately with the context Takes over
Third contact about the same problem Transfers without trying again Takes over
Information absent from your policy Stops and asks Answers, and the rule is added

The threshold above which a decision comes back to you is one you set during scoping. Until it is set, everything goes through you.

Go-live

The four stages of deployment.

Nothing is wired up on automatic on day one. The agent drafts, you approve, and we only automate what is proven.

  1. We learn your trade

    The questionnaire, your documents, your standard replies. It is your material, not ours.

  2. We connect and configure

    Read access to your tools, rules encoded, thresholds set with you.

  3. We start in assisted mode

    The agent drafts, you approve. You see exactly what it would have sent.

  4. We automate what is proven

    Category by category, only when the replies suit you. And we measure.

Access

Credentials are handed over after the validation session, through a secure channel. Never in a document.

What blocks a project

An incomplete specification. Not a technical problem: a vague return policy or an unset threshold turns into an agent that hesitates, so escalates everything, so relieves you of nothing.

What speeds it up

A questionnaire that comes back quickly and complete. Scoping is the only real delay in the project.

We go through it together in fifteen minutes.

You will see straight away whether you have the material, and what would be missing. No commitment.

Book fifteen minutes The four trades