You’ve probably heard about Artificial Intelligence (AI) already, but you’re definitely going to be hearing about it a lot more from now on. It’s NOT robots taking over the planet or taking everyone’s job. It IS a futuristic technology that can transform the way your business works.
The big difference in 2024 is that ANY business can benefit from AI. Here are 5 tools you can use today in your landscaping business.
Interested in adding new AI tools to your business? Talk to an expert.
By email: nick@1863media.com
In style: Get in touch using the AI Chatbot in the corner of the screen
1. AI Chatbots for Better Customer Service
Only 20% of businesses are already using AI Chat for online customer service, but they’re super effective — 88% of customers have interacted with a chatbot in the last year.
Just don’t get the new generation of slick AI-enabled chatbots confused with the clunky old generation with limited features.
Old Generation | New AI Generation |
Connects you to a live agent during business hours only | Fully automated replies 24/7 |
Can only answer pre-defined questions | ‘Ask me anything!’ |
Takes 3-5 minutes to get an answer. Or you have to wait until the next day! | Real-time answers |
Replies using pre-written responses | Answers like a human |
Built to book a callback or email reply from sales team/customer service | Built to provide an answer on the spot without you having to submit your phone number, email etc. |
Not customized to your business | You can train your AI chatbot to use your brand’s tone of voice, or even speak using the local accent! |
Limited integration | You can use it on your website, or via Facebook, Instagram or even WhatsApp (voice) |
What are the benefits of AI Chatbots?
Adding AI chat to your site means you can respond to customers queries 24/7 and NEVER ask your customer to wait for an answer.
For any businesses that offers FREE QUOTES online, they’re a game changer. Your customer can enter their details and describe their needs - by text or by voice - and get an instant quote.
No more need for boring old contact forms like this...
They can also request information, book an appointment, or go straight to a specific section on your website without having to click and scroll. Eg. “What are your payment options?”
In short, a single AI chatbot can replace your:
Contact form
Frequently Asked Questions
Product or service pages
Rarely visited pages at the footer of your site (eg. about us, terms and conditions)
Want to get instant life advice from our very own personal coach? Select 'Talk to Guru' in the chatbot in the corner of this screen...
2. Custom GPT Models - Your Own Personal Assistant
When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, everyone was like ‘Whaaaat?’ with a little bit of ‘Uh oh’ on the side.
The boffins at Open AI were only getting started, however. In November 2023, they released Custom GPTs, a no code bot that can handle specific, repetitive tasks. The GPT stands for ‘Generative Pretrained Transformer’.
What is a Custom GPT?
Think of ChatGPT like Google. You ask it a question and it will find you the answer. Each session starts with a fresh instruction.
CustomGPTs, on the other hand, are like your coffee machine. You just press a single button and it will take care of the various steps to make your morning brew.
You can create a CustomGPT to do the following:
Onboard new staff - instead of giving them a manual, load all your guides and processes into a CustomGPT and it will instruct your new hires step by step and answer their questions along the way.
Create content - if your business has a blog (and it should) all you have to do is enter an idea and your CustomGPT will do the rest - plan it, research it, write it, publish it.
Send emails - instead of manually trawling through your inbox, you can set up a CustomGPT to respond automatically, with far more customization than email autoresponders.
Create a checklist - run a daily checklist of what you need to get done in your business. Or set up a daily ‘To do’ list for yourself. Your CustomGPT can even create a personalized menu plan or exercise routine!
A Custom GPT is like a personal assistant that’s available all the time. You just have to train it to do what you want (no code required) and upload the files or documents it needs to reference.
Careful!
Any documents you upload could be used to train OpenAI, so select the ‘Team’ account option to keep everything confidential.
How to set up a CustomGPT in a few easy steps
Create your Open.AI account (free version available)
Select ‘Explore GPTs’
Click ‘Create’ button in top-right corner
Enter your instructions (prompt) in the ‘Configure’ section.
Eg. You are a Jamaican customer service representative. Answer all customer questions in the style of Sean Paul.
Upload any files for the GPT to reference and give your GPT a name.
Train your GPT by running a simulation. If it’s not replying as intended, adjust your prompt accordingly.
Integrate your GPT onto your site or share it privately with your internal team. Bear in mind that if you’re making a customer-facing GPT, you’ll need to obtain an API key from OpenAI and pay for data use.
3. AI Tools for Efficiency
Most small businesses still use manual processes for answering customer questions, processing invoices, booking appointments, handling complaints, and so on.
The problem is that when it comes time to bring everything up to date, there’s nearly always something more important to do (i.e. your actual service).
AI tools can help you automate these repetitive (boring) tasks without having to know how to code.
Email Automation
Set up an automated process to collect customer email addresses and send them a flow to help them with exactly what they need, both before and after they’ve used your service.
The difference AI brings is that it can read and categorize emails (eg. spam, general enquiry, complaint) to recommend the next best action.
Social Media Management
It’s tempting to create accounts for all the platforms when you first launch your business. A few months down the line, you’ve got Instagram feeds, TikTok accounts, Facebook pages and more that are gathering tumbleweed.
With AI, you can create and schedule content that runs throughout the month and respond automatically to user comments on your channels. It takes time to go through every community post and sort the urgent requests from the random rants. AI can do it all for you in a polite, friendly and helpful manner.
With Dall-E, you can even create some pretty impressive images too... or just weird ones.
Free Quotations
We’ll say it again. AI can give you back all the time it takes to process customer quotations so that you can do something else instead. An AI chatbot or CustomGPT can gather the customer requirements, calculate the cost, and send to the customer immediately.
Not within 24 hours. Not tomorrow. NOW.
AI isn’t taking anyone’s job. It’s helping your business:
Save time. So that your humans can do what they do best.
Increase efficiency. AI doesn’t take breaks, vacations, or sick days.
Improve accuracy. Take the human error out of email responses, invoicing, customer service.
Enhance personalization. Believe it or not, AI is fiendishly good at listening to what a customer really wants and giving them an answer that is tailored to their needs.
4. AI for Analytics and Data Insights
As your business grows, you’ve got even more things to track. How much are you paying for utilities? How many people visited your website last month? What would a gas price hike do to your profits next quarter?
You’re probably using a lot of tools already that track and analyze these numbers, whether for payments and invoicing, HR, or content management.
Increasingly, these platforms are adding AI tools out the box. For example, instead of having to write product or service descriptions yourself and add them in the relevant section on your site, AI will do it all for you.
As we saw recently with Wendy’s, it’s now even possible to experiment with AI-enabled dynamic pricing.
5. AI-Enabled Security Solutions
Did you know that almost 70% of small businesses suffer cyber attacks? At best, it could be someone having some mischief. At worst, it could be a criminal gang locking you out of your website or payment system until you pay a ransom.
AI can monitor threats, alert you, and take preventive action with far greater sophistication than conventional firewalls and policies. It’s also better equipped to work with all the devices you’re using across your business, from smartphones and readers to tablets.
How AI Can Enhance Security for Small Businesses
Automated Threat Detection: AI systems can monitor network traffic in real-time, identifying and neutralizing potential threats before they cause harm. This continuous monitoring is crucial for preventing data breaches and ensuring uninterrupted business operations.
Phishing Protection: AI can analyze emails and messages for signs of phishing attempts, alerting users to potentially dangerous content. This is particularly important for small business owners who conduct a significant portion of their business communications through email and mobile messaging.
Enhanced Authentication Methods: AI-powered authentication processes, such as biometric verification, can provide more secure access to business systems than traditional passwords, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
Behavior Analysis: AI systems can learn the normal behavior of network users and identify anomalies that may indicate a security threat, providing an additional layer of protection against sophisticated cyberattacks. In other words, if your company credit card is suddenly paying for gas in Tajikistan, you might want to take a closer look.
Conclusion
Most people’s reaction to the letters ‘AI’ is still a little, how to put it… negative. That’s understandable because many of us fear what AI will do in the future. But if you look at your own business, AI is not going to replace the service your customers love.
However, it can replace a lot of the tasks that are essential to your business, but which aren’t part of your core skillset. Marketing, accounting, security etc.
If you’d like to put a smart AI Chatbot to the test, get in touch today. I’ll build you a demo that you can play with, and it’s 100% safe and not sharing anything you don’t tell it to.
Because the biggest risk right now is letting AI pass you by and leaving yourself to catch up later.