What AI gets wrong in a trades business
The same request, answered twice by the same AI. The first answer is built only from what's written down: the job sheet, the calendar, the invoice. The second also has what you and your team know.
Most of what makes the second answer right lives in your most experienced people's heads, and it leaves with them unless someone writes it down.
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Ordering materials
“Order the tiles for the Hughes bathroom: 14 square metres of the grey porcelain they picked.”
Without your context
Done: 14 square metres of the grey porcelain ordered from the usual merchant, for delivery on Thursday.
With it
Order 16 square metres, not 14. We always allow extra for cuts and breakages on a diagonal layout, and it all has to come from one batch so the shade matches. If the merchant can't promise one batch, ring the customer before ordering.
- What it was missing
- Your cutting allowance, and the batch rule every tiler on the team knows.
- What it costs
- Running short halfway through the job, and a second batch that doesn't match the first.
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Briefing a subcontractor
“Write the brief for the electrician starting at 14 Mill Lane on Monday.”
Without your context
Rewire the ground floor at 14 Mill Lane. Start Monday at 8am. Street parking is available.
With it
Start at 9:30, not 8: the customer does the school run, and the dog's loose until then. Park on the drive, not the street, because the neighbour complained last week. Kitchen sockets go where the new layout shows them; the drawings changed on Thursday.
- What it was missing
- The customer's arrangements and Thursday's drawing change, which live in your head and your phone.
- What it costs
- A morning lost on the doorstep, a row with the neighbour, and sockets in the wrong place to rip out.
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Chasing payment
“Draft a reminder to a customer who still hasn't paid our invoice from five weeks ago.”
Without your context
This is a final reminder that invoice 2231 is now overdue. Please pay within 7 days to avoid late payment charges and further action.
With it
A friendly note asking whether the purchase order number reached their accounts team. They always pay: their invoices go through a housing association's system that only makes payments once a month.
- What it was missing
- How this customer actually pays, and that they always have.
- What it costs
- A threatening letter to a good repeat customer, over money that was always coming.
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Replying to a review
“Reply to a two-star review saying we left the site in a mess.”
Without your context
We're sorry to hear about your experience. Leaving a tidy site is a priority for us, and we've passed your feedback on to the team.
With it
We'd agreed to leave the skip until the plasterer finished the next day; it's on the job sheet. Apologise that nobody explained that on the day, say the skip went on Thursday as agreed, and offer to come back and sweep through.
- What it was missing
- What was agreed on the job sheet, and why the site looked the way it did.
- What it costs
- A public apology for a fault that wasn't there, read by every customer who checks your reviews next.
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Posting a finished job
“Write a social post about the loft conversion we finished on Friday.”
Without your context
Another stunning transformation! Swipe to see this beautiful loft conversion, from the street view to the finished bedroom.
With it
A dark loft turned into a bright bedroom with its own shower room. Interior photos only: the customers asked us not to show the outside of their house.
- What it was missing
- What the customers agreed to have shown, and what they asked to keep private.
- What it costs
- A broken promise to a customer, in public, with their house in the picture.
More examples from other kinds of business → · Shop· Agency· Clinic· Hospitality· Accountancy
If any of those sound familiar, the fastest way to find your version of it is the Context Audit: one 90-minute session, a written brief back on what's going wrong and why.
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