How AI Can Boost SMB
Powering up your business with AI prompts and algoritms
Imagine all the people in your company didn’t have to do repetitive tasks anymore
Imagine there’s no need to go through dozens of reports to gather analytics
We hope someday you will join us in the magical world of AI
This funny introduction was meant to show you that any business can use the power of AI however big or small. However today we are targeting small ones.
AI as a business asset
If you own a business and you are wondering whether AI can be an asset for you, here are a few examples of the ways it can speed up your processes and reduce costs:
- If you can outsource a task - AI can do it for you
There are dozens of routine processes in every organization (inserting customer emails in the CRM system, filling out daily reports, etc) that can be performed by a person who does not know every aspect of your business but has a general idea of the niche.
- If you have a FAQ page and still getting basic questions - AI can take care of those
Customer relations usually fall into two categories - 100 basic questions (like how to order this or where is that) and 1 or 2 meaningful interactions that require human contact. You can make those even more fulfilling if you let AI take care of the basics. After all, it can reply to 100 customers and not get tired of talking.
- AI is not an oracle, but it can predict your future
AI can analyze gigabytes of data in a few minutes and make assumptions based on that. Sometimes the foresight that is offered by them excels human calculations by far because of that. Also, you can experiment with prompts by uploading typical questions or situations from your industry and asking for a prognosis.
AI for employees and customers
We covered how AI can help your clients and simplify relations between your business and the outer world, but it can also be helpful to your employees. For example, if you have an onboarding program for new recruits and no time to check how they are doing, AI can be their mentor, quiz them, answer questions, and much more (for example, Zavvy).
Fun fact: you can use the same service to train your employees on AI solutions for different departments!
Still have doubts?
It is difficult to implement
Introducing AI to your business can be complex and scary, but it sure is going to be worth it. Recent reports show that 85% of small business owners say technology helps them succeed, even if at first they were difficult to implement.
My employees fear they might lose their jobs
Let them see AI not as a rival but as a helpful junior who is here to take the heavy load off them. As we explained in previous parts of the article, you will be able to automate almost all the routines and free up more time for exciting tasks. Even if AI is doing your analytics and giving foresight no one knows your industry better than you and your employees and the final say is always yours.
We will have to rebuild our entire system to implement it
The key to successful AI implementation is taking small steps with it. You can start off by delegating simple tasks that you have been doing manually for ages and then see where it takes you in terms of business statistics (cost reduction and profit rise).
Share this with your friends and colleagues, especially if they are AI-savvy!
How actual businesses are harnessing this power
Here are a few examples of small business owners who already leveraged AI to their benefit:
Sandwich Video ($5.3 Million annual revenue according to ZoomInfo) is a creative agency specializing in video commercials. The company is known for translating complex product features into engaging, understandable video content. It was founded in 2009 and is based in Los Angeles.
Adam Lisagor, Founder & CEO shared many of his interactions with AI on Twitter: once he started discussing a video idea with ChatGPT and had his AHA moment:
And in 2012 he tried his hand at AI personification with no other than Stephen Fry!
He admitted to TechCrunch that he had outsourced most of his cognitive process to LLMs and also uses generative AI tools on the process of making videos, but pointed out that those are just assets that do not perform the work for you.
Have you ever had a meaningful conversation with ChatGPT?
Share with us in the comments section:
Since they sell their videos for approximately $250,000 to $400,000 and Adam is doing most of the shooting and creative work we can say he is really freeing up time to earn more by outsourcing some of the thinking to AI. And he is also looking for a software developer to launch his own AI tool! We don’t know anything specific but we are as excited as you are.
Fillout (less than $5 Million annual revenue according to ZoomInfo), a powerful form builder (think Google Forms, but with more styling options, better integrations, and advanced features). Leveraged AI to showcase their product to users without spending money on demos.
Dominic Whyte, CEO and Founder shared on the company blog that their first attempt to use prompts as a tool to help customers failed. From that try they learned that AI cannot make a product for them or for the customer but it can help in the thinking process, much like it happened with Adam from Sandwich.
They implemented an AI helper tool inside the form-building software and found that people who use the in-app AI are 2.1 times more likely to build an active form vs those who don’t. Using OpenAI's GPT-3 API to convert the form description into a set of questions. First, they give a description of the form and tailor questions the AI will ask according to the industry the form is for. And then all of this is combined with the user input. Simple yet effective!
As a bonus, while developing a new solution they created a few smaller AI for quizzes and graphs which later became products on the website.
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When you ask ChatGPT something like “suggest a way to improve sales in IT company” it will provide you with many options but they will not be tailored for your industry and would look like a Google search.
Today we want to share some examples of how to make those prompts better and show you what you can build with AI today or tomorrow.
For example, improve customer service by asking ChatGPT:
using client data from survey results, customer service interactions, CRM databases, and reviews on our pages in social media and on the website provide a list of 10 most frequent concerns and complaints and ideas on how to mitigate them
Ask for insides into analytics:
Act as a Data Analyst. I'm a new small business owner with minimal time available. Your task is to perform a comprehensive Customer Segmentation Analysis based on the data I provide. The objective is to identify distinct customer segments to better tailor marketing strategies and improve service offerings. Consider factors such as purchasing behavior, frequency, monetary value, and sentiment analysis to derive meaningful segments. Utilize visual tools or descriptive statistics to summarize findings succinctly. To begin, in a short and concise way ask me about my business/products, and to provide either: sales data that has a way to recognize the same customer (e.g. account number, email, etc) OR customer reviews. If you have any other questions, make your best guess. Please do NOT ask any additional questions, then perform the segmentation analysis yourself. Only after that may you ask questions (only 2) about my business, to further refine the analysisIntroduce upsell and cross-sell into your business:
Act as a customer-orientated business owner. Explain how to effectively upsell and cross-sell specific products to existing customers. Provide comprehensive techniques to identify upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Tailor offers to customer needs, create enticing product bundles, and implement personalized recommendations. Provide clear, detailed, and actionable solutions. Before you start with this task, ask me a few questions about the business so you can provide the best results possible.The key is to give AI as many details as possible almost creating a character that you think possesses an answer to your query.
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Some more things you can build with AI to improve your business:
- Leveraging real-time Social media monitoring tools to address your customers’ pain:
For instance, using a tool like replyaibot.com can be a game-changer. It monitors platforms like Reddit in real-time based on specific keywords, helping you find potential users who are discussing pain points your SaaS addresses.
- Simplify the note-taking process
There is an AI transcription tool tactiq.io which accurately transcribes meetings and quickly highlights key points and action items.
- And content creation
For example, Upmetrics can write a post or a business plan for you, then provide some ideas on how to implement and enhance it and finalize that with a step-by-step guide for implementation.
- Index your emails and get only the key information
Levity connects to your inbox, categorizes incoming emails, extracts critical information, and pushes it to your TMS — so you can focus on customer relationships instead of grunt work.
- Present your product without being present on the spot
StoryDoc creates a deck for you and has many special templates from reports to brochures and proposals. The pages it creates can reveal the essence of your business to the customer or investor and you can just seal the deal.
##### So, AI tools can boost your business without being a threat to your existing system or employees you just need to learn how to leverage it.
Did the prompts & tools help you out?
Leave a comment & let us know:
This article was first published in the Creators AI newsletter. View the original edition.
