The office manager pasted "write a recare text" into the chat tool they already pay for. What came back sounded like a spa in another county. The practice does not discount crown fees. The model does not know that. It also does not know that Mrs. Chen prefers mornings, that they are not a luxury spa, and that they will never tell a patient their x-ray looks fine from an inbox. The dentist is standing behind her, watching another generic paragraph appear, and wondering if they picked the wrong model.
They didn't. The model has never read how the shop makes money or who actually pays them. Every session starts from zero. Until that lives in a file the tool can see every time, you are paying for autocomplete with manners.
I start with two plain text files. I call them company.md and customer.md because that's what they are: a page about the shop, a page about the buyer. Not a knowledge-base project. Not a "brain." Two files. Then two more — offer and voice — so it cannot invent a package or talk like a billboard. Then a short list of decision rules so it never emails a patient or files a document alone. That's how you train AI on your business. Effectiveness: the draft talks about the thing you actually sell. Efficiency: you stop re-explaining the shop every morning. Quality: it sounds like you, and it refuses the claims that would get you a bad review or a complaint.
company.md — how the shop makes money
This is not your About page. About pages lie. This is the operating truth.
Put in what you sell, in the order that pays the bills. HVAC: diagnostics, repairs, replacements, maintenance plans — and which one is the real engine this quarter. Dental: hygiene, restorative, high-ticket treatment you actually want more of. Law: the matter types you take, and the ones you refer out. Agency: retainers vs project work, and what you will not staff. Retail: the categories that carry margin vs the ones that just fill the aisle. Who you serve, geographically and practically. "North of the river, single-family, we don't do rooftops over three stories." "Families within 15 minutes, we are not a Medicaid mill and we are not a luxury spa." Be rude on paper so the model isn't rude in public.
How cash arrives. Insurance billed later is not the same as card-on-file. Net-30 commercial is not the same as cash on the truck. If the shop lives on financed change-outs, write that down. If the practice lives on recare, write that down. What you believe that changes a decision. We show the number before we start. We don't scare-sell. We don't bid against a number we haven't seen. We don't promise court outcomes. What you refuse to be. This is the highest-value paragraph in the file. HVAC: we are not the cheapest. Dental: we do not do same-day veneers we saw on a reel. Law: we do not take every angry call that says "I want to sue." Retail: we do not match an online price on a SKU we have to order.
Leave out history of the founding unless it changes a buying decision. Awards nobody in the waiting room has heard of. Motivational language. "Excellence" is not a rule. Staff bios as a dump. Who owns what is enough: office manager owns the calendar; owner owns exceptions over $X. Anything you would not want pasted into a customer email. Internal margins, the fight with the landlord. Treat company.md like a document that could leak, because tools get copied. A multi-location retailer needs one company file plus a short overlay per store (hours, SKUs that store never carries, the manager's name). Do not blob four stores into one paragraph and hope.
customer.md — how they buy, not a persona poster
Personas are "Suburban Sarah, 42, values convenience." Useless. Write down the words the front desk already hears.
Put in the actual trigger. HVAC: it's 82 in the house and the unit is blowing warm. Dental: I haven't been in three years and I'm nervous. Law: I got a letter and I don't know if it's serious. Agency: our last shop missed deadlines and we look stupid. Retail: I don't want to drive across town if you don't have it. Pains they will admit, and pains they won't. They will admit price. They often won't admit fear, embarrassment, or that they already called two other companies. Objections in their language. "That's more than my neighbor paid." "Will insurance cover it?" "Can you just tell me on the phone?" "Do I have to come in?"
Questions they always ask. Write them as questions. The model should be ready for "how soon can you get here," "will it hurt," "do I have to pay today," "can I return it if the size is wrong." What actually decides yes. Not "our brand." Speed, a number they understand, a human who called back, a warranty they can repeat to a spouse. HVAC: who can be in the driveway today. Dental: who explained the out-of-pocket without shame. Law: who called back before lunch. Retail: who has it in stock at the closest store. Fears. Pain. Being upsold. Looking foolish. A lien. A review war. Missing soccer pickup because the appointment ran.
Leave out age brackets you guessed. Income you don't know. Clever nicknames for segments. Anything that would sound creepy if it showed up in a text. You are allowed to remember that Mrs. Chen prefers morning visits. You are not allowed to build a psych profile of Mrs. Chen. Law firms: easy to overdo. Stick to how they found you, what they think they want, and what a complete intake needs. Do not psychoanalyze plaintiffs.
The rest of a small pack: offer, voice, and rules
Two more files and you can stop. Don't build a wiki. Offer file: packages, what's included, what's not, pricing logic, proof you are allowed to use, and — this is the load-bearing wall — claims to avoid. HVAC: we never say "same-day install" in July unless the board says we can. Dental: we never say "insurance covers everything." Law: we never say "we will win." Agency: we never say "guaranteed rankings." Retail: we never say "in stock everywhere" on a four-store promo. This file is why your pages and your AI drafts don't invent results. If you wouldn't put the sentence on a signed estimate, it doesn't go in the file as a promise.
Voice file: how the shop must sound and must never sound. Phrases in, phrases out, three examples of a text or email you were proud of, three you killed. Dental: warm, not cutesy; no medical-claim voice. Law: plain, not TV-lawyer; no legal-advice voice from a bot. HVAC: direct, not "comfort consultants." Agency: peer, not guru. Retail: neighbor, not a national chain script. Update the pack when a good output happens. If the model offered 10% off and you don't do that, add it to claims to avoid. Files compound. Chat windows don't.
Then the file shops skip, and the one that keeps you out of trouble: decision rules. Write if-then rules a tired person can follow. If the output is a customer-facing message, a human sends it. The model drafts. Nobody auto-sends to a patient, a client, or a homeowner. If the task is filing, submitting, or signing — court documents, insurance claims, prescriptions, change orders — the model does not file. It can checklist. A human submits. If they ask for a diagnosis, a legal conclusion, or a price the offer file doesn't list, it says it doesn't know and flags a human. If the name, record, or matter is not in the prompt, it does not guess. If a request needs PHI, a full case file, or card data in a random chat tool, stop. Use the system you already pay for. If two rules collide, ask the owner. Do not "be helpful."
An auto-sent wrong message is not efficient. It's a mess at scale.
Hypothetical (not a client, not a promise): the office manager spends 20 minutes a morning re-explaining the shop to a blank chat window before she can draft recare texts. That's 20 minutes times five mornings. If two files plus a never-list cut the re-explain to a paste, she gets the morning back — but only if she uses it on recall that fills chairs, or on going home. I will not turn that into a "trained the AI" case study. Count your re-explain time.
What to do with the pack on Monday
You don't need a developer. You need a folder. Open a blank document. Write company.md from the bullets above. One to two pages. Owner does this. Not the marketing intern. Office manager writes customer.md from last week's calls. Steal the phrases from the voicemail box. Owner writes the offer file, especially claims to avoid. If you run ads, this is the same "never claim" list I want on a landing page. Paste three good emails and three bad ones into a voice file. Label them good and bad. Write ten decision rules. Pin the "human sends" rule at the top. Attach the folder to whatever chat tool you already pay for. Start the next draft with "read these files first."
Then use it on one job: recare texts, estimate follow-ups, review replies, or intake summaries. One. If the draft still sounds generic, the file is vague. Tighten the refusals. Add a real example. I would not fine-tune anything. I would not dump ten years of email into a "brain." Two plus two plus rules is enough to stop generic. Add a page later only if a loop proves it needs one (warranty language, a fee schedule, a store overlay). Agencies: build this pack per client, or your helper will mix voices. Multi-location: one company file, store overlays, one customer file if the buyer is the same person.
Paste this to turn a messy brain dump into the two files:
Turn this into company.md and customer.md. Plain text. No slogans.
Shop type: [dental / HVAC / law / agency / retail]
Owner dump (how we make money, who we refuse, how cash arrives):
Front-desk phrases from last week:
Claims we never make:
Three emails we were proud of:
Three we killed:
Write:
- company.md (what we sell in bill-paying order, who we serve, cash, refusals)
- customer.md (trigger, objections in their words, what decides yes, fears)
Leave out awards, personas, and anything creepy in a text.
End with 10 decision rules. Rule 1: human sends every customer-facing message.
FAQ
How do I train AI on my business without building a "brain"? Write company.md (how you make money) and customer.md (how they buy). Add offer, voice, and "human sends" rules. Attach the folder. Start every draft with "read these files first."
Should I dump ten years of email into a custom model? No. Fine-tuning is almost never the first move. Two pages plus a never-list beats a science project. Add a page later only if a loop proves it needs one.
Who should write the files? The owner writes company.md and the claims to avoid. The office manager writes customer.md from last week's real phrases. Not the marketing intern. Not a consultant working without the people who know the shop.
If you want this built in a room, that's the free 15-minute Mini Margin Check. Bring how you make money, three real customer phrases, and the claims you never want in a text. We leave with a starter pack and the rules that keep a human in the send seat. Paid seat. No free audit. The assessment is next if you want those files aimed at ranked workflows. We don't start with a monthly retainer. We start with pages you own.