Program · Small businesses

Simple AI Helpdesk & FAQ Setup

A focused program to stand up a practical AI-powered FAQ or helpdesk assistant for your small business — grounded in your real policies, tone, and hand-offs to humans.

Instead of chasing a “smart chatbot” that makes things up, we start with what you already know how to answer, structure it properly, and give your team a simple way to keep it up to date.

Program overview · Audio

A short overview of the program: who it's for, what we cover, and how to get the most value out of it as a busy professional.

What your business will be able to do after this program

Less copy-pasting the same answers, more consistent, on-brand replies — with humans still in charge.

  • • Offer customers or staff a simple place to ask common questions and get useful answers fast.
  • • Keep answers consistent with how you actually want things explained — in your tone, with your rules.
  • • Define clear hand-offs for anything sensitive, unusual, or high-stakes so humans stay in the loop.
  • • Capture “hard questions” the assistant can't answer yet and turn them into new FAQ entries.
  • • Own a small, understandable helpdesk/FAQ setup instead of a black-box chatbot.

Who this is for

  • • Small businesses with repeat questions from customers
  • • Teams using shared inboxes or simple ticket tools
  • • Owners and ops leaders who want faster answers without losing control of what’s said

What you'll work on

  • • Real questions from your customers or staff
  • • Your existing docs, emails, and internal know-how
  • • A simple AI assistant wired to that content

Curriculum at a glance

Four modules to go from scattered answers to a simple AI helpdesk that your team trusts.

Module 1

Collecting & cleaning your FAQ source

  • • Identify where answers already live today (docs, emails, brains)
  • • Pick a starting slice of topics instead of “everything”
  • • Rewrite a few messy answers into clear, AI-friendly versions

Module 2

Configuring a simple AI helpdesk/FAQ assistant

  • • Choose where the assistant should live (site, portal, internal)
  • • Connect it to your cleaned FAQ content safely
  • • Tune tone, boundaries, and “I don’t know” behaviors

Module 3

Hand-offs, safety, and edge cases

  • • Define when the assistant must hand off to a human
  • • Design safe patterns for pricing, legal, and sensitive topics
  • • Log tricky questions to improve the FAQ over time

Module 4

Launch, review, and improvement loop

  • • Soft-launch to staff or a small customer segment
  • • Review real conversations to fix gaps and tone issues
  • • Set a light-weight review cadence and owner

1. Collecting & cleaning your FAQ source

Start with the answers you already give — then make them clear, consistent, and AI-friendly.

We begin with a simple question: “Where do answers live right now?” Usually it's a mix of email replies, docs, chat messages, and what lives in people's heads. We pull a small, high-value slice into one place.

  • • Collect common questions from inboxes and staff
  • • Pick a safe starting area (shipping, hours, policies, basic support)
  • • Rewrite unclear or inconsistent answers
  • • Add small bits of structure so AI can find the right answer more reliably

Artifact: FAQ starter set

You'll leave this module with a clean starter FAQ document:

  • • 20–50 of your most common questions
  • • Clear, on-brand answers in your own tone
  • • Simple tags or categories for each answer

2. Configuring a simple AI helpdesk/FAQ assistant

Put your cleaned answers behind a small, understandable AI assistant — not a mysterious black box.

Next, we help you choose where your assistant should live (website, portal, internal tool, or even just a staff-only chat) and connect it to your FAQ content.

  • • Decide who the assistant is for: customers or staff
  • • Connect it to your FAQ content using a sensible, vendor-agnostic setup
  • • Tune tone: friendly, clear, and on-brand
  • • Configure how it behaves when it’s not confident or can’t find an answer

Assistant behavior “contract”

We'll define simple rules the assistant should follow:

  • • What it can and can't answer
  • • How it refers to humans and next steps
  • • How to respond when it's unsure

3. Hand-offs, safety, and edge cases

Make it very clear when a bot should stop guessing and hand the conversation back to your team.

A helpful assistant knows when to say, “I'm not sure.” In this module we design guardrails so AI doesn't stray into prices, promises, or compliance territory it can't handle.

  • • Identify sensitive topics (money, contracts, health)
  • • Define clear rules for “escalate to a human”
  • • Design hand-off messages that set expectations clearly
  • • Capture edge-case questions as raw material for improving your FAQ

Safety & hand-off checklist

You'll leave this module with a simple checklist:

  • • Which topics require human review
  • • What "I'm not sure" looks like in your tone
  • • How to log conversations that need follow-up

4. Launch, review, and improvement loop

Launch small, learn from real questions, then upgrade your FAQ and assistant in short, sane cycles.

Finally, we help you get the assistant in front of real users — first staff, then a segment of customers — and set up a light review rhythm so it gets better, not worse, over time.

  • • Decide on a soft-launch: internal, then external
  • • Review sample conversations for tone and accuracy
  • • Turn good answers into “official” FAQ entries
  • • Schedule short, regular review sessions (monthly/quarterly)

Helpdesk/FAQ improvement loop

You'll leave with a clear improvement loop:

  • • Who owns the FAQ and assistant
  • • How new questions get added to the FAQ
  • • When and how to review logs and metrics

Format & logistics

Built for busy teams who need something simple, not a giant support migration.

Schedule

  • • 2–3 weeks total
  • • Weekly live working sessions (60–75 minutes)
  • • Async content cleanup and testing between calls

Team

  • • 1–2 people from support/ops
  • • 1 owner/leader or manager
  • • Optional: someone with light technical familiarity

What you leave with

  • • A working AI FAQ/helpdesk assistant
  • • A cleaned, structured FAQ knowledge base
  • • A safety + improvement playbook your team owns

FAQ: Simple AI Helpdesk & FAQ Setup

Questions small businesses usually ask before putting AI in front of customers.

Will this replace our existing support tools?

Not necessarily. For many teams, this sits on top of your existing shared inbox or simple ticket tool. The assistant handles common questions; your current tools handle the rest.

What if the assistant gives a wrong or risky answer?

That's exactly why we design guardrails and hand-offs in Module 3. We'll limit what it's allowed to answer, make “I'm not sure” a valid option, and set up a review loop so you can catch and fix issues early.

Do we need a developer to maintain this?

For most small-business setups, no. We aim for a low-code or no-code configuration where non-technical staff can update FAQ content and basic settings. If your stack is more complex, we can loop in a technical contact as needed.

Can we start internally before exposing it to customers?

Absolutely. Many teams start with a staff-only assistant so employees can ask questions about policies, procedures, and tools. Once you trust the behavior, we can explore a customer-facing version.

Ready to stand up a simple AI helpdesk that your team trusts?

This program helps you turn scattered, repeated answers into a living FAQ and a small, understandable AI assistant — with humans still in charge of the important stuff.

Talk to us about this programView all small business programs

If you'd like to bundle this with AI Starter Kit or AI-Powered Inbox, Docs & Meetings, mention that in your note and we'll share options.