AI Speeds Up Broken Processes - David Levine on Customer Experience

Put AI on top of a broken process and all you get is the same problem, faster. David Levine of I am Your Virtual Professional ran a brick-and-mortar candy and chocolate store for almost 20 years. Now he helps small businesses get found and keep customers coming back. Read the full episode recap.

He brings Jeremy Rivera three free fixes for getting found and a pen-and-paper habit that writes your best website content for you. David wrote Old School Service, New School Tools, and his case is that customer service is the old way of thinking. Customer experience starts at the first touch point, and the time AI saves you should go back into that experience. He keeps the tools that go with the book on his customer experience and AI tools page.

In this episode

• Three free ways to get found: make sure your site is indexed (one client's $250 site sat unindexed for years), claim and optimize your Google Business Profile, and answer the full questions people now type into Google and AI tools
• Read one automated email as your customer, change one line, and set up an autoresponder that tells people when they will hear back and alerts the owner. His Follow-Up Helper covers the next step: following up without being pushy
• The 500 smudged box tops: how a corporate client who called him a liar came into the store and saw the proof
• "I'm sorry, and" beats "I'm sorry, but", and why a page of nothing but five-star reviews is not real
• AI tools create drafts. Your job is your voice, accuracy and no promises you can't keep
• Raving fans, a Village of Skokie Business of the Year award, and a chocolate dessert burger that won a hamburger contest
• FAQs on the pages where they belong: a firearm instructor repositioned around safety, a fence company with a page for each town's permitting steps, and a phone number in the footer
• The question notebook: for a month, write down every question customers ask before you touch your website. We turned it into a free Customer Question Notebook SOP

Chapters

• (00:00) Get found and keep customers coming back
• (02:12) Three free tips: indexing, Google Business Profile, questions
• (05:07) From customer service to customer experience
• (06:03) Buy from yourself on someone else's phone
• (08:16) Read one automated email as your customer
• (10:44) Bad reviews come from bad communication
• (12:51) The 500 smudged box tops
• (15:16) How to answer a negative review
• (17:31) A broken process plus AI
• (18:56) Technology changes, human nature does not
• (20:26) Raving fans
• (22:32) Zappos, smiling on the phone and untrained chatbots
• (25:13) A website is a zoo, not a fishing trip
• (27:34) FAQs on every relevant page
• (30:52) Ask your installer what customers ask
• (32:04) The question notebook
• (34:13) Where to find David

Notable quotes

"If you have a broken process and you put AI into it, all you're doing is speeding up the problem." - David Levine

"Customers wanna feel heard. They want to feel valued. They wanna feel listened to." - David Levine

"Old school service, new school tools. You need to go old school before you go new school." - David Levine

David's episode resources live on his podcast page. Unscripted Small Business is hosted by Jeremy Rivera. More episodes at unscriptedsmallbusiness.com.