Blog · How-to · 4 min read
Why AI keeps giving you generic answers, and the 5-minute fix
“I tried it once and it gave me garbage.” It’s the thing I hear most from owners. It isn’t you, and it isn’t the AI. Here’s what’s going on and how to fix it today.
When an owner tells me AI gave them garbage, I ask to see what they typed. It’s almost always one line: “Write a follow-up email to a client.” And what comes back sounds like it was written for nobody, because it was.
The AI didn’t fail. It did what anyone would do with a one-line request from a stranger: it guessed.
Picture your best new hire on day one
They’re smart, fast and eager. They also know nothing about your business. If you said, “Write a follow-up email to the Johnsons,” a good new hire would stop you: Who are the Johnsons? What happened? How do we usually talk to clients? What’s the goal?
AI usually doesn’t stop you. It just guesses, and guesses sound generic.
So here’s the rule I give every owner: give AI what you’d give a smart new hire on their first day. That fixes most bad answers.
The four things a new hire would need
- Who you are. Your business, and the kind of customers you serve.
- What you want, and why. The task and the goal behind it.
- How you sound. Paste a real email you wrote. One example teaches your tone faster than any description.
- What not to do. No discounts, no exclamation points, no “just checking in.”
Here’s the difference. The one-liner gets you a bland email. This gets you something you’d actually send:
The exact wording
I own [a 12-person landscaping company in Coral Gables]. Our clients are mostly homeowners who want the job done right, not cheap. I need a follow-up email to [a client who got a quote two weeks ago and hasn't answered]. The goal is [a clear yes or no, without pressure]. Here's an email I wrote that sounds like me: [paste one of your emails]. Keep it under 120 words. Don't use exclamation points, don't offer a discount, and don't say "just checking in."
It takes about a minute longer to write. It saves you the ten minutes of rewriting a generic answer.
Two habits that make it even better
Let it interview you. When you don’t know what to include, add this to the end of your request: “Before you write anything, ask me up to five questions.” It will ask what a sharp employee would ask.
Edit it like an employee’s draft. Don’t start over when the answer is close. Reply in the same chat: “Shorter.” “Less formal.” “The second paragraph sounds like a robot.” It gets better with each round, the same way a person does.
The 5-minute fix: write your “about my business” note once
Typing the same background every time gets old. So write it once. Take five minutes, fill this in, and keep it in your notes app:
The exact wording
About my business: I own [business name], a [what you do] in [city]. Our customers are [who they are]. We're known for [what customers say about you]. I write [warm and short / formal / in English and Spanish]. Never [offer discounts, give legal or tax advice, promise dates without checking with me]. When you're unsure, ask me before you guess.
Paste it at the top of any new chat. Or save it in the app so it’s there every time: ChatGPT calls this custom instructions, Claude has projects, and Gemini has Gems. Menu names change, so if you can’t find it, ask the AI itself where to save instructions.
Why the note only gets you so far
The note is one paragraph. Your business is a lot more than that: your client list, last month’s emails, your calendar, your prices, last year’s numbers. A chat window can’t see any of it, and most of the time it won’t remember what you told it last week. So you keep pasting.
That’s where most owners stall. AI is helpful, but it’s one more window you have to feed.
The permanent fix: a business brain
The real version of the new-hire rule isn’t a note. It’s a business brain: one folder on your computer where everything about your business lives, with Claude working inside it. It has four parts:
- The folder, where your documents, notes and everything AI makes for you live.
- The main file, which explains your business the way you’d brief a new hire (it’s called CLAUDE.md).
- Memory, so you never explain your business twice.
- Your tools, connected: email, calendar, files, accounting.
The connected version
Then the request from earlier becomes one line again, but this time it works: “Draft a follow-up to everyone who got a quote this month and hasn’t answered.” It already knows who they are, what you quoted and how you write. You read the drafts and send the ones you like.
You can start the first half on your own this week (the free guide walks you through it). Connecting your tools and setting the rules is where most people get stuck, and it’s what we do with you in one afternoon.