Playbook: answer the same ten questions faster

"Are you open Sunday?" "Do you take walk-ins?" "How much for a large order?" If you answer the same handful of questions every day, you're typing the same words over and over. Write them once and reuse them.

This takes about two hours, spread over two weeks, because the first step is just paying attention.

Step 1: Count the questions for two weeks

Don't guess which questions come up. Count. Keep a sheet of paper by the phone and register, or a note on your phone. Every time someone asks something you've answered before, make a tally mark next to a short version of the question.

Also look back at your email, texts, and social media messages. Search for words like "hours," "price," "open," "parking," "gluten." You'll see the same questions again and again.

After two weeks, you'll have a list. The top ten will account for most of it.

Step 2: Write each answer once

For each of the ten, write an answer you're happy with. Do it in your own voice, the way you'd say it to a customer standing in front of you.

A few rules:

Keep it short. Two or three sentences at most.
Put the answer first. "Yes, we're open Sundays, 10 to 4." Then any detail.
Include the thing people will ask next. If someone asks about parking, also say where.
Don't hide the phone number. If an answer is "it depends," say what it depends on and offer a way to ask.

Here's one example, for a food truck:

Q: Do you cater?
A: Yes, for groups of 20 to 200. We need three days notice and a half
deposit to hold the date. Text or call 555-0100 with the date and head
count, and we'll send a quote the same day.

Step 3: Put them where you'll use them

An answer sheet in a drawer doesn't help. Put each answer where the question arrives.

Email and text. Most email programs have saved replies (Gmail calls them "templates"). Your phone's keyboard can also hold shortcuts, so typing "hrs" fills in your hours.
Your website or social profiles. A short FAQ section, or a pinned post. Many questions never need to reach you.
Your phone greeting. If the same three questions top the list, answer them in the first ten seconds of your recorded message.
A card at the counter. A laminated page with hours, parking, and your top answers lets staff give the same answer you would.
An AI helper. You can paste your answer sheet into an AI tool and ask it to draft replies using only those answers. Read each draft before it goes out. Using AI for customer emails shows how.

Start with one place, probably saved replies. Add the rest when that's working.

Step 4: Make sure staff use the same answers

One thing that quietly goes wrong: two people give two answers. One says "we need two days notice," the other says three. Put the sheet where everyone can see it, and tell people it's the source. When something changes, change it once and tell the team.

Step 5: Keep it current

Wrong answers do more harm than slow ones. Hours change, prices change, a holiday comes up. Put a reminder in your calendar for the first of each month to read through the list for two minutes. Update anything stale.

Re-count the questions every few months. New ones show up and old ones fade.

Mistakes to avoid

Answers that are too long. If it's a paragraph, people don't read it.
No way to reach a human. A saved answer shouldn't be a dead end.
Putting out stale info. An old holiday schedule is worse than none.
Sounding like a form letter. Read each answer out loud. If it doesn't sound like you, rewrite it.
Automating before you've collected. Don't build a chatbot on questions you've guessed at. Use real ones.

What changes

If you did this right, you'll notice the phone rings a bit less, and replies take seconds. You may also find that some questions come up because your website is unclear. Fix it there and the question disappears. That's the best outcome.