Using AI to draft replies to booking enquiries

A good reply to a booking inquiry does three things. It answers the question, it says what happens next, and it sounds like a person wrote it. AI can help with the third. The first two are yours.

Start with your facts, not the tool

Before you open an AI tool, write down what you can actually offer. A few lines is enough.

• Which days you can take the car in.
• Whether the job needs a quote first, or goes straight onto the diary.
• Whether you can supply a loan car, and whether it costs anything.
• What you need from the customer: the make and model, the registration number, a short description of the problem.

Then give the tool those lines and the customer's question. If you don't, it fills the gaps itself. That's how a reply ends up promising a Thursday slot that doesn't exist.

A prompt that works

Short and specific beats clever. Something like this:

Write a short, friendly reply to this inquiry. We can take the car on Tuesday or Wednesday morning. We need the registration number and a description of the problem. Don't mention prices. Don't say what might be wrong with the car. Keep it short. Customer message: [paste message with name and phone removed]

The last instructions are the useful ones. "Don't mention prices" stops invented numbers. "Don't say what might be wrong" stops the tool from guessing at faults, which is a technician's job.

Keep customer details out of the prompt

Australia's privacy regulator suggests keeping personal details out of public chatbots altogether.¹ A name and phone number in an inquiry are personal information. Registration plates may be too.

So strip them before you paste. Write the reply with a placeholder, then add the real details in your email or messaging program. The rules differ by country, so check your own regulator's pages if you're outside Australia.

Making it sound like you

Plain drafts read best. The US plain language guides talk about creating content that readers can understand.² For a customer, that means short sentences, no jargon and one clear next step.

AI drafts tend to come out stiff and over-friendly. Common giveaways:

• A long opening line thanking them for reaching out.
• Piles of adjectives where one would do.
• A closing line offering help with "any further questions".
• Exclamation marks on everything.

Fix these by hand, or tell the tool up front: "Write like a busy workshop manager. No exclamation marks. No filler." Then read the result aloud. If you wouldn't say it across the counter, cut it.

If you have a couple of real replies you're happy with, paste those in as examples of your tone. Strip the customer details first.

Things the draft must not do

• Quote a price. Unless you've typed the exact figure in, any number is a guess. The estimate page shows how to handle one.
• Promise a time. "We'll have it done by Friday" is a commitment the tool has no way to know.
• Name a fault. Chatbots can add plausible-sounding falsehoods to what they write.³ A confident guess about a brake noise is one of them. Leave faults to the technician once they've seen the car.
• Offer something you don't do. If you don't service a particular type of vehicle, say so. The tool will happily agree to anything.

Before you hit send

Check the draft against your notes: days, times, what you asked the customer to bring, and your correct address and phone number. Check the name is right. Check that nothing is promised that you didn't write down.

A longer list sits on the draft-checking page.

Send it from your own email or messaging account, not from inside the AI tool. That way the customer's reply lands where your staff already look, and there's a record of what was said.