Get the answer you want from ChatGPT the first time

ChatGPT’s answers need too much fixing

Your team uses ChatGPT for all sorts of jobs, like a reply to a tricky enquiry, a product description, or a caption. Each person asks it differently, so each person gets a different answer. Some come back too long, some too formal, and some with details that aren’t true. By the time someone has fixed the draft, they could have written it themselves.

Why ChatGPT on its own doesn’t do the job

ChatGPT is a capable writer, but it starts every chat knowing nothing about your business. It doesn’t know your prices, your returns policy, or that you never use exclamation marks. When it doesn’t know, it fills the gap with something that sounds right, which is how made-up details slip in.

ChatGPT has places to store instructions, like custom instructions, projects, and custom GPTs. They only help if what goes in them is good, and few small teams have time to test it.

How we set it up in ChatGPT

We start with the three or four jobs your team uses ChatGPT for most. For each one, we gather real examples of good work from your business, such as replies you were happy with and product copy that sold.

Then we write the instruction. It says what the job is, who it’s for, how your business sounds, what to do when ChatGPT doesn’t know something, and what never to say. We test it on a stack of your past cases and look at where the answers go wrong. Usually the fix is plain, like telling it to work only from the price list you gave it, or to ask instead of guess.

When the answers hold up, we save the instruction where your team works, as a project or custom GPT where your plan allows, and show everyone how to use it. If ChatGPT changes and answers drift, we retest and update.

When better instructions are the right call, and when they aren’t

They pay off when your team uses ChatGPT for the same kinds of jobs every week and spends time fixing the drafts.

If you use ChatGPT a few times a month for one-off questions, a short guide may be enough. And if a job runs hundreds of times a week, it may be time for an AI helper (the industry calls it an agent) that uses the same tested instructions without anyone typing them in. Either way, a person still reads anything that goes to a customer.

Where to go next

See the wider better instructions service, or read about ChatGPT. If you also use Claude, see better instructions for Claude. Before your team puts business details into ChatGPT, read using AI safely with ChatGPT. See how we work with e-commerce and marketing and creative agencies. When you’re ready, get your AI Starter Plan.