Another week done, and it’s been a proper mixed bag — a bit of AI tinkering, a bit of local news building, and a bit of straightforward client work sorted out.
Here’s what’s been keeping me busy.
Turning client feedback into a proper marketing engine
I spent time this week thinking about how businesses use their own client feedback. Most companies collect it — an NPS survey here, a quick review request there — but very few actually build a repeatable process around it.
If you’re running a consultancy or agency, your feedback is already telling you what’s working and what isn’t. The trick is having a simple, regular way to review it (quarterly is usually plenty) rather than letting it pile up unread. That one habit alone can save you from repeating the same mistakes.
A case study on freeing up your “bored receptionist”
I finished and published a new case study this week called “Utilising the Bored Receptionist” — the idea that front-of-house and reception staff often have far more spare capacity than people assume, and a bit of AI support can help them take on genuinely useful extra work.
Things like drafting social media content, handling routine customer replies, and pulling together quick reports. Not replacing the person — just giving them tools so their quieter moments become productive ones. It’s live on the site now if you want a look.
Keeping the local news site ticking over on its own
Behind the scenes, I’ve been continuing to build out Cheltenham Times, my experiment in running a local news and information website with AI doing a lot of the legwork. This week that included tidying up the site’s navigation menu and lining up a batch of local sport fixtures and events ready to turn into articles.
The point of this project isn’t really “look what AI can write” — it’s proving that a small business can keep a useful, regularly updated resource running without someone manually managing it every single day. That’s the bit that’s transferable to almost any business: if there’s a task you do the same way every week, there’s a good chance it can be made to run itself.
Sorting out a recycling mix-up for the council
I’ve also been working on a piece of original content about local recycling confusion — the kind of thing most of us have wondered about at some point, like whether one wrong item in your recycling box means the whole lot gets binned. I’ve gone back to Gloucestershire’s press office to get an official answer rather than guessing, so that one’s on hold for a few more days until they get back to me.
It’s a good reminder that even “AI-assisted” content is only as good as the checking that goes into it — the tools can draft things quickly, but getting the facts right still takes a human making a phone call or sending an email.
On the personal side, there’s been an ongoing project tracking my daughter’s food and nappy diary to help spot a possible dairy sensitivity — nothing exciting to report there, just steady logging in the background.
That’s the week in a nutshell. If any of this sounds familiar — feedback you’re not using properly, staff with spare capacity, or a task you do the same way every week — drop me a message and I’ll happily talk it through with you.
