Produce one page that both staff and suppliers can challenge. The following is our suggested buyer worksheet, not an industry benchmark.
| Decision | Write down before requesting proposals |
|---|---|
| Workflow | One specific process, such as out-of-hours boiler-service enquiries |
| Starting point | Current call handling, callbacks, booking outcomes and staff effort |
| Allowed actions | Information the system may collect, messages it may send and records it may change |
| Prohibited actions | Technical advice, discounts, unsupported bookings or other commitments |
| Human handover | Who receives exceptions, expected response and fallback if unavailable |
| Integration evidence | Required actions in your actual software, tested with representative records |
| Commercial evidence | Setup, subscriptions, usage, monitoring, changes and internal supervision |
| Ownership and exit | Accounts, telephone numbers, configuration, data export and handover obligations |
| Success measures | Suitable bookings, completed work, staff rework, complaints and contribution after costs |
| Stop conditions | Failures that pause the pilot immediately |
For a missed-call pilot, our recommendation is to compare against normal callback recovery and a realistic human-cover option. Do not count every answered call as an additional job, and do not count all released staff time as a cash saving.
The useful outcome of this watchlist is not enthusiasm for AI. It is a better brief, a more demanding demonstration and permission to choose native software, human support or no purchase.
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