Lesson 5 · 17 min
An assistant with no one inside looking after it becomes an orphan: everything built, nothing sustaining it. In a small business, that someone is the owner or a trusted person. Choosing that person is part of the delivery, and the 90-minute training, the one-page manual, and the question log are what let the clinic get along without you.
Start the lesson
Goal: choose the internal champion, lead the 90-minute training, and get the 1-page manual and the question log up and running.
Five pieces, in this order. Tap each one.
Training is part of the delivery. Without a champion, the assistant is orphaned the first time an employee changes.
A consultant's rule of thumb, drawn from experience with the earlier DICA material.
"Who will look after the assistant every day, by name?" "What are the odds this person is still here next year?" "Do they know they'll be responsible, and did they agree?"
If any answer is weak, the owner is the champion until someone better comes along.
Right: a permanent person, trusted by the owner to change an answer, with time set aside in their schedule for it.
Wrong: someone who just arrived, someone who already juggles too many roles, someone assigned without being asked, someone afraid of being replaced.
A clinic chose a newly hired receptionist as its champion. She used it well for the first few weeks, then said she was leaving, and nobody trained her replacement.
With no one looking after it, the answers went stale, and the clinic concluded that "the AI didn't work." The problem was the champion, not the assistant.
The roles sheet says what happens when the champion leaves: a new 90-minute training with whoever steps in, before the person walks out the door.
Preferably in person, on the clinic's own computer and phone.
Open the queue and explain each part in the clinic's own words, no jargon.
Show one whole case: the message arrives, the assistant prepares a reply, someone approves, the reply goes out, it lands in the log.
The champion does everything on her own. You watch with your hands in your pockets, even when she makes mistakes.
Write down the real questions that come up: they start the question log.
Answers, one adjustment made in front of her, and the manual in hand.
The training only ends with the first check-in booked, with a fixed day and time.
She did everything on her own in the second third and left with two or three real questions. "Everything's fine" with no questions at all is a sign she didn't learn.
Little, visible, and up to date.
A printed page near whoever answers customers is worth more than a file lost on the computer.
Update it when the screen or the way of approving changes.
Date, what happened, context, and what was done. A simple spreadsheet or a pinned chat on your phone.
No patient names or phone numbers: describe the case, not the person.
When the same question comes up three times, it becomes an adjustment to the playbook or the manual, not just a one-off answer.
If you serve more than one clinic in the same niche, it becomes a piece of your library (lesson 7).
Record the screen or keep screenshots of real conversations to train other people only with the owner's written permission and with names, phone numbers, and brand hidden.
A patient's conversation is personal data and, at a clinic, it can be health data (LGPD, Brazil's data protection law).
Roles sheet, training script, manual, and log. The Vila Serena ones are fictional.
ASSISTANT ROLES · <company> · <date> | Role | Name | What they do | Responds within | |------------|----------|----------------------------------------|-----------------| | Owner | <name> | decides scope, phase, and what is important | <deadline> | | Champion | <name> | opens the queue, approves, notes questions | <deadline> | | Consultant | <name> | adjusts playbook, fixes technical failures | <deadline> | | Team | <names> | uses it following the manual | <deadline> | If the champion leaves: 90-minute training with the new person, before the departure. Review of this sheet: at each month's check-in. Signed (counts as a commitment, not a contract): <owner> · <champion> · <consultant>
TRAINING · <company> · <date> · place: <in person, at the counter> 0–30 · I SHOW - open the queue; what each button is, in the clinic's own words - one full case: <example message> → approve → sent → log 30–60 · SHE DOES (hands in pockets) - task 1: approve 3 messages from the queue - task 2: edit 1 reply and see it in the log - task 3: hand a complaint case over to a person - questions that came up: <...> 60–90 · QUESTIONS AND DATE - answers and 1 live adjustment - hand over the 1-page manual - first check-in: <day of the week> at <time>, every week
HOW TO USE THE ASSISTANT · Clínica Vila Serena (fictional) 1. When you open the front desk, open the assistant's queue. 2. Read the overnight messages and approve (✓) or adjust (✎). 3. Price, complaint, or health question: you answer. 4. Note any question in the log (date, what happened). 5. Check-in every <day> at <time>. STOP EVERYTHING: <how to turn it off and go back to answering from your phone> EMERGENCY: <consultant's name> · <contact> COMMON QUESTIONS - "It answered something strange." → don't delete it: note it and adjust. - "A patient asked to talk to a person." → you answer right away. - "The queue is empty." → check that the phone is connected.
DATE | WHAT HAPPENED | CONTEXT | WHAT WAS DONE <dd/mm> | <e.g.: gave the wrong holiday hours> | <local holiday> | <adjustment in playbook v1.2> <dd/mm> | <e.g.: patient asked about Pix> | <payment> | <added to the questions list> <dd/mm> | <e.g.: champion couldn't find the edit button> | <new screen> | <manual updated> No patient names or phone numbers. Same question 3 times → becomes an adjustment.
For Vila Serena (fictional) or for the business you serve.
Answer the champion's 3 questions, fill in the roles sheet, and adapt the 90-minute training script to your clinic's assistant.
Done when: the champion has a name and the 3 questions have answers, the sheet has the 4 rows with deadlines and what happens if the champion leaves, and the script has the 3 thirds with at least 3 tasks she does on her own.
Write the one-page manual and open the question log with the questions that came up in training (or 3 likely questions).
Done when: the manual fits on one page, has 4 to 6 steps, how to stop everything, the emergency contact, and at least 3 common questions; the log has the 4 columns and 3 rows with no patient names or phone numbers.
4 questions. The explanation appears after your attempt.
Question 1 of 4
The owner of Vila Serena suggests the intern who started last month as champion, "because she understands phones." What do you do?
Question 2 of 4
In the second third of the training, the champion takes a while to find the edit button. What do you do?
Question 3 of 4
The same question has shown up three times in the log. What happens?
Question 4 of 4
You want to keep screenshots of real Vila Serena conversations to train for the next clinic. What do you need?
Choose an option. The explanation appears after you answer.