Using AI safely at the front desk
For whoever answers the phone, the door or the inbox: what the tools are for, what never goes in, and when to get the owner. For: Front desk, reception, anyone covering the phone.
What you can use it for
- A first draft of a reply, a message, a sign or a social post.
- A shorter version of a long email, or a plainer version of a complicated one.
- A checklist for the day, a packing list, a list of questions to ask.
- Wording you already know you want to say, written out properly.
This applies to any AI tool used for work, on a work phone or your own. It drafts words; it does not make decisions. A price, a refund, a booking or a complaint outcome is decided by a person, and that person's name goes on it.
What never goes into a chat window
- Names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, or a photo of a customer or a staff member.
- Card, bank or account details, invoices, payroll, tax records.
- Alarm codes, key safe numbers, gate codes, passwords.
- Medical details, prescriptions, care notes, anything about a child or a vulnerable adult.
- Passports, licenses, contracts under negotiation, insurance claims.
- Another business's information: a supplier's prices, a client's plans.
If you are not sure whether something counts, treat it as if it does. Describe the situation in your own words instead: “a customer whose boiler was fitted last month”, not their name and address.
Before you paste anything
Swap the details for plain words: a name becomes “the customer”, an address becomes “the property”. A price stays only if the wording needs it, and then it is the price you were given.
Before you send anything
Read the draft against four things: price, time, promise, name. If one was not in what you gave the tool, it was invented. Fix it or take it out.
The free checker at seconddraft.dev/tools/check does this pass for you: brackets, numbers with no source, named staff, promises, admissions. It checks patterns, not truth, so you still read it.
Stop and get the owner before you send
- Anything about money: a refund, a discount, a credit, a free item, a compensation.
- Anything about safety, hygiene, injury, illness, pests or the law.
- Anything involving a child, a vulnerable adult, or a staff disciplinary matter.
- Anything where the facts are disputed, or you cannot tell which version is true.
- Anything that would name a staff member in public.
If something goes wrong
Stop, and do not send a correction on your own. Tell the owner the same day, with the draft and where it went. A wrong price caught in ten minutes is a nuisance; one sent to a customer is a promise.
What this page is not
Not legal advice. Where your contract, your insurer or the law says something different, they win.
Second Draft · free staff handout · seconddraft.dev/handouts · print it and pin it up.