The Claude Operator Playbook
The free guide
Six jobs your business does every week, each turned into one plain-English instruction that Claude carries out for you. No code anywhere in this guide.
What an operator setup is
Most people use AI the way they use a search box: ask a question when they remember to, get an answer, move on. An operator setup is different. You write the instructions for a job once, in plain English, and Claude does that job on a schedule from then on.
That changes your role. You become the person who writes the instructions and checks the results. Claude becomes the person who does the work. Every recipe in this guide is one job handed over that way.
What you need
A Claude subscription (Claude is the AI assistant made by Anthropic, at claude.ai), the files your business already has, such as a price list and a few past emails, and about half an hour per recipe. You do not need to code and you do not need new software.
Start every recipe the same way: save the instruction in a Claude Project along with the files it names, then run it each morning with one short message, such as “do the morning inbox”. Once a recipe has run well for a couple of weeks, it can go on a timer so it runs without the message. Walk before that.
The shape of a good instruction
Every recipe below has the same four parts: what to do, which of your files to use, what the finished result looks like, and what Claude should do when it is not sure.
The last part matters most. A good instruction tells Claude to flag the odd case for you rather than guess. That one habit is what makes it safe to hand a job over: the routine work gets done, and the exceptions still reach you.
Enquiries answered with priced quotes
The fastest win for most businesses. Someone emails asking what a job costs, and instead of the enquiry sitting unread until the evening, a priced reply is drafted and waiting for you.
The instruction to give Claude
Read my new enquiry emails each morning. When someone asks about price or availability, draft a reply that quotes from the rate sheet I have given you, using the closest matching job. Name the price, say what it includes, and keep the reply short and friendly, in the same tone as my example replies. Save every draft in my drafts folder so I can read and send it. If an enquiry does not match anything on the rate sheet, do not guess a price. Flag it for me with a one-line note on what they asked for.
What Claude needs: A rate sheet (a table of your jobs and prices, a spreadsheet or even a photo of your price list) and two or three past replies you were happy with.
Done when: A test enquiry gets a drafted reply with the right price from your sheet, and an unusual request gets flagged instead of priced.
Review replies in your voice
Replying to every review matters, and it is the first task owners drop when the week gets busy. This recipe keeps the replies going and keeps them sounding like you, not like a bot.
The instruction to give Claude
When I give you a new customer review, write a reply in my voice, using my example replies as the guide for tone. Thank the customer by name, mention one specific thing from their review, and keep it under four sentences. For a negative review, apologise for the specific problem, do not make excuses, and offer to put it right by email or phone. Show me the reply before anything gets posted.
What Claude needs: Five past replies you liked, or five you write now, including at least one reply to a negative review.
Done when: Replies to a good review and a bad review both sound like you, and you can post them without editing.
Your inbox sorted each morning
Not answering email, sorting it. The difference between opening forty unread messages and opening one note that tells you which three need you.
The instruction to give Claude
Go through my unread email each morning and sort it into three lists: needs a reply from me today, can wait until later this week, and no reply needed (newsletters, receipts, notifications). For the first list, add one line on what the sender wants. Do not delete anything and do not send anything. Give me the three lists as one short note.
What Claude needs: Your inbox connected to your Claude setup, and a short note on which senders always go top of the list (best customers, your accountant).
Done when: You open one note instead of your inbox, and after a week nothing important has landed in the wrong list.
A morning brief
One note, first thing, that replaces the morning scramble across calendar, inbox and invoicing app. Most owners run this one first and add the others later.
The instruction to give Claude
Every morning, give me one short note that covers: today’s appointments from my calendar, emails still waiting on a reply from me, invoices that are overdue as of today, and anything I flagged yesterday as unfinished. Keep it under 200 words and put the item that most needs me at the top.
What Claude needs: Calendar and inbox connected, plus wherever your invoice list lives (your invoicing tool or a spreadsheet).
Done when: The brief tells you the first thing to do before you have opened a single app.
Late invoices chased politely
Chasing money is awkward, so it gets put off, so it gets worse. A written reminder in a steady, polite tone, sent on time every week, gets invoices paid without souring the relationship.
The instruction to give Claude
Once a week, go through my list of unpaid invoices. For any invoice more than 7 days overdue, draft a polite reminder to the customer: name the invoice number, the amount and the original due date, link the invoice, and ask if anything is holding payment up. Use a firmer but still polite wording once an invoice passes 30 days overdue. Save the drafts for me to send. Never send a reminder without my OK, and never chase an invoice I have marked as disputed.
What Claude needs: Your invoice list with dates and amounts, and one example reminder in your own wording.
Done when: Every overdue invoice has a drafted reminder waiting each week, and none has gone to a disputed customer.
A monthly receipts report
The shoebox of receipts, retired. Once a month the pile becomes a categorised report your accountant can work from directly.
The instruction to give Claude
At the start of each month, go through last month’s receipts and the bank statement export in the folder I have given you. List every business expense with the date, supplier, amount and a category (materials, fuel, software, and so on). Flag anything you cannot match to a receipt and anything that looks like a duplicate. Then give me one summary: total spent per category, plus the flagged items, as a short report I can hand to my accountant.
What Claude needs: One folder where receipts and statement exports land each month. Photos of paper receipts are fine.
Done when: Your accountant accepts the report as it is, and the flagged list is short.
What comes next
This guide covers the office jobs. The full playbook goes further: the machines that publish blog posts and videos for a business every day, the ones our own studio runs on. It is being written now, and everyone on the email list gets it first.
And if you would rather skip the setup entirely, we build and run all of this for you.