In the rapidly evolving tech landscape, the excitement around AI is palpable. But beyond the hype, practical application is where true value lies. As someone who relishes in crafting customized solutions for clients and building internal tools, I've found immense value in creating systems that save time, cut costs, and boost productivity. I’ll mention that I am not a programmer, but I have always been interested in programming and have been utilizing these models to create various internal tools to increase productivity.
Programs writing programs. Whoa.
Automatic Calendar Booking & Appointment Setting
We set many calendar appointments as many teams are familiar with, while paid SaaS solutions exist these costs will quickly add up over time. An office manager once said to me “If I have to sign into another portal or dashboard I’m going to shoot somebody!” … this may sound extreme, but every business suffers from vendor bloat. At Intelligence Factory we help businesses consolidate their needs into a singular ecosystem, and we see much of the industry quickly following suit.
We use Feeding Frenzy (FeedingFrenzy.AI) as our CRM. One of the nice features about it is the ability to install custom JavaScript agents and actions that I can run from my own account, on my own leads:
My Custom Automations, Including an AI Agent and the Create Appointment shortcut.
I can install a new action or agent by clicking the edit button and putting in my own HTML and JavaScript.
Inline Code Editor.
But the CRM lacks an out of the box integration with my GMail Calendar. Plus I like to send my own template. After manually sending a few dozen, I decided that I needed to implement my own automation.I am not a programmer. But, I was able to spin this solution up in a couple hours with the help of ChatGPT.
Imagine sending a personalized calendar invitation with sequenced reminders with just a single button press. This tool not only simplifies the process but also ensures that appointments are efficiently managed. The benefits are substantial:
• Cost Savings: ~$1,000 annually per user
• Time Savings: +50 hours annually per user
I asked ChatGPT for step by step instructions to accomplish this task, then part of my workflow is to prompt ChatGPT with each step for a detailed walkthrough.
I would ask ChatGPT to expand on functionalities of the google API, and it provided me with the JSON schema for manipulating the various features of the google calendar API. These emails come in the form of the built in calendar reminder system, but you could easily combine this logic with the email sequencing logic from this same article for an even more customized approach.
The idea here was as long as I was able to pass the google auth token, I could effectively send this calendar invitation from any system, and personalize the event details using the already present javascript variables.
Stay tuned for an in-depth article outlining my specific LLM workflows for creating these types of solutions. It almost feels like the exact opposite of debugging or code-tracing, I like to think of it as fractal learning.
Now I’m able to create an invitation on my google calendar that automatically reminds my attendees with a click of a button. Now that the initial frame is built, expanding features is simple. What’s really required is the conceptual understanding of how the various pieces interoperate.
The resulting Calendar event below will look something like this:
Email Sequencing Tools / Drip Campaigns / Mail Merge
Developed directly within Google Workspace, these tools are CRM-agnostic and modular, enabling seamless integration and adaptability.
Initially I was entertaining purchasing my own email sequencing software / gmail extension such as mail meteor… but that would require me spending my hard earned money on something that sounded so simple to me.
It’s not only time consuming for me to send email templates manually, but what’s more difficult is creating a maintainable process for sending emails at specific times.
What’s great about google apps script is that it’s javascript based like much of the functionality within our CRM. The entire ecosystem natively supports working with various google workspace APIs such as the gmail API. This allowed me to create an email sequencing template that can be utilized on any google account regardless of what system I utilize for a CRM etc.
Additionally because google apps script supports HTML files contained within the project I was able to make and send HTML rich emails by utilizing popular email template creation solutions (like hubspot) instead of sending boring raw text.
- Cost Savings: $25 monthly per user
- Improved Communication: Automated, personalized email sequences enhance engagement and follow-up efficiency.
Slide Deck Personalization & Automation
Much like the appointment scheduling tool, this was more focused on automating the personalization of sales efforts. With RPM (Remote Patient Monitoring) the reimbursement rates for the services provided vary greatly depending on locality.
To determine the rate a provider would be reimbursed required you to reference a list of locality keys, and enter that locality key on the CMS provider fee schedule tool along with the procedure codes.
This process of preparing a slide deck generally takes 5-15 minutes per presentation, or you can save a presentation for each locality. The hidden productivity killer here is context switching.
So we downloaded a csv file of the physician fee schedule, used ChatGPT to quickly make a google apps script which would restructure the data in a better format for referencing in code.
Ultimately I’ve now automated this process with google apps script, we utilize the google slides API and Google Apps Script’s built in ability to reference other workspace documents.
In the Google Apps Script project we have an HTML page displayed as a sidebar in google slides, and wrote a script that can determine the value for each of the procedure codes based on the restructured google sheet.
Then we use the google slides API to update text blocks based on their “alt text” descriptions. Now the only thing you need to do to pass these personalized values is to set an attribute in the alt text description field. Example : {99453} will automatically update to the value of 99453 in the sidebar. The “Update Text from Descriptions” button will replace all text fields with their alt text value (the attribute), so you can dynamically update the same slide deck for any and all localities without creating additional spreadsheets.
Not to mention the entire process takes 15 seconds, instead of 15 minutes. For sales teams and startups, creating personalized slide decks can be labor-intensive. By automating this process, presentations can be customized based on locality pricing, rates, product variations, and more.
This tool offers:
- Enhanced Efficiency: Quick generation of tailored presentations
- Improved Communication: Automated, personalized email sequences enhance engagement and follow-up efficiency.
Example slide:
The HTML Sidebar in Google Slides:
The GAS code:
By leveraging these internal tools, you not only harness the power of AI and automation but also create tangible benefits for your business. The combination of cost savings, increased productivity, and streamlined operations makes these solutions invaluable in today's competitive market.
Stay tuned for upcoming posts where I'll dive deeper into the development process and share insights on how you can create similar tools tailored to your specific needs.
If you have any questions about how to get started with your own projects, connect with me on Linkedin and shoot me a message!
