Learning objectives
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
- Write owner questions with a clear subject and time range.
- Read the date range and source behind an answer.
- Check an answer against your records.
Two kinds of questions
- Customer questions go to the customer assistant: price, stock, sizes, differences between products.
- Owner questions are yours: sales, stock and customers across your own orders and quotes, asked in plain language by members of the business.
What makes a question useful
- A clear subject: a product, a category or all sales.
- A time range: "last 30 days", "this month", "since 1 September".
- One question at a time, so the answer stays checkable.
Read before you act
Answers to owner questions are computed from your records and show the date range they used. Estimates, such as days until a product runs out, come from recent sales rates. If the data is missing, the answer says so; treat that as a prompt to fix the records, not a zero.
Illustrative example · fictional data
Sharpening a question
Made-up questions to a made-up shop.
- Vague: "How are we doing?"
- Better: "What were total sales in the last 30 days compared with the 30 days before?"
- Better still for stock: "Which products may run out in the next two weeks?"
- The owner checks one product in the answer against its stock and recent orders before reordering.
Practical exercise · planning
Write three checkable questions
- Write one product question a customer might ask, one sales question and one stock question.
- Give the sales and stock questions a time range.
- For each, note which record you would open to check the answer.
If you have an Anchor business, you can ask the owner questions there; this lesson does not send anything.
Recap
- Customer questions go to the assistant; owner questions cover your own sales and stock.
- Name the subject and the time range.
- Read the date range, treat estimates as estimates, and spot-check.
Knowledge check
Three questions. Choose an answer, check it and read the explanation; you can try again as often as you like.
Your answers are not saved or sent anywhere.
Further reading
Finish this lesson
When you have read the lesson and tried the exercise and knowledge check, mark it complete. Progress is saved on this browser only.