Set up AI for your cleaning business (start here)

Why AI gives you generic junk

Open ChatGPT, type "write my cleaning website," and you get something that could belong to any cleaner in the country. It knows nothing about your business, so it fills the gaps with averages. You either waste time rewriting it or you publish something bland. The fix is not a better prompt. It is giving the AI your business once, so it stops guessing and starts working from your facts.

The fix is a Project, not better prompts

A Project is a workspace inside Claude or ChatGPT where you add files the AI reads as context for every chat inside it. Think of it as an assistant you onboarded: the instructions tell it how to behave, the files tell it what it knows about you. You build it once, and after that every answer already knows your services, your towns, and how you talk, with no pasting.

• Claude: "Projects" are free and let you add knowledge files. The simplest place to start.
• ChatGPT: "Projects" need a paid plan. On the free plan, build a "Custom GPT" instead and attach the same files.
• Either way the idea is identical: instructions plus your business files, reused on every chat.

Step 1: Create your Project

• In Claude: open Projects, click Create Project, name it your business.
• In ChatGPT (paid): open Projects, create one, name it your business. On the free plan, create a Custom GPT instead.
• This is your business's brain. Every post, page, quote, and email you make with AI happens in here.

Step 2: Write the instructions

The instructions run before every prompt. Good ones do four things: name the role, point to your files as the source of truth, set your voice, and tell it to ask instead of inventing. That last rule is what stops it from making up prices or claims. Fill in the brackets and paste this into your Project instructions.

You are the marketing and operations assistant for [business], a cleaning company in [city] serving [towns]. The files in this project are your source of truth about our services, pricing, customers, and voice. Use them on every answer. Write in our voice: [plain, friendly, straight-talking, no corporate words]. Never invent prices, guarantees, or services I did not give you. If you are unsure or the files do not cover it, ask me instead of guessing. Default to specific, ready-to-use output, not general advice.

Step 3: Build your 6 context docs

This is the part that does the work. Make each of these its own short doc and add it to the Project. Separate files beat one giant document, because the AI can pull the right one for the job. An hour here changes every answer you get after. The download below gives you a fill-in template for each.

• Business basics: legal and brand name, owner, city, every town you serve, phone, email, hours, website, years in business.
• Services: each service with who it is for, what is included, what is not, and rough pricing or how you price it.
• Ideal customer: who you want more of and who you avoid, the problem they have before they call, the words they use.
• Voice and differentiators: how you talk, words you use and avoid, and the real reasons people pick you over the next cleaner.
• FAQs: the questions customers actually ask, with the answers you actually give, including price and trust objections.
• Proof: your 5 best reviews in their own words, plus any guarantees, insurance, or background-check facts you can claim.

Step 4: Put it to work

Now any prompt in that Project already knows your business. Things to try the first day: "Write a Facebook post offering move-out cleaning to realtors in [town]." "Draft a reply to this customer email: [paste]." "Write the recurring-cleaning page for my site." Each comes back sounding like you, because it is reading your files, not guessing.

The mistakes that keep it generic

If the output still feels off, it is almost always one of these.

• One giant doc instead of separate files. Split them so the AI can grab the right one.
• Vague instructions. "Be professional" means nothing. Name the voice and the source-of-truth rule.
• Stale info. An old price or a service you dropped will show up in your output. Keep the files current.
• No "ask, do not guess" rule, so it invents details. Always include it.

Keep it fed

Add to the Project as things change: a new service, new pricing, a great new review, a question a customer just asked. The more it knows, the sharper it gets. Five minutes after anything changes keeps it accurate for months.

What is next

With your Project set up, our other guides hand you the exact prompts for specific jobs: ranking on Google, fixing your website, getting more reviews. They all assume you did this first, so bookmark this page. New guide, same brain.