The short answer: text alfred_: “Rain tomorrow. Who’s on my calendar Tuesday? Write each client that we’re moving them to Thursday, same time.” It reads Tuesday’s calendar, lists the jobs, and writes an email to each client. You see each one before it goes, and you can ask it to move the calendar entries too.
The forecast that changes at 5 PM
You run a landscaping company with two crews. Tuesday has eleven stops: weekly mows, two fall cleanups, a mulch install, a drainage estimate. At 5 PM the forecast goes from “chance of showers” to an inch and a half of rain.
You need to tell eleven clients tonight, most of whom prefer email, and move them to Thursday. You’re still in the truck. At home it’s an hour of copying addresses out of the calendar and writing the same email eleven times with different names.
The native ways, and where they stop
One email, everyone on BCC. Fast, and every client gets “Hi there” with no time and no address. The cleanup client wants to know if the leaf pickup moves too.
Your scheduling software’s broadcast. If you have one, it may do this well. Many small crews run the day off a Google or Outlook calendar.
Calling everyone. Personal, and eleven calls is the evening.
Set it up
- Connect the email and calendar your jobs live on (Google or Microsoft). Sign in with Google or Microsoft; your password stays with them.
- Add your phone number and text alfred_ once from that phone. That turns texting on.
- When weather calls it, text: “Rain tomorrow. Who’s on my calendar Tuesday? Write each client that we’re moving them to Thursday, same time.”
- Approve each email with “send.” Then: “move Tuesday’s jobs to Thursday on my calendar.”
What it looks like
You: rain tomorrow. who’s on my calendar tuesday? write each client we’re moving them to thursday same time
alfred_: Tuesday has 11 jobs. Here’s the first one, to Dave Kim (weekly mow, 8:00 AM): “Hi Dave, with the heavy rain forecast for Tuesday we’re moving your mow to Thursday at 8:00 AM. No need to do anything on your end. Thanks for understanding.” Send it?
You: send. for the cleanups add that leaf pickup moves too
alfred_: Sent to Dave. Next, to Linda Park (fall cleanup, 10:30 AM), with the leaf pickup line added. Send it?
Illustrative exchange. The clients and names are invented.
Where each step happens
- Phone, in the truck: the whole round runs by text, in iMessage on iPhone or RCS or SMS on Android.
- Answering: “send” or “yes” sends it; anything else changes it first.
- Desktop: the sent emails are in your inbox, each to its own client; the moved jobs are on Thursday in your calendar.
The honest caveat
alfred_ works from your calendar and your email, so a client it has no email address for can’t be written. Count the emails against the jobs, and the ones left over are calls. Check each To line, especially for clients who share a last name. It doesn’t watch the forecast; you make the weather call. alfred_ is a paid product; plans are on the pricing page.
