Why Code Goof? In the earlier days of the internet when I started my digital nomad vagrant travels around the world while working online, I would send out mass emails to my friends of my updates, signing myself as TravelGoof. My brother suggested I buy that domain and write more of my travels, which I eventually incorporated into my Island Hopping in the Philippines project.
Fast forward to the present, being the IT guru that I am and which enabled me to overcome all the internet access obstacles along the way, I kept up with technology and am now using AI to enhance my meager coding skills to accomplish great things.
Such as the system processing customer correspondence into an administrative format with which I can issue invoices to the customer and inform my team on the ground concerning the newly upcoming tour (and according to which you probably stumbled on this page).
This page will explain the overall process, and if you would like to automate tasks in your life like I have managed mine, I’d be happy to give it a crack (probably for about $100/hour).
First, the process
Customer communicates with us, mostly by email, sometimes also or exclusively by Whatsapp.
Once the customer is satisfied with our proposal (I do not feel that AI is ready yet to handle our correspondence, but in time I’m sure it will), I copypaste our entire correspondence into the parsing form:
At the time of this writing I was using GPT 5.4 Mini as an ai agent to process this step. As both email and whatsapp conversations are tagged with a date of each entry, Al (short for Allen and what I like to call my ai coder help) is instructed to overrule older agreements by new ones (a customer might start off by wanting to do a 4 day tour, but is later convinced that a 3 day tour is better in combination with other single day tours).
Once that correspondence is processed, extracting key information, that information is inputted into our Questionnaire. This was developed earlier as a means for customers to get an instant quote based on questions they answer in the questionnaire.
The process of extracting info from an extensive conversation with a customer can easily take an hour, so this savings alone is welcome, while the questionnaire also allows me to send the collected details to the customer in a fancy email for final confirmation and approval. Once all the details are extracted into the questionnaire, there they can also be edited, until they are approved and inputted into the Requests list.
The Requests list is a list of all entries submitted via the Questionnaire. For example, a customer may use the questionnaire to get an idea of prices. Once they press submit, both we and them receive the fancy email clearly explaining their chosen itinerary with prices and total costs. These can be edited any time, and once a customer is happy with a package, I can simply transfer the record to my live Admin panel.
From the admin panel I can then issue a fancy invoice, complete with all the detailed information collected and chosen payment method, essentially also acting as a fancy contract/agreement so the customer has something tangible in exchange for the money they will be sending to secure the package.
On the other end of the spectrum, key and relevant information, such as the customer’s explicit requests (culinary preferences, preferred booze, choice of music on a tour etc), are all displayed for the tour guides assigned to each tour, so they have all the information at their fingertip so that they can properly prepare for it (includes whether the customer wants to rent kayaks, speargun and so forth).
This process greatly streamlines the overall management process, hence making it possible for me (as I have always preferred in the past when managing my various companies, such as) to operate as a “one man show”. Which of course reduces my costs and allows me to offer more competitive prices to my customers.
Well, I’m sure you really enjoyed that very wordy explanation. In any case, I really enjoy this kind of work and keeping up with the developments of ai.
If you feel I could help you in streamlining your life and operations, I’d be happy to give it a crack!
Besides the above system, following are some other projects I created together with Al to streamline my operations:
- This site’s chatbot. Refers to an easily editable, online FAQ.txt file as a knowledgebase, to which is added the contents of every webpage referred to in that file. Once a customer is done asking questions, they have the option to send the entire session to me in an email at the simple press of a button. This saves me time by not having to answer repetitive questions and, after further conversation with the customer, is then easily extrapolated and pumped into the Questionnaire explained above.
- Email management. Many initial emails require the same generic responses. When I read an email, if I see this is the case, I simply move it to a particular folder, which a script is cronjob instructed to check every five minutes for any new email. When it finds an email I freshly moved into that folder (or in some cases it is moved there automatically based on certain keywords – everything can be programmed), it processes it based on the programming. For this, various html templates are created to give certain responses based on the email. Such as if a customer is inquiring about the Dugong tours. The initial responses are often the same. The response can be automatic, or a draft email created instead. PDF files stored on the email’s server can be automatically attached to the response email, and by creating a draft to designated responses, it gives us humans the opportunity to double check and add a custom response if a case is unique and particular. I use this to handle certain spam as well. The world is my digital oyster.
If you would be interested in exploring how Al can help streamline your life and work, I’d be happy to give you a quick heads up. You can contact me here.
Home » Travel Goof » Random »You may also like:
We are a family operation managing private custom boat tours in the beautiful Palawan area, and are happy to help travelers with their plans through the Philippines, having traveled a lot of it ourselves and planning to visit it all. These pages in this section cover my various solo travels before meeting my wife.