A new robot almost always performs below expectations in its first week. That is normal. What decides the outcome is what happens over the following thirty days — because after the first month, the organisation's habits around the robot have formed and are hard to change.
Before day one: preparation
Things that must be complete before the robot arrives.
Location decided and measured. Including power point, charging position, and route width if it moves.
Initial content loaded and tested. At minimum the thirty most common questions.
An owner assigned. Named, aware they are responsible, and trained.
Staff informed. What the robot does, what it does not, and how it affects their work.
Basic procedures written. Who switches it on, who shuts it down, who charges it, what to do when it jams.
Success criteria written. The numbers required after three months.
If these six are incomplete, postpone the delivery date. Bringing a robot in before preparation is finished is the fastest way to lose the first month to disorder and leave a poor impression behind.
Week one: observe, do not judge
This is a data-gathering week rather than an evaluation week.
Stand beside it as much as possible. The owner should spend several hours a day watching directly. Nothing substitutes for this.
Log every wrong or missing answer. This is the week's most important output.
Log visitor reactions. Whether they approach or avoid, what they ask, at what point they walk away.
Log staff reactions. Whether they use it or work around it, and where they find it awkward.
Fix content daily. Every unanswered question gets added immediately. Quality improves quickly during this period.
Do not move it yet. Give it a full week before deciding, because day-one reactions are dominated by novelty.
Do not report results. Week-one numbers say nothing, and reporting early creates the wrong impression.
Weeks two and three: adjust
The period for fixing what week one revealed.
Move it if needed. If interaction numbers are low, this is the first thing to address before anything else.
Adjust the greeting. Too long, too short, triggered too early or too late — all become apparent after a week.
Shorten the answers. Almost always required. Content written to be read is too long when spoken.
Add content from the week-one list. Prioritising the most frequently repeated questions.
Adjust the staff procedure. Where they find it awkward, fix it — irritation accumulating over two weeks becomes an attitude.
Begin recording numbers consistently. Daily interactions, interventions, unanswered questions.
Fifteen minutes at the end of each week. The owner, one staff member and the decision maker. Review numbers, hear feedback, choose one thing to fix.
Week four: stabilise and settle the approach
Lock the position and configuration. Three weeks provides enough information to decide. From here, limit large changes so comparable data accumulates.
Rewrite the procedure to match reality. Procedures written before the robot arrived usually differ from actual practice. Update and post them.
Run a short refresher for staff. After three weeks of real use their questions are far more specific than at the initial session. Thirty minutes now beats two hours at the start.
Set the maintenance schedule. Cleaning, content checks, charging — into a fixed routine.
First report. Week four numbers against week one, what was fixed, what remains outstanding.
Define three tasks for month two. Specific, with an owner and a date.
By the end of the first month the objective is not a perfect robot but a stable way of working and a clear list of next steps.
Common first-month mistakes
Judging too early. Concluding after one week that the robot is ineffective. Week-one numbers are always poor.
Nobody watching. The robot is switched on and left. Nobody knows how it answers visitors and problems accumulate.
Content not updated. The list of unanswered questions grows and nobody adds anything.
Changing too many things at once. Moving it, rewriting the greeting and changing content on the same day, then not knowing what helped.
Ignoring staff feedback. They say the robot is a nuisance and nothing happens. After a few weeks they stop saying it and begin avoiding it.
Expectations set by videos. Comparing against what was seen online rather than against the situation before the robot arrived.
No one accountable. The root mistake, and the one that produces all the others.
Frequently asked questions
What must be ready before the robot arrives?
Location decided and measured, initial content loaded and tested, an owner assigned and trained, staff informed, basic procedures written, and success criteria recorded. If any are incomplete, postpone delivery.
What should week one focus on?
Watching directly for several hours a day and logging every wrong or missing answer, then adding content the same day. It is a collection week rather than an evaluation week.
Why not change several things at once?
Because you cannot then tell which change helped. Adjust one thing, observe for a few days, then adjust the next — slower per change and considerably faster overall.
What is the goal at the end of month one?
Not a perfect robot but a stable working routine, procedures rewritten to match reality, and a clear list of next steps with owners and dates.
More in Robots in education and Training and customising a robot.
