You get the same 10 emails every day. Pricing questions, hours, how to book, what's your cancellation policy. You type the same answers over and over. Here's how to set up AI to triage your inbox and draft responses to the repetitive stuff so you only handle the emails that actually need you.
| Tool | What It Does | Cost | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gmail + Google Workspace | Your email platform with built-in AI features | Free (Gmail) or $6/mo (Workspace) | Sign up → |
| Gmail Filters + Templates | Auto-sort emails and pre-write responses to common questions | Free | Sign up → |
| Claude or ChatGPT | Writes your template responses and helps you refine them | Free | Sign up → |
What to do: Scroll through your last 50 emails from customers. Write down every question you’ve answered more than twice. Common ones include: pricing, hours, location, how to book, cancellation policy, service area, what’s included, how long things take.
Why you’re doing it: You can’t automate what you haven’t identified. This list becomes your template library. Most businesses find that 10–15 templates cover 80% of incoming questions.
What to expect: Spend 15 minutes on this. You’ll probably identify 8–12 common questions.
Common mistakes: Being too general. “Pricing question” isn’t specific enough. Break it into “pricing for Service A” and “pricing for Service B” if the answers are different.
What to do: Open Claude and use this prompt for each common question: “Write a professional but friendly email response to a customer asking about [specific question]. My business is [description]. The answer is [facts]. Keep it under 100 words and include a clear next step.”
Why you’re doing it: AI writes these faster than you can, and it keeps the tone consistent. You’ll have a library of polished responses ready to go.
What to expect: Budget 20 minutes to generate all your templates. Edit each one to add personal touches — your name, specific details, your actual policies.
Common mistakes: Making templates too long. Customers asking simple questions want simple answers. Three to five sentences is ideal.
What to do: In Gmail, go to Settings → Advanced → Enable Templates. Now when you compose an email, you can save it as a template. Save each of your AI-written responses as a template with a clear name like “Reply: Pricing” or “Reply: Hours.”
Why you’re doing it: Instead of typing from scratch, you’ll click three buttons to insert a pre-written response. Edit the name and any details, hit send. A 5-minute email becomes a 30-second email.
What to expect: Setting up templates takes about 10 minutes for all of them. Using them saves you 2–5 minutes per email, every email, forever.
Common mistakes: Not naming templates clearly. When you have 15 templates, “Template 1” is useless. Use descriptive names you can find instantly.
What to do: In Gmail, go to Settings → Filters and Blocked Addresses → Create New Filter. Set up filters based on keywords in the subject or body. For example, filter emails containing “pricing” or “how much” into a “Pricing Questions” label.
Why you’re doing it: Filters automatically sort incoming emails so you can batch-process them. Instead of reading every email individually, you can go to your “Pricing Questions” label and blast through all of them with the same template in 2 minutes.
What to expect: Set up 3–5 filters based on your most common question categories. Takes about 10 minutes.
Common mistakes: Making filters too aggressive. Don’t auto-archive or auto-reply to anything without testing first. Start with just labeling/sorting, then get more aggressive once you see the filters working correctly.
What to do: Set specific times to process email — twice a day is plenty for most businesses. During each session: check filtered labels first, use templates to respond, then handle the remaining emails that need personal attention.
Why you’re doing it: Batch processing is 3x faster than handling emails as they arrive. Templates make each response take 30 seconds instead of 5 minutes. Combined, you’ll cut email time by 60–80%.
What to expect: After the first week, this becomes automatic. You’ll get through your inbox in 15–20 minutes instead of an hour.
This workflow is Beta — Based on Best Available Knowledge. We’ve tested Gmail templates and filters extensively. The steps are accurate for both free Gmail and Google Workspace. If you use Outlook, similar features exist under Quick Parts and Rules — same concept, different buttons.