## Your Agent: **Inbox Zero Support Bot** ### What it does Automatically reads incoming Gmail support emails, answers common questions using your Notion FAQ, and routes complex issues to you via Slack — so you only touch the emails that truly need you. ### Recipe match: Recipe 4 — Customer Support Triage (customized) --- ### Your Tool Stack | Tool | Role in this agent | Cost | |---|---|---| | **Gmail** | Trigger (incoming emails) + send replies | Free | | **Make.com** | The automation backbone connecting everything | Free (1,000 ops/month) | | **Notion** | Your FAQ/knowledge base the AI reads from | Free | | **Claude/ChatGPT** | Reads the email, drafts a reply or flags it | Free / $20/mo | | **Slack** | Sends you alerts for complex issues | Free | > ⚠️ Make.com's free tier gives you 1,000 operations/month. Each email processed = ~3-4 ops. That's roughly 250 emails/month free. If you need more, the Core plan is $9/month. --- ### Phase 1 — What This Agent Handles **✅ Will handle:** - Answering FAQs (pricing, shipping, hours, returns, how-to questions) - Acknowledging receipt and setting expectations ("We got your message…") - Categorizing emails (billing / technical / general) - Sending complex tickets to you in Slack with a summary **🚫 Will NOT handle (escalates to you):** - Angry or upset customers (sentiment flagging) - Refund requests over a threshold you set - Any email it's less than 80% confident about **Trigger:** A new email arrives in a specific Gmail label (e.g., "Support") **Output:** Either an auto-reply sent to the customer, or a Slack message to you with a draft reply ready to copy-paste. --- ### Phase 2 — Before You Build: One-Time Setup **Step 0A: Prepare your Notion FAQ page** Create a Notion page titled "Support FAQ" with questions and answers in plain text. Example format: ``` Q: What's your return policy? A: We accept returns within 30 days with receipt. Q: How long does shipping take? A: 3-5 business days for standard, 1-2 for express. ``` This is the "brain" your AI reads from. The better this doc, the better the replies. Time: 30–60 min. **Step 0B: Create a Gmail label called "Support"** Set up a Gmail filter so all emails to your support address (or with certain keywords) get this label automatically. Time: 5 min. --- ### Phase 3 — Step-by-Step Build Guide --- **STEP 1: Connect Gmail to Make.com** What you'll do: Set Make.com to watch for new emails in your "Support" label. How long: 10 min Where: Make.com → New Scenario → Search "Gmail" → Choose *Watch Emails* trigger → Select label: "Support" What success looks like: Make.com shows a sample email when you click "Run once" --- **STEP 2: Extract the email content** What you'll do: Tell Make.com to grab the sender's name, email address, and body text from each incoming email. How long: 5 min Where: Same scenario → the Gmail module will already expose these as variables (called "fields") — no extra setup needed. Just confirm `From`, `Subject`, and `Text content` are visible. What success looks like: You can see the actual email text in the module output panel. --- **STEP 3: Add your Notion FAQ as context** What you'll do: Add a Notion module that fetches your FAQ page content so the AI can read it. How long: 10 min Where: Make.com → Add module → Search "Notion" → *Get a Page* → Paste your FAQ page ID (found in the Notion page URL) What success looks like: The module output shows your FAQ text. > 💡 Your Notion page ID is the string of characters at the end of the URL, before the `?`. Example: `notion.so/My-FAQ-abc123def456` → ID is `abc123def456` --- **✋ Test it now (Checkpoint 1):** Send a test email to your support inbox. Run the Make.com scenario manually. Confirm Steps 1-3 all show green checkmarks and real data. --- **STEP 4: Add the AI module (Claude or ChatGPT)** What you'll do: Set up the AI to read the email + FAQ and decide what to do. How long: 15 min Where: Make.com → Add module → Search "HTTP" (for Claude) or "OpenAI" (for ChatGPT) Use this prompt template inside the module (copy and customize): ``` You are a helpful customer support assistant. Here is our FAQ knowledge base: {{notion_page_content}} A customer sent this email: Subject: {{email_subject}} Message: {{email_body}} Your job: 1. Decide if this is a SIMPLE question (answerable from the FAQ) or a COMPLEX issue (needs human review). 2. If SIMPLE: Write a friendly, concise reply in our brand voice. Start with their name if available. 3. If COMPLEX: Write a 2-sentence summary of the issue for our team. Respond in this exact format: TYPE: [SIMPLE or COMPLEX] REPLY: [your draft reply or internal summary] CONFIDENCE: [HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW] ``` What success looks like: The AI output shows `TYPE: SIMPLE` or `TYPE: COMPLEX` with a coherent reply. --- **STEP 5: Add a Router (the decision fork)** What you'll do: Tell Make.com to go one of two directions based on what the AI decided. How long: 10 min Where: Make.com → Add module → *Router* → Create two paths: - **Path A:** AI said `SIMPLE` → send the reply - **Path B:** AI said `COMPLEX` (or CONFIDENCE is LOW) → alert you on Slack To filter: Click the path → Add condition → `{{ai_output}}` contains `TYPE: SIMPLE` What success looks like: Two separate paths are visible in your scenario diagram. --- **✋ Test it now (Checkpoint 2):** Send two test emails — one simple FAQ question, one complicated complaint. Run the scenario. Confirm each email goes down the correct path. --- **STEP 6: Path A — Send the auto-reply via Gmail** What you'll do: Make.com sends the AI-drafted reply from your Gmail account. How long: 10 min Where: Path A → Add module → Gmail → *Send an Email* - To: `{{sender_email}}` - Subject: `Re: {{original_subject}}` - Body: `{{ai_reply_text}}` (extract just the REPLY portion from AI output) > ⚠️ Optional safety net: Instead of sending immediately, use Gmail's *Create a Draft* option for the first two weeks. You review and send manually — but the reply is already written for you. Switch to auto-send once you trust the quality. What success looks like: A reply appears in your Gmail Sent folder (or Drafts). --- **STEP 7: Path B — Alert yourself in Slack** What you'll do: Complex issues get sent to your Slack with everything you need to respond. How long: 10 min Where: Path B → Add module → Slack → *Send a Message* → Choose your channel (e.g., #support-escalations) Message template: ``` 🚨 *Support Email Needs You* *From:* {{sender_name}} ({{sender_email}}) *Subject:* {{email_subject}} *AI Summary:* {{ai_summary}} *Confidence:* {{ai_confidence}} 📧 Reply here: {{gmail_link_to_thread}} ``` What success looks like: A formatted Slack message appears in your channel within seconds of the test email arriving. --- **✋ Test it now (Checkpoint 3 — Full Run):** Send 3 different emails (FAQ question / vague complaint / refund request). All three should route correctly, and you should receive the Slack alert for the last two within 60 seconds. --- ### Phase 4 — Test & Troubleshoot **3 scenarios to test before going live:** 1. A word-for-word FAQ question → should get an auto-reply 2. An angry email with no clear question → should escalate to Slack 3. An email in a language other than English → watch what the AI does (you may want to add a language-detection rule) **Top 5 things that break:** | Problem | Fix | |---|---| | AI reply includes "TYPE: SIMPLE" in the customer email | Adjust your prompt: add "Do not include the TYPE/CONFIDENCE labels in the customer-facing reply" | | Make.com can't read Notion page | Check the page is not private; share it publicly or via integration | | Emails not triggering the scenario | Confirm the Gmail label filter is working; check Make.com is set to run on a schedule (every 15 min) | | AI hallucinating answers not in FAQ | Add to prompt: "Only answer using the FAQ provided. If unsure, classify as COMPLEX." | | Slack message not sending | Re-authenticate the Slack connection in Make.com (tokens expire) | **Did it work? Checklist:** - [ ] FAQ emails get replies that sound human and accurate - [ ] Complex emails show up in Slack within 2 minutes - [ ] No customer receives a blank or garbled email - [ ] You're not manually touching more than 20% of emails --- ### Phase 5 — Go Live & Improve **Minimum viable launch:** Turn on the scenario with Gmail set to **Draft mode** (not auto-send) for the first week. You review every draft — but writing time drops to near zero. **Week 1 — Watch for:** - Which email types are being misclassified (keep a running list) - Whether customers are replying to auto-replies with confusion - Your Slack escalation volume (target: under 30% of emails) **Week 2 improvements:** 1. Expand your Notion FAQ with the questions that stumped the AI in week 1 2. Switch from Draft mode to auto-send for SIMPLE + HIGH CONFIDENCE emails only **When to upgrade:** If you're processing 300+ emails/month, upgrade Make.com to Core ($9/mo). If reply quality needs to improve, switch from ChatGPT to Claude with a longer, more detailed FAQ. --- ### Summary | | | |---|---| | **Total time to build** | ~2.5 hours | | **Monthly cost** | $0–$9 (Make.com free tier likely enough to start) | | **Difficulty** | Some experience ✓ | | **What you do next** | Build your Notion FAQ page — that's the foundation everything else depends on |