Client Snapshot

Introductions GIF Industry: Website Design Agency for local Australian businesses
Key Contact: Michael, Agency Owner
Customers: Brick‑and‑mortar SMBs across Australia (trades, hospitality, clinics, retailers)

Key Results Summary

  • Prototype in 1 day; live in 5 days
  • 20–30 emails/day auto‑handled (plus scheduled follow‑ups)
  • Founder time cut from 3.5 hours/day to ~0.5 hours/day
  • Lead replies in seconds; invoice nudges go out on time, every time

The Challenge

Challenged GIF Michael ran everything from a single Outlook inbox—no automations, no CRM. He needed to:

  • Categorize incoming emails reliably (leads, invoices, support, spam)
  • Send instant, hyper‑personalized replies where safe; draft others for quick approval
  • Keep invoice and lead follow‑ups on schedule without manual tracking
  • Stay compliant with Australia’s Spam Act and retain his brand’s personable tone
  • Do it all inside Outlook, with a lightweight way to review and control

The Goal

Relax GIF Replace manual inbox management with an AI‑assisted workflow that:

  • Auto‑classifies messages and triggers the right action (send, draft, queue follow‑up)
  • Operates entirely via Outlook and a simple Google Sheets dashboard
  • Reduces founder time dramatically without sacrificing personalization
  • Ships a demo in 1 day and a production system in under a week

Solution at a Glance

A production‑ready n8n workflow that watches Michael’s Outlook inbox, classifies each message, drafts or sends a response, and schedules follow‑ups for leads and invoices. All activity is logged to Google Sheets for review.

Inputs: New Outlook emails (single mailbox), manual “review” label for edge cases
Processing: AI‑assisted triage and drafting; rules for timing, tone, and business hours
Outputs: Sent replies, saved drafts, next‑action reminders, inbox categories updated
Operations: Idempotent processing, retries with backoff, run logs, email alerts on failures

System Architecture:
Outlook → n8n on VPS → Classifier/Drafter → Google Sheets log → Outlook actions

Lightning‑Fast Process

  1. Clickable demo in 1 day

    • Live triage on a small inbox subset
    • Immediate feedback on categories, tone, and safe‑send rules

  2. Daily iteration (2 refinements)

    • Tight loop with Michael to tune templates and follow‑up cadences
    • Added business‑hours sending and an approval lane for sensitive drafts

  3. Standardize and ship (day 5)

    • Hardened workflow, error handling, and logging
    • Loom walkthroughs and a quickstart doc for simple self‑management

What It Does

Explainer GIF Classification: Lead, Quote/Proposal, Invoice/Payment, Support, Spam/Promotions, OOO

Replies:

  • Instant send for low‑risk, high‑confidence cases (e.g., basic info requests)
  • Draft‑only for nuanced messages; Michael approves with one click

Lead follow‑ups: Day 0 instant reply; nudges at +2 and +5 business days; auto‑stop on reply or booked call

Invoice follow‑ups: Pre‑due (−3 days), due‑day, +3 and +7 business days; pauses after 2 unanswered nudges

Personalization: Templates enriched with business name, suburb, service requested, prior thread context, and Australian tone/spelling

Business hours: AEST/AEDT; no weekends or public holidays

Logging: Every action and next step recorded in Google Sheets

The Results

  • Founder time dropped from ~3.5 hours/day to ~0.5 hours/day
  • Lead response time improved to seconds in straightforward cases; “draft‑first” cut the rest to minutes
  • Invoices got consistent, on‑brand reminders without manual tracking
Before (Manual Inbox) After (AI‑Assisted Flow)
Missed and late follow‑ups Scheduled nudges for leads and invoices
Slow, inconsistent replies Instant replies or ready‑to‑send drafts
No system of record Google Sheets log with status and next step
High founder time cost 3+ hours/day saved

Performance & Reliability

  • 20–30 inbound emails/day auto‑handled (plus follow‑ups queued)
  • Hosted on a client VPS; secure OAuth app for Microsoft 365
  • Outlook integration via Microsoft Graph (delta notifications) to avoid polling
  • Idempotent processing with message IDs; retries with exponential backoff
  • Email alerts to Michael on failures or items needing approval
  • Rate‑limit aware; sends restricted to local business hours (AEST/AEDT)

Compliance & Brand

  • Australia Spam Act 2003: sender identification and opt‑out line on non‑transactional follow‑ups
  • No cold blasting; responses are to inbound or ongoing threads
  • DKIM/SPF/DMARC validated through Microsoft 365 tenant
  • PII limited to email metadata and thread content; retention and access controlled on the VPS and Sheets

Deliverables

  • n8n workflow (JSON) deployed on VPS
  • Google Sheets dashboard (status, outcomes, next actions)
  • Template library (lead, proposal, invoice, support, OOO) with style guide
  • Taxonomy and routing rules; quickstart + Loom walkthroughs
  • Optional hypercare support for the first two weeks

Tech Stack

  • Orchestration: n8n on VPS
  • Email: Microsoft 365 Outlook via Graph API (delta subscriptions)
  • Data: Google Sheets for queueing/logs
  • AI: Triage and personalized drafting with few‑shot templates
  • Ops: Email alerts, run logs, retries, idempotency keys

The Client Says

“My inbox used to run my day. Now it’s the other way around. Replies go out fast, follow‑ups never slip, and I only review the tricky ones. I got back about three hours every day without losing the personal touch.”

Like These Results?

Let’s tame your inbox, keep follow‑ups on schedule, and win back hours each week.

Share your stack and goals. I’ll send a quick build plan and timeline.