🎧 Support inbox on autopilot

The outcome: a support agent with its own inbox that answers the routine 80% - order status, how-do-I, refunds inside policy - and brings you only the calls that deserve a human: the angry customer, the edge-case refund, the “can I get a discount” that’s really a churn signal. You go from checking support email hourly to resolving two tickets over coffee.

Who this is for: anyone whose support load is real but not yet a support team - founders answering their own customers, and small teams where support is a side-duty that eats afternoons.

1. Give your support agent an inbox. Email screen → inbox switcher → your support agent → set up its address. It gets a real address (like support-clara@yourdomain once your domain is connected) that can send and receive.
2. Paste the briefing below into the inbox settings (Email → gear icon → your agent). The briefing is standing policy - it applies to every email, forever, until you change it.
3. Set the guardrails. Start with Draft for review mode: the agent writes every reply but nothing sends until you approve. Add allow/block rules (gear → Rules & lists) - block known spam domains, allow your customer domains for auto-handling later.
4. Point your support address at the agent’s inbox (forwarding rule in your current provider). Nothing about your public support email changes.
5. Run a week in draft mode. Approve from the thread view - each draft has ✓ Approve & send, an inline editor if you want to tweak, and “Revise with [agent]” if it should try again. You’re not doing support; you’re grading it.
6. Graduate what earned it. After a week, update the briefing: auto-reply to known senders and routine categories, keep drafts for refunds and anger. The agent remembers your edits - the drafts get better while you approve less.

The support inbox briefing (paste into inbox settings)

You handle support for [product]. Tone: warm, direct, never robotic; sign as [name]. Use the Support Playbook doc in Docs as your source of truth — if it doesn’t cover something, say so honestly rather than inventing policy.

Handle yourself: order status, password/access issues, how-do-I questions, billing explanations, refunds clearly inside our [30-day] policy.

Escalate to me (open a ticket, don’t reply first): refunds outside policy, legal or security mentions, press, anyone threatening to churn or chargeback, and anything where you’d be guessing.

Always: acknowledge within your reply that you understood their actual problem. Never: promise a timeline you can’t verify, or offer discounts.

💡 Tip: Write (or ask the agent to write) a Support Playbook doc first: your refund policy, tone examples, the 10 most common questions with ideal answers. The briefing points at it, the agent cites it, and updating support policy becomes editing one doc - not retraining anyone.

💳 Cost note: Email itself is a flat add-on per inbox - replies don’t consume credits. The daily send cap (default in inbox settings) is your blast-radius guarantee: even a confused agent can’t send more than the cap in a day.

What good looks like, two weeks in: you open Email to a Sent folder of answered tickets you never saw, a Drafts folder with 2-3 replies awaiting a nod, and My Tickets holding one real decision - “Customer 40 days past purchase wants a refund; order history attached; recommend approving as goodwill.” You tap approve. That customer thinks your support is exceptional. It is - it’s just not you anymore.