AI Distilled
Playbooks · Workflow automation
Workflow automationHuman approves

Send new web inquiries to your CRM with a summary attached

Every web inquiry lands in your CRM with the key facts pulled out, and a person decides who follows it up.

Setup
1 h
Rung
03 → 04
Tool cost
Free–$30/mo
Approval
A person

Before and after

Before

  1. An inquiry lands in an inbox
  2. Someone reads it when they can
  3. It’s typed into the CRM, or not
  4. Whoever notices it replies

After

  1. ToolYour web form sends the inquiry
  2. ToolA CRM record is created
  3. AIAI adds a summary of the key facts
  4. YouA person assigns an owner
  5. YouThe owner replies personally

Six steps, 1 hour

  1. 01Decide what the summary needs

    10 min

    Read your last 20 inquiries and list what the person following up needs at a glance: the service, location, timing, budget if given, and anything unusual. Add those fields to your CRM (the system where you track leads and customers) if they’re missing.

  2. 02Write the summary prompt

    10 min

    Give it your service list, so it sorts rather than guesses.

    You summarize new website inquiries for [business]. We offer: [your services].
From the inquiry below, write:
Summary: one sentence on what they want.
Service: one from the list above, or Unclear.
Timing: what they said, or Not stated.
Budget: what they said, or Not stated.
Questions to ask: up to two.
Flags: anything urgent, unusual, outside what we do, or likely spam.
Use only what the inquiry says. Never guess a budget, a date or a name. If something is unclear, write [CHECK].

Inquiry:
[paste the inquiry]
    Open ChatGPTOpen ClaudeOpen Gemini

  3. 03Test it on real inquiries

    10 min

    Remove names and contact details, then run the prompt by hand on ten past inquiries, including a vague one and a spam one, and compare each summary with the original.

    Human check: Nothing in the summary that the inquiry didn’t say, the service is right, and spam is flagged rather than treated as a lead. Fix the prompt until ten in a row pass.

  4. 04Connect the form, AI and CRM

    20 min

    In an automation tool (Zapier or Make, for example): when the form is submitted, send the inquiry to an AI step with your prompt, then create a lead in the CRM with the original message and the summary side by side, marked “unassigned” until a person picks an owner. Have it email you if any step fails.

  5. 05Assign every lead yourself

    5 min

    Check the unassigned list at set times, say twice a day. Read the summary, glance at the original, and give the lead an owner, who writes the first reply.

    Human check: The summary matches the original, the lead is real (not spam or a sales pitch), and it has an owner by the end of the day.

  6. 06Send a fixed acknowledgment

    Optional · rung 045 min

    Have the automation send a short thank-you in your own words: when you’ll reply, and how to reach you if it’s urgent. Keep AI out of this one. It reaches customers unchecked, so it should be fixed wording you approved once.

What to measure beyond “time saved”

  • Time to first reply

    From inquiry to a person’s reply. It’s the number customers feel.

  • Leads with no owner

    Count them at the end of each day. It should be zero.

  • Summaries corrected

    How often the person assigning had to fix one. Often means the prompt needs work.

  • Inquiries that became work

    Track quotes and jobs, so you can tell whether faster follow-up is paying off.

Common pitfalls

  • Replacing the message with the summary. Summaries drop details. Keep the original inquiry on the record, always.

  • Auto-replying with AI. An AI-written reply reaches a customer with nobody checking it. Send fixed wording, and let a person write the real reply.

  • Failing silently. If a step breaks, inquiries can vanish. Set a failure alert, and once a week compare the form’s notification emails with the CRM.

Need help building it?

AI Distilled can build this with you: a working pilot, tested on your real work.

Scope a build