Borrowd
An email agent that answers timber enquiries
How a timber salesman handed the repetitive part of answering enquiries to an AI agent that does the lookups for them.
- Client
- Timber merchant
- Size
- Sales desk
- Connected
- Email, product catalogue, price list, Xero
The problem
Every enquiry meant the same routine. Read the email, find the product in the catalogue, check the price list, look up the customer's account in Xero, check stock, then write a reply. Each step was in a different place.
The salesman was the only person who could do it, so replies waited until they had time to work through the pile.
What we did
- Step 1
Mapped the salesman's workflow
We followed an enquiry from inbox to reply and wrote down every lookup and judgement call along the way.
- Step 2
Connected the sources
The agent reads the product catalogue and price list, and uses Xero for the customer's account and for stock levels.
- Step 3
Built the email agent
It reads the incoming enquiry, works out what is being asked, gathers the facts from those sources and writes the response.
- Step 4
Kept the salesman in control
Anything unusual or unclear is flagged for a person, so the agent handles the routine and the salesman handles the exceptions.
The result
Enquiries get a reply built from the real catalogue, price list, account and stock data, rather than waiting for someone to do the lookups by hand.
The salesman spends their time on the conversations that need judgement.