Trades · Make + AI enquiry triage
Every Enquiry Sorted and Routed in 2 Minutes for an Electrical Business
The electricians were on site all day, so enquiries sat unread for hours. Now every enquiry is captured, read by AI and sent to the right person automatically, without a new CRM.
- First response
- 3 hrs → 5 min
- Time to first response
- Manual sorting
- 0
- Enquiries sorted by hand
- Monthly cost
- ~$50
- Running cost a month
The problem
One Shared Inbox, Read in Batches, Hours Later
Enquiries were arriving from the website form, Google, Facebook and phone messages into one shared inbox. The electricians were on site all day, so enquiries were read in batches, often hours later.
Slow replies
A homeowner with no power, or a builder after a quote, calls the next electrician on Google if they don’t hear back quickly.
No triage
An emergency fault, a quote request for a new build and a sales pitch all looked the same in the inbox. Someone had to read every one to decide what mattered.
No record
There was no single list of who enquired, what they needed and what happened next, so follow-ups slipped and nobody could see which channel brought in the work.
They didn’t want a new CRM their team wouldn’t use. They wanted the enquiries they already had to sort themselves and reach the right person fast.
What I built
An Automated Pipeline That Reads, Sorts and Routes Every Enquiry
An automated pipeline in Make that captures every enquiry, has an AI agent read and classify it, and sends it to the right place within 1–2 minutes.
- 1
Capture
Every new enquiry from the website form and other sources is sent straight into Make the moment it’s submitted.
- 2
Classify
The AI agent reads the message and tags the job type (emergency fault, installation, quote, maintenance, other), how urgent it is and the suburb, writes a one-line summary for the team, and flags spam.
- 3
Route
Each enquiry goes down a different path: urgent jobs alert the on-call electrician straight away, quote requests go to the estimator, and spam is filed with no reply.
- 4
Record
Every enquiry lands as a row in one shared sheet with its tags, summary and status, so the team can see the whole pipeline at a glance.
- 5
Safety net
If any step fails, the enquiry is still logged and flagged for a person, and the original email notifications stay switched on. Nothing gets lost.
Tested before launch
I wrote and tested the classification rules against real past enquiries and test cases, including vague messages, enquiries outside the service area and attempts to trick the AI, before switching it on.
Results
Faster Replies, Zero Manual Sorting, Every Lead Tracked
What changed for the team
No more evenings spent reading through the shared inbox to work out which enquiries were urgent and who should call back.
Running cost
About $50 a month in Make and AI usage — a fraction of the cost of one missed job.
Tools: Make.com · AI agent · Webhooks · Shared spreadsheet · Email & mobile alerts
Work together
Are Enquiries Waiting Hours in Your Inbox?
In a free 15-minute chat, I’ll look at where your enquiries come in and where they’re slowing down, and tell you honestly whether a system like this would pay for itself.