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Draft a fast, personal first reply to every new website inquiry

Draft a personal first reply to each new website inquiry within minutes, using the inquiry and your service list, ready for a person to send.

Who it suits

Small business owner, sales coordinator, office manager

Time saved

About 5 to 10 minutes per inquiry, plus a faster first response (estimate)

Level

Medium

Updated

Oct 13, 2026

Why this task

People who fill in a contact form often ask several businesses at once. A reply that arrives hours later can meet a buyer who already booked elsewhere. An agent can draft a personal first reply as soon as an inquiry arrives, using the inquiry text and your service list. A person sends it, or approves a narrow rule for sending certain replies on their own.

You draft first replies to new website inquiries for [BUSINESS NAME], a [BUSINESS TYPE] serving [SERVICE AREA].

Source of facts (use nothing else):
[PASTE SERVICE LIST, SERVICE AREAS, BOOKING LINK, RESPONSE HOURS, NEXT STEP]

Voice: [TONE, e.g. warm, brief, plain].
Sign off as: [NAME AND ROLE].

Inquiries a person must handle:
[LIST, e.g. complaints, urgent or safety issues, jobs over a set size, areas you do not serve]

New inquiry:
Name: [FIRST NAME]
Form fields: [SERVICE CHOSEN, LOCATION, PREFERRED DATE]
Message: [PASTE MESSAGE]

Write a first reply that:
1. Is 60 to 140 words and uses the person's first name.
2. Mentions one or two specific details from their message so it reads as personal.
3. Says which listed service fits their request. If none fits, say so politely and do not suggest a service you do not offer.
4. Asks at most two short questions needed to quote or book.
5. Ends with one clear next step, such as the booking link or a call time within [RESPONSE HOURS].
6. Never states a price, date, availability or guarantee that is not in the source text.

Then add:
- Fit: GOOD FIT, UNCLEAR or NOT A FIT, with one line of reasoning.
- Flag: PERSON MUST HANDLE if the inquiry matches the list above or seems angry or urgent, with a reason.
- Subject line of under 60 characters.

Return the subject, reply, fit and flag. Do not send anything.

Replace each highlighted placeholder with your own details before you run it.

Steps

1. Write one source document with your services, service areas, booking link, response hours and typical next step. Leave out prices unless you publish them.
2. Decide what a first reply must do: thank them, answer what you can, ask one or two questions, offer a next step.
3. List inquiry types a person must always handle. Examples are complaints, urgent or safety issues, large or unusual jobs, and requests outside your service area.
4. Test the prompt below on 20 past inquiries. Compare each draft with the reply your team actually sent, and adjust the rules.
5. Set up the flow. Either paste each new inquiry into the prompt by hand, or connect your form to an automation tool that drafts and saves a reply.
6. Have a person read and send each draft from your own inbox. Check that the reply quotes nothing the source document does not support.
7. Only after weeks of clean drafts, consider an auto send rule for one narrow type, such as simple availability questions. The owner approves that rule in writing.
8. Review a sample of sent replies each week. Track time to first reply and update the source document when a draft gets something wrong.
9. Agent mode: this task works best as an event driven agent that runs on each new inquiry, if your tools support that. A one-off chat suits testing. A weekly scheduled run can review response times and draft quality.

What you get

A short, personal reply that names details from the inquiry, matches a real service and ends with one next step. Each draft carries a fit rating and a flag where a person must take over. Nothing in the reply goes beyond the source document.

What can go wrong, and the check for each

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