What you'll end up with
A saved assistant that knows your business facts and tone. You paste in a customer email and get a draft back. You check it and send it yourself. There's nothing to connect and nothing goes out automatically.
Steps
Write a one-page fact sheet: opening hours, prices, delivery or turnaround times, refund policy, the questions you get most often and how you answer them, and what you never promise.
Write tone rules: "British spelling, warm, short, sign off as Sam, never use exclamation marks", plus 2–3 real past replies you liked, with names removed.
Example tone rules British spelling, warm, short, sign off as Sam, never use exclamation marks.
Save it as reusable instructions. Most assistants let you keep standing instructions or a project/workspace with files. Paste or upload the fact sheet and tone rules there.
Add this instruction:
Instruction If the answer is not in the fact sheet, say [CHECK] and do not guess.
Use it: paste the customer email, removing anything sensitive that you don't need to share, and ask for a draft.
Review every draft for a month. Each time it gets something wrong, add the fix to the fact sheet.
What can go wrong
Watch out for
- Made-up facts. The [CHECK] rule and your review are the safety net.
- Personal data: under UK GDPR you're responsible for what you paste into third-party tools. Check your assistant's data settings, and don't paste health or financial details.
Next step
Once drafts are reliably good, an intermediate step is to have an automation tool create the drafts in your mailbox. Keep sending manual.
Sources
- OpenAI Help: Projects in ChatGPT, checked 17 Oct 2026
- Claude Help Center: What are projects?, checked 17 Oct 2026
- Gemini Apps Help: Use Gems in Gemini Apps, checked 17 Oct 2026
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