Build an FAQ from your inbox
A practical way to use AI for this job in a small business, with a prompt you can copy.
You answer the same questions every day. 'Do you do weekends?' 'How much for a standard clean?' 'Do you service my suburb?' Each one takes two minutes, and it adds up to hours.
The prompt
Here are 20 customer emails/questions I've received: [paste]. Group them into common questions and write a clear answer for each, using only information in my replies. Flag any where I've given inconsistent answers.
Replace everything in [square brackets] with your own details. Don't paste in anything you wouldn't want stored by the AI provider.
Steps
- Copy 20-30 real customer questions and your replies.
- Run the prompt.
- Fix the flagged inconsistencies.
- Publish as an FAQ page.
A worked example
A Canberra cleaning business copies 50 recent customer enquiries into a document, removing names and contact details. Claude groups them into themes and drafts 12 FAQs with clear answers, using the owner's actual prices and policies, which she adds to the prompt.
She puts the FAQs on the website, links to them from her auto-reply email, and saves the answers as Gmail templates. Within a month, she notices fewer 'quick question' emails, and the ones that come in are easier to answer.
Where it goes wrong
AI will happily write confident answers about policies you don't have. Only publish answers you've checked. It also groups questions too broadly, so split anything that covers two topics. And keep the FAQ updated: an FAQ with last year's prices is worse than none.
Time saved
Building an FAQ from scratch is a one-off of 3 to 5 hours. With AI sorting your emails, it's more like 90 minutes. The ongoing saving is the real win. These are my estimates for a typical small business, not measured results.
What it costs (AUD)
Free plans are fine. If you have hundreds of emails to analyse, a paid plan's file upload makes it easier.
The free plans of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini handle this fine. If you end up using AI every day, the paid plans are roughly: ChatGPT Plus approx. A$30 a month, Claude Pro approx. A$29 a month billed monthly (US$20, or about A$24 a month if you pay yearly), and Google AI Pro approx. A$33 a month through the App Store. Prices approx., October 2026. Some are billed in US dollars, so your bank may add a foreign transaction fee. Check the vendor's pricing page before you buy.
Australian notes
Strip customer names, emails and phone numbers before pasting enquiries anywhere. Make sure your FAQ answers about refunds and cancellations line up with Australian Consumer Law: you can't take away consumer guarantee rights, even in an FAQ. State prices including GST.
Privacy: the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) cover most businesses turning over more than $3 million, plus some smaller ones such as health providers. Even if you're under the threshold, treat customer details with care: strip names, phone numbers and addresses before you paste anything into an AI tool.
Want this to happen automatically? See the step-by-step guide on our sister site: How to set up an FAQ chatbot on your website.
My verdict
Brilliant. The inconsistency flag alone is worth it.
Common questions
How many FAQs should I have?
Start with the 10 to 15 questions you get most. Add more as new ones come up.
Where should FAQs go?
On your website, plus linked from your auto-reply and booking confirmations.
Can I turn the FAQ into a chatbot?
Yes. A good FAQ is exactly what an FAQ chatbot needs. See the guide.
Do this today
Search your inbox for the word 'question' and copy the last 20 customer emails into a document. That's your raw material.
More customer service use cases
Next: Write template replies for common questions · All customer service · Want a bot to do this automatically? See bot setup guides.