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Email to quote request

This workflow watches a Gmail mailbox for emails in which a customer asks for products and turns each one into a quote request in Propeller, with the customer and the products filled in. A sales rep gets an action to review it.

It reads requests written in the email itself. For purchase orders sent as a PDF, use PO email to draft order.

In short
Where you use itIn the background. The results show in the Action Hub and under Sales > Requests
StartsBy itself. It checks the mailbox every minute
Changes in PropellerCreates quote requests and actions
Uses AIYes, OpenAI. It gets the text of the email and the names of customers and products
TextsEnglish and Dutch
Runs in n8nDepends on the number of emails
DifficultyMedium. You connect a mailbox and set who gets the actions

What you get​

A quote request with the customer, the products, the quantities, the reference and the remarks of the customer. The action opens the request and names the products that could not be matched.

An action in the Action Hub for a quote request made from an email, opened to show the number of product lines and how the customer was matched

When the workflow cannot make the request, the action says why and quotes the start of the email.

What you need​

  • An n8n account with the credential Propeller API key. See Set up n8n.
  • An API key with Owner access on User management and Order Data and Viewer access on Product Data.
  • A Gmail mailbox that only receives requests from customers. The workflow reads every email in it.
  • An OpenAI account. You pay OpenAI per use.

How it works​

  1. AI reads the email and picks out the customer, the reference, the remarks and the products.
  2. The workflow finds the customer by email address. Without a match it searches by name and the AI picks from at most 20 customers.
  3. Each product is matched on its article number. Without a match the workflow searches the catalogue and the AI picks from at most 10 products. Quantities always come from the email.
  4. The workflow creates the quote request and the action. Propeller calculates the prices for that customer.
Good to know

The workflows and agents in the Agent Hub are free to use and adapt. They are examples, not supported product features. Test them in a test environment and check the results before you use them on real customers.

Install it​

Install a workflow from the library explains each step.

  1. Import the file into n8n.
  2. Open the node Gmail Trigger and connect the mailbox.
  3. Pick your OpenAI account on the three AI nodes: Extract Request Data, Match Customer and Match Products.
  4. Check that the eight nodes that talk to Propeller use the credential Propeller API key.
  5. Open the Settings node and set the values of the table below.
  6. Send an email with a product request to the mailbox.
  7. Click Execute workflow to run it once.
  8. Click Publish.

After the test you find a new request under Sales > Requests and an action in the Action Hub. If nothing appears, the AI did not read the email as a request.

Make it yours​

SettingDefaultWhat it does
CHANNEL_ID1The channel the request is created in. The number is in the Id column under Shops & Channels > Channels
ASSIGN_TO_ADMIN_USER_IDnullThe colleague who gets the actions. The number is in the Id column under Admin > Backoffice Users
LANGUAGE'NL'The language of the product names that is used to find products
ORDER_STATUS'REQUEST'The status the new request gets

Which emails are read is set in the node Gmail Trigger. The standard filter takes every email without a PDF.

Limits​

  • An email the AI does not see as a request, such as an out-of-office reply, gets no action. Check the mailbox now and then for requests that were missed.
  • The example is made for Gmail. For another mail provider the first node has to be replaced.