Sample deliverable · Automation Audit
Automation Audit — sample
A redacted example of the automation audit we deliver within two business days of a kickoff call. Formatting, level of detail, and structure match what a real prospect receives. Numbers here are illustrative.
Executive summary
Northline's bottleneck is not the volume of support email — it's the context-switching cost per message. Each ticket requires the owner to leave email, open a billing tool, check a calendar, and return. Repeat-intent tickets (invoices, reschedules, basic FAQ) account for roughly 65% of inbound but consume the same per-ticket minutes as genuinely novel questions.
Three automations, implemented in order, would save an estimated 10–14 hours per week at acceptable risk, with no auto-send behavior until the team explicitly enables it.
Current state
| Metric (last 30 days) | Observed | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Inbound support emails | ~420 | ~14 per business day |
| Median first-reply time | 22 hours | Target is "same business day" |
| % responded within 1 business day | 58% | Industry peer benchmark ~80% |
| Repeat-intent share | ~65% | Invoices, reschedules, FAQ |
| Owner time on inbox | ~14 hrs/wk | Self-reported + sampled |
| Dropped threads (no reply 7+ days) | 9 | 3 flagged as likely retention risk |
Findings
Finding 1 · Invoice resend requests dominate and are fully templatable
What's happening: Customers ask for a resend of a past invoice. The owner looks up the customer, downloads the PDF, and writes a short reply. Every step is deterministic.
Recommendation: DraftDesk with billing-tool context pull. Draft auto-attaches the correct invoice; owner reviews and sends. No auto-send by default.
Estimated win: ~5 hours/month.
Finding 2 · Reschedule requests require calendar context the owner keeps re-deriving
What's happening: Each reschedule request triggers a calendar lookup, a proposed-slot calculation, and a confirmation reply. The owner does this serially. The proposed slots are usually the same three options.
Recommendation: Extend DraftDesk with Google Calendar read + tentative-hold write. Draft proposes specific Thursday/Friday slots; owner confirms with one keystroke.
Estimated win: ~4 hours/month.
Finding 3 · Dropped-thread retention risk is systematic, not random
What's happening: When the owner is pulled into client work, the "hard" emails (pricing questions, complaints, upsell requests) sit while easier ones get cleared. 3 of 9 dropped threads represented active revenue at risk.
Recommendation: Operator-layer priority detection. The same AI that drafts replies also flags retention-risk threads and surfaces them at the top of the review queue with a draft pre-written. This is the highest-leverage finding of the audit.
Estimated win: 2–3 recovered conversations per month. At Northline's average engagement size, a single recovered lead covers the Operator Layer cost for the year.
Recommended roadmap
| Phase | Deliverable | Timeline | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kickoff | Kickoff call + scoped audit | 2 business days | included |
| Phase 1 | DraftDesk on shared inbox · draft-only · tone import · billing context pull | Week 1 | $1,500 setup + $29/mo per mailbox |
| Phase 2 | Calendar integration for reschedules · retention-risk flagging | Week 2 | included in Operator Layer |
| Phase 3 | Operator Layer: weekly tuning, monitoring, FAQ ingestion, reports | Ongoing | $500/mo |
Projected outcome
| Metric | Today | After 30 days | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner hours on inbox / week | ~14 | ~4–5 | ~10 saved |
| Median first-reply time | 22h | <3h | ~7× faster |
| % responded in 1 business day | 58% | ~95% | +37pts |
| Dropped threads / month | 9 | <1 | retention risk down |
What's not in scope
- Auto-send. Off by default. Staying off is a sensible default even after launch.
- Training AI models on Northline customer content. We don't do that.
- Changes to the billing or booking software itself. DraftDesk reads it; it doesn't replace it.
How to approve and start
- Reply "approved" to this audit (or comment in line). We prep the implementation contract within one business day.
- If the scope doesn't fit after reading this, just let us know and we'll part ways cleanly.
Want an audit like this for your business?
Reach out and we'll do a free 15-minute teardown of your inbox, then send a scoped audit and proposal.
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