The problem
Cleaning clients email all week: an extra clean before guests arrive, a changed key arrangement, a missed skirting board, a holiday pause. A company with 120 regular clients might get 30 such emails a week, and reading each and writing a careful reply takes about 5 minutes: 2.5 hours a week.
What the AI does
Gemini in Gmail works in a side panel next to the email. Open the client's message, click Ask Gemini and ask what they want in one line. Check the diary, then ask Gemini to draft a reply with the facts you give it. You check it and send it. Because it runs inside a business Workspace account, clients' details don't go into a personal AI app. Gemini in Gmail comes with Google Workspace Business Starter (about $8£6€7A$12C$11 per user a month).
A worked example
A domestic and office cleaning company in Cambridge has about 120 regular clients. The owner and the office manager both use Gemini in Gmail on Workspace for client emails.
Before
About 30 client emails a week at 5 minutes each: 2.5 hours
After
About 2.5 minutes each with Gemini's summary and draft: 1.25 hours a week
What it's worth
About $144£108€129A$207C$203 a month in time saved, against about $16£12€14A$23C$23 for 2 Workspace Business Starter users. Replies drop from 2.5 to 1.25 hours a week, and 75 minutes times 4.3 is about 5.4 hours a month at an assumed $27£20€24A$38C$38 an hour.
How to set it up
- Use Google Workspace Business Starter (€6.80, about $8£6€7A$12C$11 per user a month on a one-year commitment): about $16£12€14A$23C$23 a month for 2 users.
- Write your standard answers once: extra clean prices, cancellation notice, holiday pauses, re-clean policy.
- Open a client's email, click Ask Gemini and ask it to sum up the request in one line.
- Check the diary in your job system, then ask Gemini to draft a reply with the facts, for example: 'Yes, an extra clean on Friday 2pm, $80£60€71A$115C$113.'
- Read the draft, correct anything and send it; update the job in your system.
What goes wrong
- Gemini doesn't see your job system, so it can't know whether a slot is free. Check first and give it the answer.
- Never put key safe or alarm codes in email or in requests to Gemini. Keep them in your job system's secure notes.
- Clients' details are personal data under UK GDPR. Google says it doesn't use customers' Workspace data to train its generative AI; personal Google AI plans are on consumer terms.
- Business Starter covers Gemini in Gmail only; each extra user adds about $8£6€7A$12C$11 a month.