My inbox had 47 unanswered support tickets on a Monday morning. Most were the same 4 questions: pricing, setup help, refund requests, and "how do I...?" questions.
I built an n8n workflow that handles 80% of them automatically. Here's the full JSON — free.
What it does
- Webhook receives support ticket (from your contact form or email)
- GPT-4o-mini classifies the ticket: pricing / technical / billing / general
- Sends an appropriate auto-reply for each category
- Escalates complex tickets to Slack for human review
- Logs everything to Google Sheets for tracking
Setup time: 15-20 minutes | Cost: ~$0.001 per ticket | n8n version: 1.40+
The workflow JSON
{"name":"AI Customer Support Bot","nodes":[{"parameters":{"httpMethod":"POST","path":"support-ticket","responseMode":"responseNode","options":{}},"id":"cs1","name":"Webhook","type":"n8n-nodes-base.webhook","typeVersion":1,"position":[240,300]},{"parameters":{"jsCode":"const body = $input.first().json.body || $input.first().json;\nconst email = body.email || body.from || 'unknown@example.com';\nconst subject = body.subject || body.title || 'Support Request';\nconst message = body.message || body.content || body.text || '';\nreturn [{ json: { email, subject, message, receivedAt: new Date().toISOString() } }];"},"id":"cs2","name":"Parse Ticket","type":"n8n-nodes-base.code","typeVersion":2,"position":[460,300]},{"parameters":{"resource":"chat","operation":"complete","model":"gpt-4o-mini","messages":{"values":[{"role":"system","content":"You are a support ticket classifier. Classify the ticket into exactly one category: PRICING, TECHNICAL, BILLING, or GENERAL. Then write a helpful, friendly auto-reply (2-3 sentences max). Reply in JSON: {\"category\": \"...\", \"reply\": \"...\"}"},{"role":"user","content":"=Subject: {{ $json.subject }}\nMessage: {{ $json.message }}"}]},"options":{"temperature":0.3}},"id":"cs3","name":"AI Classify & Reply","type":"n8n-nodes-base.openAi","typeVersion":1,"position":[680,300]},{"parameters":{"jsCode":"const raw = $input.first().json.message.content;\nlet parsed;\ntry { parsed = JSON.parse(raw); } catch(e) { parsed = { category: 'GENERAL', reply: 'Thanks for reaching out! Our team will get back to you within 24 hours.' }; }\nconst needsHuman = parsed.category === 'BILLING' || parsed.category === 'TECHNICAL';\nreturn [{ json: { ...$input.first().json, category: parsed.category, autoReply: parsed.reply, needsHuman } }];"},"id":"cs4","name":"Parse AI Response","type":"n8n-nodes-base.code","typeVersion":2,"position":[900,300]},{"parameters":{"conditions":{"boolean":[{"value1":"={{ $json.needsHuman }}","value2":true}]}},"id":"cs5","name":"Needs Human?","type":"n8n-nodes-base.if","typeVersion":1,"position":[1120,300]},{"parameters":{"sendTo":"={{ $json.email }}","subject":"Re: {{ $json.subject }}","message":"={{ $json.autoReply }}\n\nBest,\nSupport Team","options":{}},"id":"cs6","name":"Send Auto-Reply","type":"n8n-nodes-base.gmail","typeVersion":2,"position":[1340,420]},{"parameters":{"authentication":"webhook","resource":"chat","operation":"post","channel":"#support-escalations","text":"=🎫 *New {{ $json.category }} ticket needs review*\n*From:* {{ $json.email }}\n*Subject:* {{ $json.subject }}\n*Message:* {{ $json.message }}\n*Auto-reply sent:* {{ $json.autoReply }}","otherOptions":{}},"id":"cs7","name":"Slack Escalation","type":"n8n-nodes-base.slack","typeVersion":1,"position":[1340,180]},{"parameters":{"operation":"append","documentId":{"value":"YOUR_SHEET_ID"},"sheetName":"Tickets","columns":{"mappingMode":"defineBelow","value":{"Date":"={{ $json.receivedAt }}","Email":"={{ $json.email }}","Subject":"={{ $json.subject }}","Category":"={{ $json.category }}","AutoReply":"={{ $json.autoReply }}","EscalatedToHuman":"={{ $json.needsHuman }}"}},"options":{}},"id":"cs8","name":"Log to Sheets","type":"n8n-nodes-base.googleSheets","typeVersion":4,"position":[1560,300]}],"connections":{"Webhook":{"main":[[{"node":"Parse Ticket","type":"main","index":0}]]},"Parse Ticket":{"main":[[{"node":"AI Classify & Reply","type":"main","index":0}]]},"AI Classify & Reply":{"main":[[{"node":"Parse AI Response","type":"main","index":0}]]},"Parse AI Response":{"main":[[{"node":"Needs Human?","type":"main","index":0}]]},"Needs Human?":{"main":[[{"node":"Slack Escalation","type":"main","index":0}],[{"node":"Send Auto-Reply","type":"main","index":0}]]},"Slack Escalation":{"main":[[{"node":"Log to Sheets","type":"main","index":0}]]},"Send Auto-Reply":{"main":[[{"node":"Log to Sheets","type":"main","index":0}]]}}}
Import: Workflows → New → ⋯ menu → Import from JSON → paste above.
Setup (15 min)
1. Webhook
- Copy the webhook URL after activating the workflow
- Point your contact form's POST action to it
- Or use Zapier/Make to forward emails to the webhook
2. OpenAI credentials
- Add your OpenAI API key in n8n credentials
- GPT-4o-mini costs ~$0.15/1M input tokens — extremely cheap for support
3. Gmail
- Connect your Gmail account for the auto-reply node
- Change
Send Auto-Replysender name/signature to match your brand
4. Slack
- Add a Slack webhook URL for the escalation channel
- Or swap this node for an email node if you don't use Slack
5. Google Sheets
- Create a sheet with columns: Date, Email, Subject, Category, AutoReply, EscalatedToHuman
- Replace
YOUR_SHEET_IDwith your sheet's ID (from the URL)
How the AI classification works
The system prompt forces GPT-4o-mini to return structured JSON with a category and a reply. The Parse AI Response code node handles malformed output gracefully — if parsing fails, it defaults to GENERAL category with a generic reply.
Categories and their handling:
- PRICING → Auto-reply with your pricing info → no escalation
- GENERAL → Auto-reply with helpful generic response → no escalation
- TECHNICAL → Auto-reply + escalate to Slack (needs human follow-up)
- BILLING → Auto-reply + escalate to Slack (always needs human review)
Tips
1. Customize the system prompt
The real power is in the prompt. Add your actual pricing, your product name, your refund policy. The more context you give GPT, the better the auto-replies.
2. Add a confidence score
Ask the AI to also return "confidence": 0.0-1.0. Only send auto-replies when confidence > 0.8, escalate the rest.
3. Track auto-reply rate
After 1 week, check your Sheets log. What % of tickets got a good auto-reply vs escalation? Tune the system prompt based on what's failing.
4. Add a delay before sending
Add a Wait node (2-5 min delay) before the auto-reply. Instant replies feel robotic; a short delay feels more human.
5. Handle attachments
The webhook node can receive file uploads. Add a check in Parse Ticket for attachments and route those directly to escalation.
What this replaces
Before: checking email every hour, copy-pasting the same replies, drowning in tickets.
After: webhook fires, AI replies in 30 seconds, you only see the edge cases that need you.
I built this as one of 15 n8n automation templates I use for client projects. If you want the full version with setup guide, Slack alert templates, and error handling — they're all at https://stripeai.gumroad.com.
The JSON above is the complete working core. Happy to answer questions in the comments.