How to Supercharge Gmail for Customer Support with Gemini AI

AI is not meant to replace your customer support. But it can be a helpful tool that can bring it to the next level with more personalization, efficiency and scalability.

Over the past 6 months, our team has been testing Gemini across the various Google products we use, focusing on how it can help customer service teams work more efficiently.

Here, I’m sharing our findings. You’ll learn exactly how forward-thinking customer support teams are using these AI tools to better serve their customers.

This is a practice guide sharing how to supercharge Gmail for customer support using Gemini AI. We’ll share useful workflows your team can implement starting today, focusing on the key features that can help streamline support processes.

(If you’re ready to jump straight into the setup guide, click here to skip ahead.)

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💡 Quick start guide for support teams using Gemini

• Setup time: 2-3 minutes
• Best for: Customer support teams using Gmail
• Key benefit: AI-powered support assistance

ESSENTIAL STEPS:

1. Enable Gemini in Workspace
2. Configure preferences
3. Familiarize yourself with the three main tools

KEY FEATURES:

• ✨ Email thread summaries
• ✨ Response drafting
• ✨ Knowledge base search
• ✨ Meeting scheduling

What is Gemini?

Gemini is Google’s AI assistant that’s now a native part of Google Workspace. It works within Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive and Meet. You can use it to help summarize email threads, find info from Google Drive documents, identify action items, suggest and draft responses, find past solutions, handle scheduling and more. To access the tools, you don’t have to leave the Google ecosystem or even change tabs.

Support teams use Gemini to streamline the time-consuming parts of customer service so they can provide a superior customer experience.

Key Gemini features for support teams

If your team has already enabled Gemini in Workspace, you might have noticed the abundance of features. It can be overwhelming to dive into, and proper implementation within your support team requires a strategic approach.

Here are the core Gemini features that have the biggest potential impact on customer support processes:

1. Smart email threading

Since Gemini can instantly understand the entire history of complex customer conversations, it can pick up context and help identify key issues and action items.

2. AI-powered responses

Gemini can find relevant past solutions from within the organization’s history, then draft responses based on your team’s response style or branding and voice documents. It can also help tweak base templates based on this added context.

3. Knowledge base integration

With Gemini, you can integrate your knowledge bases directly. It can search any Google Drive documentation, accessing team resources automatically and applying its knowledge to the context of your prompt.

4. AI research tool

Gemini’s built-in AI research tool, NotebookLM, can help upload support documentation for easy reference, summarize insights from conversations, and create audio summaries for SOPs and team training purposes. 

These features all work right within native Gmail and Google products. 

Next, let’s explore how customer support teams can make use of these features.

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Gemini benefits for customer support teams

Gemini can help cut down on the time-consuming elements of customer support so your team can spend more time helping customers.

Here are some of the ways support teams are using Gemini for added efficiency:

✅ Get accurate, concise summaries of long email threads

Gemini can digest complex customer conversations in seconds and give you key takeaways and action items.

✅ Draft responses that speak in your brand voice

Gemini is great at personalizing replies based on your team’s past responses, knowledge base, SOPs and branding docs.

✅ Find past solutions simply and immediately

Use Gemini to search past emails and documentation without leaving your inbox, ensuring you don’t waste precious hours of your day digging through scattered Drive folders and inboxes.

How to set up Gemini in Gmail step-by-step

The Gemini setup process for Gmail takes just 2 minutes. 

Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Enable Gemini

1. Log into the Workspace Admin console

2. Click the “Generative AI” tab

3. Ensure “Service Status” is toggled on for all desired functionality:

• Gemini app
• Gemini for Workspace
• NotebookLM

Step 2: Navigate Gemini

Once enabled, you’ll find Gemini tools in four main places:

1. Help me write

Available directly within the compose window, this feature assists you with drafting, refining, and adjusting the tone and style of your emails.

Access it in any of the following ways:

• Click the “Help me write” icon in an empty email
• Press Option + H
• Click the “Help me write” icon at the bottom of the compose window

After you’ve accessed the tool, simply type your prompt or idea then click “Create”:

2. Gemini button

This button in the top panel gives you quick access to AI features without leaving Gmail. It can summarize conversations and help find information in your inbox instantly.

Access it by clicking the Gemini icon at the top of any Google product.

This will give you access to a panel to type your prompt:

3. Summaries

Gemini can also give you context from past conversations at a glance, summarizing both individual emails and entire email threads.

You can click “Summarize this email” at the top of any email or thread:

Gemini will summarize the key points. You can add further prompts to elicit new information or take new actions:

4. Standalone Gemini app

Your support team can also directly access the Gemini app to get full access to advanced AI features, as well as additional capabilities like image generation.

To access it, simply click on the Google apps menu and open Gemini:

Daily support workflows using Gemini 

Now that you understand how Gemini can improve your customer service, let’s take a look at ways support teams are using the tool in their day-to-day processes.

Getting context from customer emails

1. Open any support email thread

2. Click the Gemini icon

3. Choose a key action or type a custom prompt:

• “Summarize thread” for quick context
• “Find key points” to identify customer issues
• “Show related emails” to see past conversations
• “Give action items” to get a list of to-dos

Crafting better support responses

1. With an email open, click “Suggest reply”

2. Choose how to use the suggestion:

• Edit the draft to match your natural tone and voice
• Mix elements from multiple suggestions
• Use Gemini’s output as a starting point for your response

Finding past support solutions

1. Click the Gemini button in the top bar

2. Type one of the following prompts:

• “Find similar issues” to find past cases that are related
• “Search knowledge base” for previously documented solutions within your organization
• “Show response templates” for saved responses

You can also modify these prompts to add as much detail as you’d like.

To maximize efficiency, you can combine these workflows. For instance, you could understand the context of an issue using thread summaries, then search past solutions while drafting your response.

Pro tips for support teams using Gemini

Gemini should not be used as a replacement for human operators. Instead, it can be helpful to think of it as a starting point.

We recommend combining the out-of-the-box AI suggestions with your own human experience and voice. Use templates but then edit them to match the context of the customer conversation and history.

Whether tending to a difficult case or responding to a straightforward customer inquiry, a personal touch in the form of a thorough review and verification, human editing (and empathy), or added context can bring the drafted AI response from good to great.

Use the following checklist to ensure a human connection when responding to incoming customer support emails using Gemini:

Customer support response checklist

• ☑️ Read Gemini’s suggestion thoroughly
• ☑️ Add in personal details or context from the conversation history
• ☑️ Triple-check dates, details or technical explanations
• ☑️ Review tone before sending
• ☑️ Ensure responses sound human and empathetic
• ☑️ Add relevant account/situation specifics (if applicable)

Powering up your Keeping workflows with Gemini

Keeping and Gemini make a powerful combo for customer support teams that already use Gmail.

Here’s how they can work together right within Gmail:

Keeping ensures you have organized workflows, while Gemini’s features help enhance response quality and speed.

This allows your team to:

• Collaborate more seamlessly
• Apply creative solutions faster
• Build useful processes, templates and knowledge bases

For instance, your team can update Google Drive process documents and templates automatically as new info and insights come in. Likewise, your team can use Gemini to search past solutions and apply them to current tickets within Keeping.

There’s a natural synergy between Keeping and Gemini. Everything stays organized in one place and customers get personalized responses faster and more consistently.

No tab switching, no migrations, no additional logins — just better customer support within native Gmail.

Ready to level up your shared inbox?

Keeping makes it easy to share a Gmail account. Collaborate in Gmail without any complicated software.

See How Easy It Is

Frequently asked questions about using Gemini for customer support

The smartest way for support teams to utilize AI

Human support cannot be replaced, nor should that be our aim as team leaders.

Rather, we can use Gemini to help our support agents provide more efficient customer service. 

Gemini’s features can help summarize complex threads, connect the dots with past support solutions, and add a personalized touch to responses. By helping offload some of the most time-consuming tasks, it allows our support teams to focus their efforts on serving more customers and providing superior service.

Keeping’s structure and Gemini’s automation is a powerful combo that gives you help desk organization plus AI features without having to leave Gmail. Your team gets to work in the same environment they’re used to, with enhanced tools that make providing customer support easier.