Customer support AI agent
A chat agent that answers from your FAQ, looks up orders, and hands tricky cases to a human.
How it works
Trigger: Chat — a visitor sends a message on your website
- A visitor asks a question in the chat on your website.
- The agent decides what it needs: your FAQ, an order lookup, or a human.
- It answers using only what its tools return, and remembers the conversation.
- If the customer is upset or needs an exception, it emails your team with a summary.
What it can do
Unlike a fixed flow, an agent decides which of its tools to use, in what order — and remembers the conversation.
- Answers questions from your FAQ sheet — and only from it
- Looks up an order's status, items and tracking by order number
- Escalates to your team by email with the customer's details and a summary
- Remembers the last messages, so customers don't repeat themselves
- Replies in the customer's language
System prompt
The instructions that shape the agent. It's already inside the n8n template — copy it into Make or Zapier, and adjust the YOUR_… parts.
You are the customer support assistant for YOUR_BUSINESS.
Your job: answer customers' questions accurately and help them with their orders.
Tools:
- "Search FAQ": our questions-and-answers sheet. Use it for anything about products, shipping, returns, payments or policies. Answer only from what it returns.
- "Look up order": finds an order by its order number. Ask for the number if the customer hasn't given it.
- "Escalate to human": emails the support team. Use it when the customer is upset, asks for a refund or an exception, or you can't find the answer.
Rules:
- Never invent policies, prices or delivery dates. If the tools don't have the answer, say so and offer to escalate.
- Never ask for card numbers, passwords or other sensitive data.
- Before escalating, collect the customer's name and email, and tell them a person will reply.
- Keep replies short (2–4 sentences), friendly, and in the customer's language.Safety rules
Built into the prompt and the tools:
- Never invents policies, prices or delivery dates
- Never asks for card numbers or passwords
- Refunds and exceptions always go to a human
Uses your own AI key (Claude, OpenAI or another model). Cost depends on the model and conversation length — a small, fast model keeps most conversations to a fraction of a cent.
Diagram
Trigger AI Agent tool
Build it
Pick your tool — same automation, step by step.
Copy and paste straight into an n8n canvas (Ctrl+V), or download and use Import from File. Then connect your own credentials and replace every YOUR_… placeholder. AI steps use a Claude model node — swap it for OpenAI, Gemini or Ollama if you prefer.
Show code (242 lines)
{
"name": "Customer support AI agent (Flowngn)",
"nodes": [
{
"parameters": {
"content": "## Customer support AI agent\nA chat agent that answers from your FAQ, looks up orders, and hands tricky cases to a human.\n\n**Setup**\n1. Open each node and connect your own credentials.\n2. Replace every YOUR_… placeholder.\n3. Test once, then activate.\n\nFree template from Flowngn",
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{
"parameters": {
"public": true,
"mode": "hostedChat",
"initialMessages": "Hi! 👋 How can I help you today?",
"options": {
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"id": "2c527cac-899b-4e84-aed5-20e53f8aab89",
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"parameters": {
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"systemMessage": "=You are the customer support assistant for YOUR_BUSINESS.\n\nYour job: answer customers' questions accurately and help them with their orders.\n\nTools:\n- \"Search FAQ\": our questions-and-answers sheet. Use it for anything about products, shipping, returns, payments or policies. Answer only from what it returns.\n- \"Look up order\": finds an order by its order number. Ask for the number if the customer hasn't given it.\n- \"Escalate to human\": emails the support team. Use it when the customer is upset, asks for a refund or an exception, or you can't find the answer.\n\nRules:\n- Never invent policies, prices or delivery dates. If the tools don't have the answer, say so and offer to escalate.\n- Never ask for card numbers, passwords or other sensitive data.\n- Before escalating, collect the customer's name and email, and tell them a person will reply.\n- Keep replies short (2–4 sentences), friendly, and in the customer's language."
}
},
"id": "2c527cac-899b-4e84-aed5-20e53f8aab89",
"name": "Support agent",
"type": "@n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.agent",
"typeVersion": 1.9,
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{
"parameters": {
"model": {
"__rl": true,
"value": "claude-sonnet-5",
"mode": "list"
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"id": "2c527cac-899b-4e84-aed5-20e53f8aab89",
"name": "Claude model",
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{
"parameters": {
"descriptionType": "manual",
"toolDescription": "Returns all rows of our FAQ sheet (columns: question, answer). Use it to answer questions about products, shipping, returns, payments and policies.",
"operation": "read",
"documentId": {
"__rl": true,
"value": "YOUR_SPREADSHEET_ID",
"mode": "id"
},
"sheetName": {
"__rl": true,
"value": "FAQ",
"mode": "name"
},
"options": {}
},
"id": "2c527cac-899b-4e84-aed5-20e53f8aab89",
"name": "Search FAQ",
"type": "n8n-nodes-base.googleSheetsTool",
"typeVersion": 4.5,
"position": [
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},
{
"parameters": {
"descriptionType": "manual",
"toolDescription": "Finds a customer's order by order number. Returns status, items, total and tracking.",
"operation": "read",
"documentId": {
"__rl": true,
"value": "YOUR_SPREADSHEET_ID",
"mode": "id"
},
"sheetName": {
"__rl": true,
"value": "Orders",
"mode": "name"
},
"filtersUI": {
"values": [
{
"lookupColumn": "order_id",
"lookupValue": "={{ $fromAI('order_id', \"The customer's order number\", 'string') }}"
}
]
},
"options": {}
},
"id": "2c527cac-899b-4e84-aed5-20e53f8aab89",
"name": "Look up order",
"type": "n8n-nodes-base.googleSheetsTool",
"typeVersion": 4.5,
"position": [
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},
{
"parameters": {
"descriptionType": "manual",
"toolDescription": "Emails the support team so a person takes over. Include the customer's name, email and a short summary.",
"sendTo": "support@yourcompany.com",
"subject": "={{ $fromAI('subject', \"Short subject line for the support team\", 'string') }}",
"emailType": "text",
"message": "={{ $fromAI('summary', \"Summary of the issue, including the customer's name and email\", 'string') }}",
"options": {
"appendAttribution": false
}
},
"id": "2c527cac-899b-4e84-aed5-20e53f8aab89",
"name": "Escalate to human",
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"connections": {
"Website chat": {
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},
"Claude model": {
"ai_languageModel": [
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"node": "Support agent",
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"Memory": {
"ai_memory": [
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},
"Search FAQ": {
"ai_tool": [
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{
"node": "Support agent",
"type": "ai_tool",
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},
"Look up order": {
"ai_tool": [
[
{
"node": "Support agent",
"type": "ai_tool",
"index": 0
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},
"Escalate to human": {
"ai_tool": [
[
{
"node": "Support agent",
"type": "ai_tool",
"index": 0
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}
},
"pinData": {},
"settings": {
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"meta": {
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},
"tags": []
}In Make, create a new scenario and add these modules in order:
- Webhooks › Custom webhook — called by your website's chat widget
- Make AI Agents › Run an agent — give it these tools: “Search FAQ” (Google Sheets), “Look up order” (Google Sheets), “Escalate to human” (Gmail); paste the system prompt as the agent's instructions
- Every module run uses Make operations — the free plan includes a monthly quota.
- Module and step names can differ slightly as Make and Zapier update their apps.
In Zapier, create a new Zap and add these steps in order:
- Zapier Chatbots, or Webhooks by Zapier — Catch Hook from your chat widget
- Zapier Agents — create an agent (or AI by Zapier for a single step) — give it these tools: “Search FAQ” (Google Sheets), “Look up order” (Google Sheets), “Escalate to human” (Gmail); paste the system prompt as the agent's instructions
- Zaps with more than two steps need a paid Zapier plan.
- Module and step names can differ slightly as Make and Zapier update their apps.
Tips
- Start with your 20 most common questions in the FAQ sheet; add more as real questions come in.
- n8n's Chat Trigger gives you a hosted chat page and an embeddable widget for your site.
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