The Yard Email Assistant

🎯 Overview

The Yard Email Assistant is a Chrome extension that adds a sidebar to Gmail. When you open a customer email, the sidebar appears on the right side of your screen and gives you access to AI-powered tools without ever leaving your inbox.

Instead of switching between Gmail, SA5, and your notes to draft a response, the assistant pulls everything together in one place. It reads the full email thread, looks up the customer in SA5, and helps you write a professional reply in seconds.

✨ What It Can Do

🏢 Which Company Does It Work With?

The extension works with both Richter's Lawn Care (RLC) and GreenX Lawn Care (GX). It automatically detects which company the email is for based on the email addresses and content. If it can't tell, you can manually select RLC or GX before searching for the customer.

📋 Before You Start

• You are using Google Chrome as your web browser (the extension does not work in Firefox, Edge, or Safari)
• You have a Gmail account that you use for work email (mail.google.com)
• You have your 4-digit Yard PIN (the same PIN you use to sign into The Yard)
• You are on a desktop or laptop computer (the extension does not work on phones or tablets)

📥 Step 1 — Download the Extension

Click the button below to download the extension folder as a .zip file. Save it somewhere easy to find, like your Desktop or Downloads folder.

📂 Step 2 — Unzip the Folder

After the download completes, you need to unzip (extract) the file:

On Windows

1. Find email-assistant.zip in your Downloads folder
2. Right-click on the file
3. Select "Extract All..."
4. Click "Extract" — a new folder called email-assistant will appear

On Mac

1. Find email-assistant.zip in your Downloads folder
2. Double-click the file — macOS will automatically unzip it
3. A new folder called email-assistant will appear next to the .zip file

🧩 Step 3 — Load the Extension in Chrome

1. Open Google Chrome
2. Type chrome://extensions in the address bar at the top and press Enter
3. In the top-right corner of the page, find the toggle labeled "Developer mode" and flip it ON (it should turn blue)
4. Three new buttons will appear at the top-left. Click the one that says "Load unpacked"
5. A file picker window will open. Navigate to and select the email-assistant folder you unzipped in Step 2
6. Click "Select Folder" (Windows) or "Open" (Mac)

You should now see "The Yard Email Assistant" appear in your list of extensions with a green checkmark.

🔑 Step 4 — Sign In

1. Open Gmail (mail.google.com)
2. Click on any email to open it
3. The Yard sidebar will appear on the right side of your screen
4. Enter your 4-digit Yard PIN in the PIN field
5. Click "Sign In"

Once signed in, your session stays active for 8 hours. You won't need to re-enter your PIN unless you close Chrome or your session expires.

✅ Verify It's Working

After signing in, you should see:

• The sidebar header says "The Yard — Email Assistant" with a green status dot
• The email subject and sender are displayed under "Email detected"
• An intent badge appears (like "general inquiry" or "scheduling") showing the AI classified the email
• The "Draft Reply" button is visible
• The "Enrich with SA5 Customer Data" button is visible below

If you see all of these, the extension is installed and working correctly.

📝 The Basic Flow

1. Open a customer email in Gmail. The sidebar appears and shows the subject and sender.
2. Add context (optional). In the "Add context" box, type anything you want the AI to know. For example: "customer called yesterday, wants to cancel over price" or "we already sent a tech last week."
3. Click "Draft Reply." The AI reads the full email thread, your context, and any SA5 customer data, then writes a professional reply.
4. Review the draft. The draft appears in a text box you can edit freely.
5. Click "Insert into Gmail" to drop the text directly into your Gmail reply box.

💬 The "Add Context" Box

This is one of the most powerful features of the assistant. The context you type here is sent directly to the AI as an instruction. The more specific you are, the better the draft will be.

Good context examples

• "Customer called this morning upset about brown spots. Tech already went out and applied grub treatment." — AI will reference the grub treatment and reassure the customer.
• "This is a cancellation request. Offer them a free service call to save the account." — AI will write a retention-focused reply with the free service call offer.
• "Customer wants a lawn estimate for their new property at 123 Oak St." — AI will confirm the address and let them know an evaluation will be scheduled.
• "Just respond with our standard prepay letter pricing." — AI will include pricing information from the knowledge base.

Bad context examples

• "help" — too vague, the AI has nothing to work with.
• "say what they want to hear" — the AI needs specifics, not vague instructions.

🎛️ Refining the Draft

After the draft generates, three buttons appear below the text:

You can click these buttons multiple times. Each click refines the current draft further in that direction.

🔄 Full Email Thread

The assistant reads every message in the Gmail thread, not just the most recent one. This means:

• If the customer replied three times, the AI sees all three messages plus every response.
• The AI understands the full conversation history and won't repeat things that were already addressed.
• Long threads give the AI more context, which usually means better drafts.

📏 Font Size

The draft text box has three font size buttons in the top-right: S, M, and L. Use these to make the text easier to read while reviewing. Your choice is saved and persists between emails.

🔎 Automatic Lookup

Click "Enrich with SA5 Customer Data" and the assistant will automatically try to find the customer using:

1. Account number — if the email mentions an account number, it searches by that first (highest confidence)
2. Phone number — if a phone number appears in the email body, it searches by phone
3. Sender email — it searches SA5 for customers with a matching email address
4. Sender name — it searches by first and last name as a last resort

When a match is found, you'll see a list of possible matches with a confidence percentage. Click the correct customer to select them.

🔍 Manual Search

If the automatic lookup doesn't find the right customer, use the manual search panel below it:

1. Select the company — choose RLC or GX from the dropdown. The assistant pre-selects based on the email, but you can override it.
2. Search by customer number — type the exact account number for a direct lookup.
3. Search by text — type a name, phone number, email address, or street address to search.
4. Click "Find Customer" to search.

👤 The Customer Card

After selecting a customer, the customer card shows:

• Name and address
• Phone number
• Status and balance (e.g., "Active | Balance: $0")
• Company badge (RLC or GX)
• Active programs — shown as pills (e.g., "LCP (R3/6)" means Lawn Care Program, round 3 of 6 completed)
• Flags — any account flags like Do Not Service, Callback, etc.

Below the card, you'll see action buttons for logging to SA5, plus a "Re-draft with Customer Context" button if you already have a draft. Clicking this regenerates the AI reply with the customer's programs, balance, and flags included — resulting in a more accurate, personalized response.

📋 Log Email to SA5 Call Log

This creates a call log entry on the customer's SA5 account. Use this to record that you handled an email from this customer.

1. Select a customer first (see Chapter 4)
2. Click "Log Email to SA5 Call Log"
3. A note panel opens pre-filled with the email subject, sender, body excerpt, and any context you entered. Edit as needed.
4. Click "Save to SA5"

The call log is created with reason "Email Inquiry" and direction "Inbound." A green receipt panel confirms the save with your SA5 employee ID and a timestamp.

📝 Add SA5 Quick Note

Quick notes are short text that gets appended to either the customer quick note or technician quick note field in SA5.

1. Select a customer first
2. Click "Add SA5 Quick Note"
3. Choose "Customer quick note" or "Technician quick note" from the dropdown
4. Edit the pre-filled note as needed
5. Click "Save Quick Note"

🛠️ Create SA5 Job

This creates a new job (service call, estimate, or evaluation) on the customer's account in SA5.

1. Select a customer first
2. Click "Create SA5 Job"
3. Choose a job code from the dropdown
4. Optionally check "Make service ASAP (*)" to mark the job as urgent
5. Add a technician note with context from the email
6. Review the confirmation box — it shows the customer, company, job code, and ASAP status
7. Check the confirmation checkbox to acknowledge you've verified everything
8. Click "Create Job"

📜 Recent SA5 Writes

Click "Recent SA5 Writes" to see a history of everything the Email Assistant has written to SA5 for this customer. Each entry shows the operation type, timestamp, SA5 employee ID, and status. Use this to verify your writes went through or to check what was already logged.

🧾 SA5 Receipts

After every successful SA5 write (call log, quick note, or job), a green receipt panel appears showing:

• Status — "Success" or "Duplicate protected" (if the same action was already taken)
• Customer — name and account number
• Company — RLC or GX
• SA5 employee — the employee ID used for the write
• Program / Job code — for job creation
• Audit ID — internal tracking number
• Time — when the write was made

🏆 The Ideal Workflow

For the best results, follow this order every time:

1. Open the email. Read it yourself first. Understand what the customer wants.
2. Look up the customer in SA5. Click "Enrich with SA5" so the assistant knows who they are.
3. Add context. Type a brief note about the situation, what you know, or what approach you want.
4. Draft the reply. Click "Draft Reply" — the AI now has the thread, the customer data, and your notes.
5. Review and refine. Edit the text, click Shorter/Warmer/+Technical if needed.
6. Insert into Gmail. Click "Insert into Gmail," review one more time, and send.
7. Log the interaction. Click "Log Email to SA5 Call Log" to create a record.

⚡ Speed Tips

• Press Enter in the context box to trigger "Draft Reply" without clicking the button
• Open a reply in Gmail first, then use "Insert into Gmail" — the draft drops right into your compose box
• Pin the extension so you can see your login status at a glance in Chrome's toolbar
• Leave the context box empty for simple replies — the AI uses the thread alone and does fine for straightforward questions
• Font size is saved — set it to Large (L) once if you prefer bigger text, and it'll stay that way

🚫 What Not To Do

• Don't send AI drafts without reading them. The AI is very good but not perfect. Always read before you send.
• Don't create SA5 jobs without confirming the customer. A job created on the wrong account will confuse the tech and the office.
• Don't use the extension for personal emails. It only activates on Gmail, but the sidebar should only be used for Richter's and GreenX customer emails.
• Don't give the AI contradictory instructions. If you type "be very brief" in context and then click "+Technical," the results may be confusing. Pick a direction.

🔧 The Sidebar Doesn't Appear

Check 1: Is the extension installed?

Go to chrome://extensions and look for "The Yard Email Assistant." If it's not there, follow Chapter 2 to install it.

Check 2: Is it enabled?

On the extensions page, make sure the toggle switch next to the extension is turned ON (blue).

Check 3: Are you on Gmail?

The extension only works on mail.google.com. It will not activate on other email clients or webmail services.

Check 4: Try refreshing

Close the Gmail tab and open a new one. Navigate to Gmail and open an email. Sometimes the extension needs a fresh page load after installation.

🔧 "Session Expired" or PIN Not Working

Sessions last 8 hours. If your session expired:

1. The sidebar will show a PIN entry field — enter your 4-digit PIN and click "Sign In"
2. If your PIN is rejected, try clicking the extension icon (puzzle piece in toolbar → The Yard Email Assistant) and signing in from the popup
3. If it still doesn't work, your PIN may have been changed. Ask Joe or your manager for your current PIN.

🔧 "Failed to Generate Draft"

This usually means the AI service is temporarily unavailable. Wait 30 seconds and try again. If it persists for more than a few minutes, the service may be down — notify Joe.

🔧 SA5 Lookup Not Finding the Customer

• Wrong company selected. Try switching between RLC and GX.
• Name spelling. Try searching by phone number or account number instead.
• New customer. If they're not in SA5 yet, you'll need to add them in SA5 first.
• Try manual search. Use the search box to enter a phone number, email, or address.

🔧 "Insert into Gmail" Doesn't Work

You need to have a reply compose box open in Gmail first:

1. Click the "Reply" button in Gmail (at the bottom of the email)
2. A compose box will open at the bottom
3. Now click "Insert into Gmail" in the sidebar — the draft will appear in the compose box

🔧 Extension Disappeared After Chrome Updated

Chrome updates sometimes disable unpacked extensions. To re-enable:

1. Go to chrome://extensions
2. If you see a warning banner at the top, click "Enable" next to The Yard Email Assistant
3. If the extension is gone entirely, you'll need to re-install using Chapter 2 (but you don't need to re-download — the folder is still on your computer)