Build a support team that answers customers

1. Hire the team#

In People, select New department, name it Support and say what it does: “Answers customers about orders, deliveries and returns.” Chat reads this when it plans work and picks employees.

1. 1

   Hire the lead

   Hire employee: Jonas Weber, Customer support lead, in Support, reporting to you. Responsibilities: “Owns saved replies and the returns policy wording, and reviews escalations.”

2. 2

   Hire the specialists

   Ana Kovacs (Support specialist, orders and returns) and Tomas Herrera (Support specialist, products), both reporting to Jonas.

   

3. 3

   Activate them

   Open each draft and select Activate. They stay idle until there is work.

For each field in detail, see Hire your first employee.

2. Give them your policies#

Employees answer from the documents in their scope, and cite them. In Knowledge, select Add sources.

1. 1

   Add the returns policy

   Paste the policy’s text (or drop the file), give it the title “Returns policy” and the Company scope, so Sales and Finance can read it too. Save source version.

2. 2

   Add the delivery areas

   Do the same for “Delivery areas and times”, scoped to the Support department.

3. 3

   Wait for Indexed

   The Index column shows Queued, then Reading, then Indexed. Only then can searches find it.

3. Write down how a good reply works#

A skill makes every reply follow the same steps and pass the same checks. In People › Skills, select New skill.

1. 1

   Describe it

   Choose Describe it and write: “Answer a customer about an order, a late or damaged delivery, a return, or whether we deliver to them. Check the returns policy and delivery areas first. Under 120 words, friendly, signed Kestrel Supplies Support.” Select Draft the skill; that one call uses a few credits.

2. 2

   Review the draft

   Chat drafts Use it when, the Steps and Done when. Keep the checks that matter, such as Word limit 120 and Words it never uses (“as per”, “kindly be advised”): a reply that fails them isn’t done.

3. 3

   Attach the documents

   Under Uses, add Returns policy and Delivery areas and times.

4. 4

   Give it to the team

   Under Give it to, tick Jonas, Ana and Tomas, then Save and give to 3 employees.

4. Connect the mailbox, read only#

Start with reading. Your team learns your customers’ questions, and nothing can leave.

1. 1

   Connect Gmail

   In Connections, find Gmail under Add an app, select Connect and sign in with the support account.

2. 2

   Turn on reading

   On the Gmail connection, Read your email says “Off.” Select Turn on, enter the address and a Google app password, and Check and add.

   

3. 3

   Give Read to the specialists

   Under Who can use it, Add an employee: Ana, then Tomas. Each starts at Read.

Try it before anything goes out: assign Ana a task such as “Read last week’s emails about returns and draft a reply to each. Don’t send anything.” Her deliverable holds the drafts, each citing the policy. If a reply misses, Request revision and tick Also propose a standing rule so the lesson sticks.

5. Let customer email arrive as work#

An intake turns each new email into a task for one employee, while you’re away. In Work › Routines, select New intake.

1. 1

   Who and how

   Under Who works on what comes in, choose Ana. Keep Watch a service, choose the Gmail connection and, under What to watch, new email.

2. 2

   Narrow it (optional)

   Only when takes up to five conditions, such as the subject containing “order”. Emails that don’t match make no task and cost nothing.

3. 3

   Name, cap and instructions

   Name it “Customer emails”. Most items a day is 20 (up to 200). Under What to do with each item, write: “Reply using the Reply to a customer skill. Anything about a refund over EUR 200: don’t answer, ask me.”

4. 4

   Check and make it

   Before you make it sums up what is watched, who works on it, the most it can cost at its daily cap and how replies leave. Select Make intake.

From now on each new email becomes Ana’s task, marked as outside content. Items past the daily cap, at a spending limit, or while the company is paused are held in your Inbox, where you run or dismiss them.

6. Allow replies, one approval each#

On the Gmail connection, under Who can use it, switch Ana to Read and write. Now, when a reply is ready, she asks you first.

1. 1

   Open the request

   It waits in Inbox › Needs you and in the Office’s Needs you column, where Ana walks to your room.

2. 2

   Check it

   The card shows the recipient, the subject and every word of the reply, the task, the policy it cites, and a warning that it read an email you didn’t write.

3. 3

   Decide

   Approve and send (A), or Decline (X) with a reason such as “Offer a replacement, not a refund.” Ana gets your reason and decides what to do next.

7. Where a standing approval helps#

Replies to customer emails always ask you. A task an email started read content you didn’t write, and a standing approval never covers sends from such a task. That keeps a cleverly worded email from ever sending something you didn’t see.

A standing approval fits support’s repeated writes built only from your own material, such as a weekly routine that emails your warehouse the same returns checklist. Open the Gmail connection and select New standing approval:

1. 1

   Say what it allows

   A Name, the Action (Gmail’s send), the Connection, the Destination and the Employees who may use it.

2. 2

   Fix and cap it

   Add a fixed value for anything every send must carry, such as the recipient. Set how many in all, how many an hour and how much it may spend.

3. 3

   Sample and expiry

   The first 10–20 sends are a sample that waits for Confirm sample; it expires after 1, 7, 30 or 90 days. Create standing approval.

Questions#