draft-response

/draft-response

If you see unfamiliar placeholders or need to check which tools are connected, see CONNECTORS.md.

Draft a professional, customer-facing response tailored to the situation, customer relationship, and communication context.

Usage

/draft-response <context about the customer question, issue, or request>

Examples:

• /draft-response Acme Corp is asking when the new dashboard feature will ship
• /draft-response Customer escalation — their integration has been down for 2 days
• /draft-response Responding to a feature request we won't be building
• /draft-response Customer hit a billing error and wants a resolution ASAP

Workflow

1. Understand the Context

Parse the user's input to determine:

• Customer: Who is the communication for? Look up account context if available.
• Situation type: Question, issue, escalation, announcement, negotiation, bad news, good news, follow-up
• Urgency: Is this time-sensitive? How long has the customer been waiting?
• Channel: Email, support ticket, chat, or other (adjust formality accordingly)
• Relationship stage: New customer, established, frustrated/escalated
• Stakeholder level: End user, manager, executive, technical, business

2. Research Context

Gather relevant background from available sources:

~~email:

• Previous correspondence with this customer on this topic
• Any commitments or timelines previously shared
• Tone and style of the existing thread

~~chat:

• Internal discussions about this customer or topic
• Any guidance from product, engineering, or leadership
• Similar situations and how they were handled

~~CRM (if connected):

• Account details and plan level
• Contact information and key stakeholders
• Previous escalations or sensitive issues

~~support platform (if connected):

• Related tickets and their resolution
• Known issues or workarounds
• SLA status and response time commitments

~~knowledge base:

• Official documentation or help articles to reference
• Product roadmap information (if shareable)
• Policy or process documentation

3. Generate the Draft

Produce a response tailored to the situation:

## Draft Response

**To:** [Customer contact name]
**Re:** [Subject/topic]
**Channel:** [Email / Ticket / Chat]
**Tone:** [Empathetic / Professional / Technical / Celebratory / Candid]

---

[Draft response text]

---

### Notes for You (internal — do not send)
- **Why this approach:** [Rationale for tone and content choices]
- **Things to verify:** [Any facts or commitments to confirm before sending]
- **Risk factors:** [Anything sensitive about this response]
- **Follow-up needed:** [Actions to take after sending]
- **Escalation note:** [If this should be reviewed by someone else first]

4. Run Quality Checks

Before presenting the draft, verify:

• Tone matches the situation and relationship
• No commitments beyond what's authorized
• No product roadmap details that shouldn't be shared externally
• Accurate references to previous conversations
• Clear next steps and ownership
• Appropriate for the stakeholder level (not too technical for executives, not too vague for engineers)
• Length is appropriate for the channel (shorter for chat, fuller for email)

5. Offer Iterations

After presenting the draft:

• "Want me to adjust the tone? (more formal, more casual, more empathetic, more direct)"
• "Should I add or remove any specific points?"
• "Want me to make this shorter/longer?"
• "Should I draft a version for a different stakeholder?"
• "Want me to draft the internal escalation note as well?"
• "Should I prepare a follow-up message to send after [X days] if no response?"

Customer Communication Best Practices

Core Principles

1. Lead with empathy: Acknowledge the customer's situation before jumping to solutions
2. Be direct: Get to the point — customers are busy. Bottom-line-up-front.
3. Be honest: Never overpromise, never mislead, never hide bad news in jargon
4. Be specific: Use concrete details, timelines, and names — avoid vague language
5. Own it: Take responsibility when appropriate. "We" not "the system" or "the process"
6. Close the loop: Every response should have a clear next step or call to action
7. Match their energy: If they're frustrated, be empathetic first. If they're excited, be enthusiastic.

Response Structure

For most customer communications, follow this structure:

Length Guidelines

• Chat/IM: 1-4 sentences. Get to the point immediately.
• Support ticket response: 1-3 short paragraphs. Structured and scannable.
• Email: 3-5 paragraphs max. Respect their inbox.
• Escalation response: As long as needed to be thorough, but well-structured with headers.
• Executive communication: Shorter is better. 2-3 paragraphs max. Data-driven.

Tone and Style Guidelines

Tone Spectrum

Tone Adjustments by Relationship Stage

New Customer (0-3 months):

• More formal and professional
• Extra context and explanation (don't assume knowledge)
• Proactively offer help and resources
• Build trust through reliability and responsiveness

Established Customer (3+ months):

• Warm and collaborative
• Can reference shared history and previous conversations
• More direct and efficient communication
• Show awareness of their goals and priorities

Frustrated or Escalated Customer:

• Extra empathy and acknowledgment
• Urgency in response times
• Concrete action plans with specific commitments
• Shorter feedback loops

Writing Style Rules

DO:

• Use active voice ("We'll investigate" not "This will be investigated")
• Use "I" for personal commitments and "we" for team commitments
• Name specific people when assigning actions ("Sarah from our engineering team will...")
• Use the customer's terminology, not your internal jargon
• Include specific dates and times, not relative terms ("by Friday January 24" not "in a few days")
• Break up long responses with headers or bullet points

DON'T:

• Use corporate jargon or buzzwords ("synergy", "leverage", "paradigm shift")
• Deflect blame to other teams, systems, or processes
• Use passive voice to avoid ownership ("Mistakes were made")
• Include unnecessary caveats or hedging that undermines confidence
• CC people unnecessarily — only include those who need to be in the conversation
• Use exclamation marks excessively (one per email max, if any)

Situation-Specific Approaches

Answering a product question:

• Lead with the direct answer
• Provide relevant documentation links
• Offer to connect them with the right resource if needed
• If you don't know the answer: say so honestly, commit to finding out, give a timeline

Responding to an issue or bug:

• Acknowledge the impact on their work
• State what you know about the issue and its status
• Provide workaround if available
• Set expectations for resolution timeline
• Commit to updates at regular intervals

Handling an escalation:

• Acknowledge the severity and their frustration
• Take ownership (no deflecting or excuse-making)
• Provide a clear action plan with timeline
• Identify the person accountable for resolution
• Offer a meeting or call if appropriate for the severity

Delivering bad news (feature sunset, delay, can't-fix):

• Be direct — don't bury the news
• Explain the reasoning honestly
• Acknowledge the impact on them specifically
• Offer alternatives or mitigation
• Provide a clear path forward

Sharing good news (feature launch, milestone, recognition):

• Lead with the positive outcome
• Connect it to their specific goals or use case
• Suggest next steps to capitalize on the good news
• Express genuine enthusiasm

Declining a request (feature request, discount, exception):

• Acknowledge the request and its reasoning
• Be honest about the decision
• Explain the why without being dismissive
• Offer alternatives when possible
• Leave the door open for future conversation

Response Templates for Common Scenarios

Acknowledging a Bug Report

Acknowledging a Billing or Account Issue

Responding to a Feature Request You Won't Build

Outage or Incident Communication

Following Up After Silence

Follow-up and Escalation Guidance

Follow-up Cadence

When to Escalate

Escalate to your manager when:

• Customer threatens to cancel or significantly downsell
• Customer requests exception to policy you can't authorize
• An issue has been unresolved for longer than SLA allows
• Customer requests direct contact with leadership
• You've made an error that needs senior involvement to resolve

Escalate to product/engineering when:

• Bug is critical and blocking the customer's business
• Feature gap is causing a competitive loss
• Customer has unique technical requirements beyond standard support
• Integration issues require engineering investigation

Escalation format:

ESCALATION: [Customer Name] — [One-line summary]
 
Urgency: [Critical / High / Medium]
Customer impact: [What's broken for them]
History: [Brief background — 2-3 sentences]
What I've tried: [Actions taken so far]
What I need: [Specific help or decision needed]
Deadline: [When this needs to be resolved by]
```~~