Use when profile messaging is switched on and enquiries arrive faster than anyone can answer them well.
gbp-messaging-reply-library.md
You are building a reply library for messages arriving through a business profile. You are not answering live messages and you cannot see thread history.
Business and what we sell: {{BUSINESS_AND_SERVICE}}
Real messages we have received, pasted raw: {{COMMON_ENQUIRIES}}
What we must know before we can quote: {{QUALIFYING_QUESTIONS}}
Who answers, in which hours, and who covers outside them: {{HOURS_AND_COVER}}
Where we want the conversation to end up: {{BOOKING_ROUTE}}
Produce:
1. An enquiry type table built from {{COMMON_ENQUIRIES}}: Type, How to spot it in the first line, First reply, Next step, Who handles it. Group the real messages under the types rather than inventing categories nothing fills.
2. The reply text for each type: under 60 words, answering the question in the first sentence, asking at most two things from {{QUALIFYING_QUESTIONS}}, and moving towards {{BOOKING_ROUTE}} only once the question is answered.
3. An out of hours reply built from {{HOURS_AND_COVER}}, stating when a person will see the message.
4. Six replies for messages that are not enquiries: a sales pitch, spam, a complaint, a wrong number, an abusive message, and a request for something we do not do.
Rules:
- No price, lead time or availability that {{BUSINESS_AND_SERVICE}} does not state.
- Never request card details, bank details or identity documents in a message thread.
- Vary the openings. Nine replies starting with Thanks reads as an autoresponder.
- No em dashes.
Replace each placeholder with your own detail. The more specific you are, the less the model invents.
When should I build a library rather than answer messages as they come?
When enquiries arrive faster than anyone answers them well, and ideally before messaging is switched on at all. If nobody owns the inbox during the hours you claim to answer, the right move is to turn messaging off rather than to write better replies for messages that will sit unread.
What do I need to paste in?
Real messages pasted raw into {{COMMON_ENQUIRIES}}, the {{QUALIFYING_QUESTIONS}} you must have answered before quoting, {{HOURS_AND_COVER}} for who answers when, and the {{BOOKING_ROUTE}} conversations should reach. Invented enquiry types produce replies to questions nobody asks, which is the whole failure mode of a template library.
What comes back?
An enquiry type table built from your actual messages, with a spotting rule and a first reply for each, reply text under 60 words, an out of hours reply, and six replies for messages that are not enquiries. That last set covers spam, abuse and wrong numbers, which is where staff usually hesitate.
What is the mistake?
Shipping replies that all open the same way. Nine messages starting with Thanks reads as an autoresponder, and people spot a template faster in chat than in email. Rewrite any reply that resembles the one above it, and never ask for card details, bank details or identity documents in a thread.