Rewrite real support messages that are correct and unusable

applied · 40 min · Objective 4.2

Task

Take support messages that are technically accurate and useless to their reader, and rewrite them. This is the applied lab for the objective because there is nothing to run and nobody to run it with, and a role-play with an imaginary customer teaches a script rather than judgement -- whereas a rewritten message is an artefact somebody else can judge.

Steps

  1. Collect five messages that are technically correct and hard to act on. Record each with its problem in lab/comms/originals.csv with header id,context,problem,reader_cannot.
  2. Rewrite each one in lab/comms/rewrites.md, numbered to match, and record in lab/comms/changes.csv with header id,jargon_removed,expectation_set,next_action_clear,length_change.
  3. Write lab/comms/expectations.md giving three commitments in the form you would actually make them -- specific, with a time, and beatable.
  4. Write lab/comms/difficult.md giving the five-step sequence for an angry customer, and the point at which you would end an interaction and escalate.
  5. Write lab/comms/confidentiality.md listing what you would see on a typical job that is not yours to read, and the rule you apply to each.

Verify

awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF>=4 {n++} END {print n" original(s)"}' lab/comms/originals.csv
grep -Ec '^[0-9]+\.' lab/comms/rewrites.md
awk -F, 'NR>1 && $4 ~ /yes/ {n++} END {print n" rewrite(s) with a clear next action"}' lab/comms/changes.csv
grep -Ec '[0-9]' lab/comms/expectations.md
grep -Eic 'abuse|end the (call|interaction)|escalat' lab/comms/difficult.md
grep -Ec '^[-*0-9]' lab/comms/confidentiality.md

Five originals rewritten, every rewrite with a clear next action, commitments containing an actual time, and a difficult-conversation sequence that names the point at which you stop. A commitment with no time in it is "as soon as possible", which is the thing being replaced.

Notes

"I'm sorry you feel that way" fails because it acknowledges nothing. "You have been without a working machine for three days and nobody called you back" acknowledges the substance, and it is the sentence that changes the conversation.

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