A clock on the promise. Late shows up where the work is

A clock on the promise

• Put a rule on a hub: when a message like this arrives, we answer within so many minutes. Two templates to start with. Delivery change confirmed is 30 minutes, order received is 60.
• When that kind of message lands in a hub carrying the rule, a clock starts on it. Only what people write counts. Messages addressed to an agent are left alone.
• Calls work the same way. When a call ends and its summary is ready, the clock starts on the call mark, counted from the moment the summary was ready rather than the moment the call ended.
• If the message mentions exactly one member, that person is who the clock is waiting on. If it mentions nobody, it waits on whoever received it.

What you see

• Before the deadline it is a quiet grey pill. "Delivery change confirmed · 18 min left". If more than twelve hours remain, it shows the time instead: "due Mon 9:20".
• Past the deadline it turns soft amber, says "5 min over", and two buttons appear.
• Remind posts a reply in that thread mentioning the person who owes the answer. It goes out under your name, and that reply does not count as the answer.
• Mark done takes the clock down. The × clears a clock that should not have been there.
• The pill is only visible to the people the clock concerns: whoever wrote the message, whoever owes the answer, and once it has escalated, whoever it escalated to. It is not broadcast to the hub.

How the time is counted

• Only minutes inside working hours count. A 30 minute clock started at 17:50 on Friday is due at 9:20 on Monday.
• Working days, working hours and timezone are set per rule, and daylight saving is handled.
• A reply or a reaction counts as answered, as long as it did not come from the person who wrote the message.
• Past the deadline it is recorded as missed and escalated to whoever you nominated.

Why we built it

• It came up in every field interview. Whether someone calls back within the hour, whether the quote goes out by the next day, is what decides the deal. With fifty dealers, no human can count who did.
• So the promise goes on the conversation instead of into a document. Nobody counts, and late shows up where the work is.

Worth knowing

• Rules are created from templates in workspace settings and attached to the hubs you choose.
• Two templates today. More as we use it.