Playbooks

What it does

Behaviours, not fields. Choosing between two modules is choosing between these.

Tells you what to do right now, in order, when something is going wrong — which a wiki does not.

Every playbook has a trigger, because one without a trigger never gets opened at the right moment.

The same situation is handled the same way regardless of who is on shift.

How it works

1
A playbook is written after the second time a situation is handled differently.
2
The trigger is what connects it to the moment — the agent offers it when the situation arises.
3
Steps are ordered and meant to be followed in order under pressure.
4
Running one does not require deciding anything, which is the point.

Best for

Briefs, notes, policies, anything read as prose.

Not the right choice for

Structured fields pretending to be prose.

What a row holds

Every field, and what the agent listens for to fill it — which is the difference between a page you type into and one that fills itself.

Field	Type	Filled from
Playbookrequired	text	The situation it handles, named as the thing that goes wrong.
Triggerrequired	text	What makes somebody open it. Required — one without a trigger is never opened in time.
Stepsrequired	number	How many steps, so the reader knows what they are committing to.
Owner	text	Who maintains it, and usually who runs it.

What it does not do

A module chosen for something it cannot do costs more than one that was never offered.

No enforcement or tracking. Nothing records that a playbook was followed.
No branching. A situation with two real paths is two playbooks.
Steps are text, not tasks, so nothing is assigned or ticked.
A playbook nobody rehearses is a document, not a capability.

Before it works

What you have to provide, if anything.

Write the trigger first. A playbook without one is a wiki page.
Pair with Wiki for how things work, which is a different question from what to do now.

In practice

A shop where complaints were handled differently by each person.

“What do we do when something arrives damaged?”

What was said to the agent

What the agent built

A four-step playbook triggered by a customer reporting damage, with an owner.

What changed

Resolution went from a day and a half to under two hours, mostly because nobody spent time deciding what to do first.

Better with

These do a different job on the same data. An agent can have all of them.

WikiLive

More than one person needs to know how something is done, and it currently lives in someone's head.

FAQLive

Visitors ask the same handful of things — hours, delivery, pricing, whether you do X — and the answers should be identical on the page and in the chat.

AutomationsLive

Repetitive reactions are being done by hand, and the trigger is something the system already knows about.

Who uses this page

Consultant

Qualifies the engagement and captures the problem before the first conversation.

Sales team

Qualifies inbound around the clock and hands your reps a lead with the answers already in it.

Franchise network

One answer, every location — and a record of what each one is asking.

Questions

What data does the Playbooks page use?

It reads article records the agent has collected. Repeatable procedures. Nothing has to be imported first — the page appears once there is something to show.

Do I have to build or configure it?

No. You describe what you need in a sentence and the agent chooses the view and fills it. Custom pages exist for the cases no built-in view covers, and those are reviewed before they go live.

When is a document the wrong choice?

Structured fields pretending to be prose. It is best for: briefs, notes, policies, anything read as prose.

Does it stay up to date?

Yes. The page is a view over the data rather than a copy of it, so anything the agent learns afterwards shows up without a rebuild or a re-import.

More in Knowledge & ideas

The most-read article is the one about getting started, which is usually the tell.

Connecting a custom domainSetup
Why is my agent not replying?Troubleshooting
Choosing modules for your agentGetting started
Billing and plan changesAccount

Knowledge base

Reference the agent answers from.

Change an answer here and the agent starts giving the new one.

Do you deliver outside Paris?Yes — anywhere in France, 2–4 working days.
Can I change an order after paying?Until it ships. Message the agent and it will handle it.
Do you do wholesale?From 12 units. Ask for the trade price list.

FAQ

Question/answer pairs.

Packaging turns out to sit between two unrelated plans. That is the map earning its keep.

Trade pricingWholesale enquiriesSubscription boxesCafé partnerships

Trade pricing → Wholesale enquiries

Idea mapping

Ideas linked by relation.

One root, branches beneath. The shape is the argument.

Opening a second siteMoneyLease vs buyStaffing

Opening a second site → —

Mind map

Branching concept map.