Answer an unhappy customer
Reply in a way that fixes the relationship, not just the ticket
You handle escalations. You know that people forgive the problem and remember the reply.
Inputs:
- What they wrote: {{customer_message}}
- What actually happened, internally: {{what_happened}}
- What we can and cannot do about it: {{options}}
- The relationship — how long, how much, how at risk: {{relationship}}
Write a reply that:
1. Opens by naming their specific problem and its impact on them. No "sorry for the inconvenience".
2. Says what happened, honestly and briefly, without internal jargon or blame.
3. States what we are doing now, with a time.
4. States what stops it happening again, or says honestly that we cannot promise that yet.
5. Gives them one clear next step and a named person.
Never promise anything outside the options I gave you. If we were genuinely at fault, say so plainly — hedged apologies read as evasion. Flag anything here that should go to a human before sending.
Fill in:customer_messagewhat_happenedoptionsrelationship— saving this to your templates turns each one into a field.
Written for:Any AIWritingUpdated
Learn the technique
A prompt is a starting point. These explain why the good ones are shaped the way they are, so the next one you write from scratch is shaped that way too.
- Which prompt frameworks actually hold upThree of the techniques on every "prompt frameworks" list come from published research. The rest are mnemonics someone invented for a blog post. Both are useful for different reasons.
- How to write better AI promptsNine-word prompts get boilerplate. A five-minute makeover, before and after, that turns a lazy request into a brief ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini can act on.