Playbook · Software development agency
After-hours answering for software development agencies
Answer customer messages at any hour from the business’s own facts, and hand anything else to a person with a holding reply.
Start the 14-day trial, then find it under Templates → Library. It installs into the client you choose, switched off, with its checklist.
Every step, in order
Branches show each arm; a step indented under one runs only on that arm. The words are the template’s own, and the client’s fields fill them in.
Why this workflow
Most messages ask what the business has already written down: hours, area, prices, how to book. Left until morning they go cold; answered by a bot that guesses, they create promises nobody made. An answer limited to the business’s own facts, with a clean hand-off to a person for everything else, does the first without the second.
- Starts whenA message is sent to the bot
Telegram - AgentAnswer from the facts
- BranchNeeds a person?
- IfIf person
- App stepTell them a person will replyTelegram
- TextText the owner
- IfIf answered
- App stepSend the answerTelegram
What each client fills in
- Business name
- How messages sign off.
- AI model
- The model the client’s key can use.
- Business facts
- Hours, area served, services, call-out fee, how to book: everything the bot may say, and nothing else.
- When a person replies
- In the customer’s words: “first thing tomorrow”, “within the hour”.
- Owner’s mobile
- Texted when something needs a person now.
The accounts it needs
Each is the client’s own, stored encrypted and never copied between clients. Until one is added the client’s checklist shows it, and nothing runs.
In Telegram, message @BotFather → /newbot → copy the token. Add the bot to the client’s group, or have the client message it once.
platform.claude.com → Settings → API keys → Create key, in the workspace that bills this client.
After you install it
It lands switched off. The client’s checklist holds exactly this:
- Connect the client’s Telegram, for “A message is sent to the bot”, “Tell them a person will reply” and “Send the answer”
- Connect the client’s Anthropic, for “Answer from the facts”
- Connect the client’s Twilio (SMS), for “Text the owner”
- Fill in AI model (The model the client’s key can use)
- Fill in Business name (How messages sign off)
- Fill in Business facts (Hours, area served, services, call-out fee, how to book: everything the bot may say, and nothing else)
- Fill in When a person replies (In the customer’s words: “first thing tomorrow”, “within the hour”)
- Fill in Owner’s mobile (Texted when something needs a person now)
What it does not do
- It answers on Telegram only. The catalog cannot receive or reply to SMS, WhatsApp or website chat yet, so if the client’s customers do not message on Telegram, this playbook is not for them.
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