# Team triage playbook

A working agreement for a shared inbox. Adapt the names and hours, keep the
structure. The point of writing it down is that "somebody will pick it up" is
not a process.

---

## Statuses and what they mean

| Status | Meaning | Who moves it |
|---|---|---|
| New | Nobody has looked at it | Automatic on arrival |
| In progress | Someone owns it and is working | The person who assigns it to themselves |
| Waiting | Blocked on the customer or a third party | Owner |
| Closed | Resolved, no further action expected | Owner |

A thread with no owner in **In progress** is a bug in the process, not a busy
day. If you move it, you own it.

## First-touch rules

1. **Anyone can take anything.** The first available person assigns the thread
   to themselves. No queue master, no round-robin ceremony.
2. **Assign before you reply.** The assignment is what stops two people
   answering the same person.
3. **Specialists get routed, not hoarded.** If it needs the finance or security
   person, assign it to them and leave a `/note` saying why.
4. **SLA sort is the queue.** Work top-down. The oldest unresolved thread is
   always the most expensive one.

## Handoff

Use `/note` in the composer to leave an internal note the customer never sees.
Every handoff carries three things:

```
/note Handing to [name]. Customer wants [what]. Already tried [what]. Blocked on [what].
```

A handoff without those three lines means the next person restarts the
conversation from zero, and the customer notices.

## Identity

Before sending, check the composer footer: **Replies as: [name] - [platform]**.
In a multi-account setup the same person may have talked to two identities. The
reply goes from the account they messaged. Getting this wrong looks like a
different company answering.

## Tags

Tag on first touch, not at close. Use the shared taxonomy (source, segment,
status) rather than inventing per-thread tags. A tag applied to fewer than five
threads is noise; merge or delete it at the weekly review.

## Escalation

| Trigger | Goes to | Within |
|---|---|---|
| Refund or billing dispute | Finance | 2 hours |
| Security or data-protection question | Security owner | 4 hours |
| Complaint or public threat | Team lead | Immediately |
| Anything unanswered past its SLA | Team lead | On breach |

## Daily and weekly rhythm

**Daily, 10 minutes.** Scan for threads in New older than the first-response
SLA. Take one each until the queue is empty.

**Weekly, 30 minutes.** Review: threads breached, the reasons, any tag with
fewer than five threads, and one thing to change next week.

## After hours

Set expectations in the widget and the auto-reply rather than pretending to be
online. "We reply Mon-Fri 09:00-18:00" honestly stated beats a promise you
break on a Saturday.