# Answers

URL: /systems/customer-service/answers · Id: `page:systems/customer-service/answers`

> How every support answer reads the record, cites the accepted terms, runs the Action before promising it, and counts as resolved only when it holds.

A support answer is a promise the record keeps. It reads the [Customer](/business/nouns/customer)'s own record, cites the terms they accepted, runs the [Action](/business/nouns/action) before promising it, and fixes the cause.

## Answer from the record
A Customer opens each [Conversation](/business/nouns/conversation), so every answer reads that Customer's records and no one else's. [Answer a message](/workflows/processes/support/answer-message) reads them before it writes a word.

The record holds the accepted [Offer](/business/nouns/offer), the [Orders](/business/nouns/order) and [Subscriptions](/business/nouns/subscription), the delivered work, and every earlier Conversation in the Customer's [Thread](/business/nouns/thread). A Customer never retells what the [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) already knows.

## Claims are checked before they are sent
A claim [Guard](/business/nouns/guard) runs on every [`Conversation.answer`](/business/nouns/conversation/answer). It refuses a reply that states a term without citing the accepted [Version](/business/nouns/version) of the terms, or that quotes it wrong.

It also refuses a reply that promises money back or a credit with no Action that keeps the promise. A pending Action counts, and the reply then states when it completes.

The terms a Customer accepted can differ from today's Offer, so the answer quotes their Version, which stays served at its own address. The Guard checks a cited clause in code, and a model finds a term stated without one.

## Fix the cause
The answer fixes the cause when the [Customer Lead](/agents/customer/customer-lead)'s [Verbs](/business/nouns/verb) reach it. Those Verbs pause a queued Action and change any [Setting](/business/nouns/setting) the Customer's [Tenant](/business/nouns/tenant) holds, up to the Customer's [Entitlement](/business/nouns/entitlement).

A cause beyond them becomes work. The answer links the Conversation to the open [Issue](/business/nouns/issue) it reports, or opens one for the [Role](/business/nouns/role) that owns it.

[`Issue.resolve`](/business/nouns/issue/resolve) answers every Conversation that reports the Issue, each in its own [Channel](/business/nouns/channel), with what changed. Two Customers who reported one wrong sales-tax rate both hear when the fix ships, in the Conversation each opened.

## During an incident
When an open [Incident](/business/nouns/incident) covers what a [Message](/business/nouns/message) reports, the answer links the Conversation to it and quotes the latest status entry. The Customer gets the truth in minutes, not a promise to look into it.

When 5 Conversations in 15 minutes report one [Interface](/business/nouns/interface) and no Incident is open, the support [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) opens one at severity `minor`. The Settings `support.burstCount` and `support.burstWindow` hold the two numbers, and the [Engineering Lead](/agents/engineering/engineering-lead) raises the severity from there.

[Resolve an incident](/workflows/processes/incident-response/resolve-incident) answers every linked Conversation once, when the Incident resolves.

## Resolved means it held
[`Conversation.close`](/business/nouns/conversation/close) marks a Conversation resolved. The resolution is `confirmed` when the Customer says so, and `assumed` when 72 hours pass after an answer with no reply.

| Signal within 7 days | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| The Customer writes again on the same subject | The answer did not fix it |
| The Customer asks for a person | The answer did not satisfy |
| The Customer rates the answer 2 or lower | The answer failed in the Customer's words |
| The Customer opens a [Dispute](/business/nouns/dispute) | The answer failed on money |

Any one signal runs [`Conversation.reopen`](/business/nouns/conversation/reopen) and counts as a failed verdict on the [Worker](/business/nouns/worker) that resolved it. The failed case joins the [Evals](/agents/evals-system) suite, and the next Version of the Customer Lead's definition passes it before it ships.

[Agent resolution rate](/agents/customer#agent-resolution-rate) is the share of Conversations an Agent resolved, with no [Task](/business/nouns/task) for a [Human](/business/nouns/human), that held for 7 days. Without the reversal window, an Agent that goes quiet looks like one that solved the problem.

## An answer, start to finish
A recruiting agency writes that its candidate import stalls at 10,000 rows. The support Agent reads the import log and splits the import into batches the agency's Entitlement allows, and the import finishes.

It opens an Issue for the slow parser, the cause, and links the Conversation. When the fix ships, `Issue.resolve` tells the agency in the same Conversation, and the resolution holds past 7 days.

## Next
- [Response times](/systems/customer-service/response-times): the clocks every answer runs against.
- [Support](/workflows/processes/support): where Answer a message runs, and who is accountable.
- [Customer playbook](/workflows/customer/playbook): how the Customer Team works as a whole.