Test calls: "this is a test"
A staff member can test Clara on a real line without anything real happening. Gera's design, Nov 2.
Status: design agreed with Gera, building. Fede: please read the two items marked for you.
Until this ships, the Oct 30 rule holds: no test calls on a customer's line.
Who gets what
| Caller | What Clara does | Where |
|---|
| Anyone | Normal Clara: leasing, maintenance, whatever is on | Any line |
| Customer staff (owner, property manager, handyman) | Normal Clara plus a staff brain sized to their role | Only their own buildings |
| PropFlow staff (Gera, Fede, Sean) | The same as customer staff | Every company |
| Staff says "this is a test" (plain words) | Clara runs the whole process, but every action is a draft | PropFlow admins on every line. A client's admins and property managers at their own buildings only. Handymen can't. |
For Fede
- The staff version of Clara on calls ("Coworker Line") is off at every company today. This design turns it on everywhere. Was it off for a reason?
- The three after-call email faults behind the Friday email (the goodbye miss, the "already answered" check, every unhandled call counted as a callback): the tester session takes them unless your in-flight work covers them.
What a test does, how it's built, and three recommendations
What a test does
- Nothing real goes out. No text, email, work order, AppFolio write, or emergency page.
- One TEST notice is the only thing sent. It is an email to the team's address on file plus a card in Slack (PropFlow and the customer's review channel), saying what Clara would have done, e.g. "would have paged the on-call chain". Customer staff will see these in their inbox, on purpose, so "did it go through?" always has an answer.
- An emergency without the word "test" pages for real, exactly as today.
- To test leasing, Clara treats you as an ordinary caller, a pretend prospect, the same as the Willows text menu does.
- A test lasts until the call ends. On text, it covers only the line you texted and lasts 10 minutes, or until you say "test over". Saying it again restarts the 10 minutes. A real emergency texted to another line of the same company pages for real (Gera, Nov 3).
- When a text test starts, Clara texts back right away: test mode is on for the next 10 minutes and nothing goes out for real. On a call she will say it too, once testing reopens and her phone prompt can be changed.
- The conversation shows on Conversations with a TEST flag. It is left out of grading and metrics.
How it's built
- The test flag is per conversation, stored on the conversation, and checked by the same mode rule that already decides Preview and Supervised. So every send, write and dispatch door obeys it: one rule, no second route.
- This is the first time a single conversation can change the mode. It amends "an emergency is never a mode question" and the always-go emergency path, for a declared test from a staff phone only.
- The TEST notice goes through the normal team-notice door. It is not a new way of sending.
- Part 1: a PropFlow staff phone says "test" on any line. The call becomes draft-only and the TEST notice goes out. This needs no new caller recognition, because our phones are already on the teammate list.
- Part 2: a customer's own staff can do the same, at their own buildings only.
- Part 3: the role-sized staff brain (an owner asks "how many units are open?").
Recommendations Gera can strike
Money stays with owners and managers. An owner counts as company admin. Maintenance and handymen never hear balances or NOI. Today every staff role can.
Money answers need one extra check. A phone number can be faked, so before Clara gives a balance or NOI by phone, she texts a code to the caller's phone. Ordinary lookups need no check.
If we don't hold a number, Clara says so. For example NOI, if we don't have it. She never makes one up.