The second card in the context panel is headed What's going on?. It is a handful of bullet points, written by Chloe, describing the conversation you are looking at.
What the summary is
The summary is Chloe reading the whole thread and writing down what matters. It updates as the conversation moves, so it always describes where things stand now rather than where they started.
It is short on purpose. Four or five lines that you can take in without scrolling are more useful than a paragraph you skip.
When it earns its place
On a two-message conversation you can read the thread faster than the summary. The card pays for itself in three situations:
- You have inherited a thread. Somebody else has been handling it and you are picking it up mid-conversation.
- The thread is long. Twenty messages over a week, and you need the state of play rather than the history.
- You are coming back after time away. You handled this a fortnight ago and remember none of it.
What the icons mean
Each line carries a small coloured icon. They mark what kind of line it is, so you can find the bit you need without reading all of them.
- A red circle
- The problem. What the customer actually wants, in their terms.
- A blue circle
- A fact established along the way. What has been tried, what was ruled out, what a colleague already said.
- A yellow lightbulb
- The answer, or the key finding the conversation turned on.
A well-formed summary usually runs in that order: the problem, then the facts, then the answer, then whatever happens next.
How to read it
- 1Open a thread from the inbox.
- 2Find What's going on? in the right-hand column, under the sentiment card.
- 3Read the red line first. That is what the customer wants.
- 4Read the yellow line next. That is the answer, if one has been found.
- 5Read the blue lines last, for the detail in between.
What it is not
Two things worth being clear about.
It is not a transcript. Chloe is compressing, and compression loses things. Before you promise a customer anything, such as a refund, a date or an exception, read what was actually said in the thread.
It is not a record of who did what, either. For that you want the feed, which lists actions rather than meaning.
How to collapse it
The chevron at the right of the card title folds it away, and folds it back. Useful when you know a thread well and want the feed higher up the column. ---