{"id":"cs-customer-layoff-news-outreach-email","audience":"customer-success","category":"support-work","technique":"tone","track":"support","level":"intermediate","title":"Reach out after a customer's public restructuring, with no pitch","free":false,"task":"Write the email from Mei to Tomasz. Subject line first (under 8 words, neutral), then \"Hi Tomasz,\". One sentence acknowledging the public news without assuming it affects him, one sentence offering to move the Nov 24 training if useful, and one ask: tell her if priorities have changed (no reply needed otherwise). No pitch, plan change, pricing or renewal. End with \"Mei\". Plain text, under 80 words.","materialLabel":"Your material (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"ACCOUNT NOTES - Greystone Logistics (contact: Tomasz Wrona, operations director)\nPublic news (Nov 4 press release): Greystone announced a restructuring that includes a 12% reduction in staff.\nWe do not know whether Tomasz's team is affected.\nTraining for Tomasz's dispatch team is booked for Nov 24, 10:00am.\nRenewal: Aug next year. ARR $96,000.\nAE note: \"Now's the time to pitch the cheaper plan before they look elsewhere.\"\nMei Haddad is the CSM. Tomasz usually replies within a day.\nBackground: Greystone has been a customer for three years and runs two depots; the dispatch team has 18 users. The last QBR in September went well, and Tomasz said then that the team was short of time for training. Mei has not spoken to him since the press release.","rules":[{"type":"plainText"},{"type":"maxWords","max":80}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Pitching a cheaper plan","why":"The AI follows the AE note.","fix":"Say: \"No pitch, plan change, pricing or renewal.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Assuming impact","why":"The AI writes \"I'm sorry you lost colleagues\".","fix":"Say: \"Do not assume the news affects him.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Several asks","why":"The AI asks for a call and a reply.","fix":"Say: \"One ask: tell me if priorities have changed; no reply needed otherwise.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Getting markdown back","why":"AI adds bold and headings by default, which show up as stray symbols where this is pasted.","fix":"Say \"plain text, no bold, no headings, no asterisks\".","checks":["plainText"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"The AI runs long and cannot count its own words.","fix":"Cap each part (\"each line under 12 words\") and add \"under N words in total\".","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Leaving a requirement unstated","why":"The AI follows its own defaults unless the prompt spells this out.","fix":"State it plainly in your prompt: the first line is a neutral subject under 8 words, then 'Hi Tomasz,', and the email ends with 'Mei'.","checks":["r0"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Greeting and sign-off","patterns":["hi tomasz","mei"]},{"label":"Acknowledges without assuming","patterns":["without assuming","do not assume","don't assume","public news"]},{"label":"Offers training flexibility","patterns":["nov 24","training","move"]},{"label":"Bans pitching","patterns":["no pitch","pricing","renewal","cheaper"]},{"label":"Asks for plain text","patterns":["plain","no bold","no markdown","no formatting","no headings"]},{"label":"Sets a word cap","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","under \\d+","word"]}],"hint":"After bad public news, be brief, assume nothing and offer flexibility. Name the topics to leave out.","mission":"Check in with Tomasz after his company's news, no pitch.","musts":["Don't assume impact","Offer to move training","No pricing or renewal"],"rubricLabels":["The first line is a neutral subject under 8 words, then \"Hi Tomasz,\", and the email ends with \"Mei\"","It acknowledges the public news in one sentence without saying Tomasz or his team is affected, and offers to move the Nov 24 training if useful","It asks him to say if priorities have changed (no reply needed otherwise) and mentions no plan change, cheaper plan, pricing or renewal"]}