Prepared Changes
When a procedure reaches a step that changes something in one of your connected systems, such as a refund in Stripe, the AI can prepare the change for you instead of only telling you what to do. You decide on the ticket: approve, change the amount, or reject. Nothing changes in your systems until you approve.
The AI then hands the conversation to you, as it does for any hand-over. The customer gets your brand’s hand-over message and is never told a change was made before it was.
The card
A prepared change appears at the top of the Flexivity panel, in Take Action, the section for what needs you. It is counted with the section’s other items while it waits for your decision. It shows:
- What the change is, for example Refund charge on ch_3Pq… (24.95 USD).
- Every check Flexivity ran, each marked Passed or Not passed: the limits on the tool (for example At most 1 per customer per 24 hours), that the record came from a lookup for this customer, and any condition the procedure sets.
- For a store order (Shopify): the amount as the store computes it, the items, how the store makes the change (for example How the cancellation refunds: to the original payment), and This change can’t be undone for a cancellation or a refund.
- When it expires: a change waits for a decision for 72 hours.
- Show the record’s details: the fields of the record the AI was not given (for example the name on the card), read live from your system for you and not stored.
The ticket is tagged flexivity-action-pending while a change needs you, so you can build a view of them in Zendesk: while it waits for a decision, and also when it did not pass a check and must be made by hand. The tag is removed when someone decides or the change expires, or, for a change that did not pass a check, when the ticket is solved. A closed or merged ticket keeps the tag, because Zendesk does not allow a closed ticket to be changed; closed tickets leave your working views anyway.
Deciding
- Approve runs the change once, exactly as shown.
- Change the amount first, then Approve, to refund less than the full amount. Only the amount can be changed, never which record. Flexivity checks the new amount again before it runs.
- Reject runs nothing.
- A refund of store items: tick Return the refunded items to stock or Also refund shipping before Approve to change them for this refund. Flexivity asks the store for the new amount and checks it again before it runs.
- A change of shipping address: type the new address in the form on the card, then Approve. Street, city and country are required, and a postcode unless the country has none. The address is sent to the store once and is not kept; your decision note says only that you entered it.
- If the store refuses an address you entered (a postcode that does not fit the state, say), the card opens again with what the store named, for example The store refused it (field: shippingAddress.province). Correct the address and Approve again. Nothing was changed, and the customer is not told anything until it succeeds or you reject it.
Your decision is recorded as a private note on the ticket, written by you, so the ticket history shows who decided and when. Flexivity reads the note’s author from Zendesk to know who approved; the panel cannot approve on anyone’s behalf.
Only one decision counts. If two agents decide at the same time, the second sees the first’s outcome. If the card is out of date (it was loaded more than 10 minutes ago, or someone else decided), reload the app and decide again.
A change that did not pass a check shows no controls: Flexivity will not offer it for approval. Make the change yourself in your system if it is right, and answer the customer.
What happens next
The card shows the outcome in place of the controls:
| Outcome | What it means | What the customer is told |
|---|---|---|
| Done | Your system confirmed the change. | Your brand’s “done” message, for example Your refund request has been completed. |
| Sent, waiting for the system to confirm | Your system accepted the change but has not confirmed it yet. A store cancellation reads Sent: Shopify is still cancelling this order. | Nothing yet. |
| Could not be completed | Your system refused or failed the change. | Your brand’s “could not complete” message, and the ticket stays with you. |
| Not run | A check failed when you approved, for example the customer had another refund since. | Your brand’s “could not complete” message. |
| Rejected | You rejected it. | Nothing. Answer the customer as usual. |
| Expired | Nobody decided within 72 hours. | Nothing. |
| Withdrawn | The ticket was closed, merged or deleted before anyone decided. | Nothing. |
A change never solves or closes the ticket: you finish the conversation.
When the customer is waiting (Hold)
Where your administrator chose Hold, the customer stays in the conversation while you decide, and the card says so: The customer is waiting in the conversation, and when it will be handed to an agent if nobody decides (4 hours, in your business hours). It also counts the messages the customer wrote while waiting; read them on the ticket.
- Approve, and once your system confirms the change the customer is told it is done, in the same conversation, which then carries on as before. Your decision note is internal and does not end the conversation.
- Reject, and the customer is told a colleague will handle their request; the ticket is yours.
- Reply publicly to the customer, and the conversation is yours; the change stays on the card.
- Nobody decides in time: the conversation is handed to an agent, and you can still approve the change until it expires.
- The customer withdraws the request: the card shows Withdrawn by the customer and nothing runs. Once you have seen the outcome, the card leaves Take Action on your next visit; the AI activity report keeps every change and how it ended.
A change the AI made (Execute)
Where your administrator chose Execute, the AI makes the change itself and tells the customer it is done. The card shows Done: the AI made the change, with the checks it passed, for 30 days.
- If you think it was wrong, choose This change was wrong (with an optional note, which stays on the ticket as your private note). It changes nothing in your system and is counted on your administrator’s evidence. Only you can undo your mark.
- A change the AI would have made but that waits for you says why on the card: the circuit breaker stopped unattended changes of this kind, this customer reached their limit, Flexivity paused unattended changes, or a procedure question was not asked. Approve or reject it as any other.
- Not asked yet: … names a procedure question the conversation never asked, on any card, so you can ask it before you approve.
Who sees a card
A change is prepared only where your administrator lets the AI prepare it. Each kind of change has a write mode per brand: Manual, where a person does it, so you see what to do and no card; Assist, where the AI prepares it and an agent approves it (the default); Hold, the same with the customer waiting in the conversation; or Execute, where the AI makes it with no approval. Hold and Execute apply only at the Resolve level; elsewhere they work as Assist. A procedure or a handling rule can restrict this with Never Execute, Never Hold or Manual. At the Ignore, Label and Gated levels nothing is prepared. See Progressive Autonomy.
Prepared changes are on Zendesk tickets and osTicket tickets. In a chat, the AI hands over with what to do.