# RateRight Customer Support System — Day One Launch
**Designed by Cog | 2026-02-20 | P0 Launch Blocker**

---

## Design Principles
- Michael CANNOT take support calls during 12-hour work days
- 50+ contractor questions expected day one
- 80% of questions should be self-serve (FAQ)
- Remaining 20% handled by agents, escalated to Michael only when critical
- Zero additional paid tools required (use existing Resend + Telegram + fleet)

---

## 1. Support Email Routing System

### Architecture
```
Inbound: support@rateright.com.au
    ↓
Resend inbound webhook → Supabase edge function
    ↓
Auto-categorise (keyword matching)
    ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Category A: Auto-reply (FAQ match)          │ → Instant response with FAQ link
│ Category B: Account/billing issue           │ → Queue for Susan (CRM/sales)
│ Category C: Technical bug                   │ → Queue for Builder (via inbox)
│ Category D: Urgent/safety/legal             │ → Telegram alert to Michael
│ Category E: General enquiry                 │ → Queue for Herald (comms)
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
```

### Implementation Steps
1. **Enable Resend inbound email** — Resend (already configured with API key) supports inbound webhooks. Set MX records for support@rateright.com.au → Resend inbound.
2. **Create webhook endpoint** — `/api/support/inbound` in Next.js app. Receives email, stores in `support_tickets` Supabase table.
3. **Auto-categorisation** — Simple keyword matching (no AI needed day one):
   - "payment|charge|fee|$50|billing|invoice|refund" → billing
   - "login|password|signup|verify|account|email" → account/tech
   - "bug|error|broken|crash|not working|can't" → technical
   - "unsafe|emergency|injury|legal|threat|abuse" → URGENT → Michael
   - Default → general enquiry
4. **Auto-reply** — Every email gets an instant acknowledgment: "Thanks for contacting RateRight. We've received your message and will respond within 4 business hours. In the meantime, check our FAQ: rateright.com.au/faq"
5. **Agent routing** — Categorised tickets sent to agent inboxes via existing JSONL system. Susan handles billing/sales. Builder handles technical. Herald handles general.

### Fallback (If Resend Inbound Not Ready Day One)
- support@rateright.com.au forwards to a Gmail inbox (Michael's or a shared one)
- Susan monitors the inbox every heartbeat cycle and manually categorises
- Still auto-responds via Resend outbound API

---

## 2. FAQ Structure — Top 20 Contractor Questions

The app already has 22 FAQ items across workers/contractors/general. For day one, these **additional contractor-specific questions** need coverage:

### Existing in App (8 contractor FAQs) ✅
Already covers: how it works, $50 fee, speed, no-shows, verification, contact limits, payment, coverage areas.

### Missing — Add These 12 for Day One:

| # | Question | Answer |
|---|----------|--------|
| 1 | **How long does the $50 cover?** | Unlimited. Pay once, keep the worker forever. No ongoing fees whether they stay a day or 30 years. |
| 2 | **When do I pay the $50?** | After you've contacted the worker and confirmed the hire. We don't charge until there's a real match. |
| 3 | **What if the worker isn't right after a day?** | Leave constructive feedback (e.g., "needs better timekeeping") — this helps the worker improve and the next contractor get a better match. Contact us for a replacement. |
| 4 | **How is this different from a labour hire company?** | We're a marketplace, not a labour hire company. You deal directly with workers. No agency markup. No middleman taking a cut of wages. Workers keep 100% of what you pay them. |
| 5 | **Do I handle payroll myself?** | Yes. Workers are engaged directly by you, same as if you found them through a mate. Your normal payroll process applies. |
| 6 | **What if I need 10 workers?** | $50 each. Need 10 steelfixers? That's $500 total. An agency would charge $5-15/hour markup PER WORKER — you'd pay that in the first week alone. |
| 7 | **Can I see ratings before contacting?** | Yes. Every worker has a profile with ratings from previous contractors. Ratings are constructive — they tell you what the worker is good at and where they can improve. |
| 8 | **What areas do you cover?** | All of Australia. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Newcastle, and growing. Construction doesn't stop at city limits — neither do we. |
| 9 | **Is there a subscription or monthly fee?** | No. Zero subscriptions. Zero monthly fees. You only pay $50 when you actually hire someone. |
| 10 | **What if the worker has fake qualifications?** | We verify White Cards and trade licences. If you suspect fraud, report it immediately — we'll investigate and remove bad actors. |
| 11 | **Can I post a job or do I search?** | You search our verified worker database by trade, location, and availability. No waiting for applications — find workers now. |
| 12 | **How do I get an invoice/receipt?** | Automatic receipt via email after payment. ABN invoices available on request for your records. |

### FAQ Update Action
- **Builder**: Add these 12 questions to the contractor FAQ section in `/src/app/faq/page.tsx`
- **Also update**: "What areas does RateRight cover?" in existing FAQs — currently lists specific cities, should say "All of Australia" per national launch strategy

---

## 3. Escalation Process

### Tier System

| Tier | Who Handles | Response SLA | Examples |
|------|-------------|-------------|----------|
| **T0: Self-serve** | Nobody (FAQ) | Instant | How does it work, pricing, coverage |
| **T1: Agent-handled** | Susan / Herald | 4 business hours | Account setup help, general enquiries, feature requests |
| **T2: Technical** | Builder | 8 business hours | Bugs, login issues, payment processing errors |
| **T3: Michael only** | Michael via Telegram | ASAP | Safety/legal, refund disputes >$200, press/media, complaints threatening legal action |

### Escalation Rules
1. **T1 → T2**: If Susan/Herald can't resolve in 2 attempts, escalate to Builder (technical) or Rivet (strategic)
2. **T1 → T3**: Any mention of: lawyer, legal action, safety incident, media/journalist, refund over $200
3. **T2 → T3**: Payment system failures, data breach suspicion, platform-wide outages
4. **All tiers**: If unresolved after 24h, auto-escalate one tier up

### Michael's Daily Support Digest
Instead of real-time interruptions (except T3 urgent):
- **Morning brief (5:15 AM)**: Include support summary in voice brief data — tickets opened, tickets resolved, pending Michael decisions
- **Evening brief (6:00 PM)**: Same + any escalated items from the day
- **Telegram alert**: ONLY for T3 (safety/legal/critical) — goes immediately

### Agent Responsibilities

| Agent | Support Role |
|-------|-------------|
| **Susan** | Billing questions, pricing, sales-adjacent enquiries. She knows the contractor relationship. |
| **Herald** | General enquiries, brand/messaging questions, feature explanations. He writes well. |
| **Builder** | Technical bugs, login/auth issues, platform errors. He knows the code. |
| **Cog** | Ticket routing, SLA monitoring, daily support metrics in voice brief. |
| **Sentinel** | Platform uptime. If support volume spikes = likely outage → Sentinel investigates. |

---

## 4. Implementation Priority (Before Launch)

### Must Have (Day One) 🔴
- [ ] FAQ page updated with 12 new contractor questions → **Builder**
- [ ] Auto-reply email template in Resend → **Builder** (10 min task)
- [ ] support@rateright.com.au receiving email (MX records or Gmail forward) → **Sentinel**
- [ ] T3 escalation Telegram alert to Michael → **Cog** (add to voice brief monitoring)

### Should Have (Week One) 🟡
- [ ] Supabase `support_tickets` table with basic schema → **Builder**
- [ ] Inbound webhook endpoint for email categorisation → **Builder**
- [ ] Susan monitoring support inbox every heartbeat → **Susan**
- [ ] Support metrics in voice brief → **Cog**

### Nice to Have (Month One) 🟢
- [ ] In-app contact form (instead of just mailto link)
- [ ] Canned response templates for common issues
- [ ] Support dashboard in admin panel
- [ ] AI-powered auto-responses using FAQ content

---

## 5. Cost

**$0 additional.** Resend free tier covers 100 emails/day (inbound + outbound). Supabase free tier handles ticket storage. All routing uses existing fleet infrastructure.

If volume exceeds 100/day: Resend Pro at $20/month. Well within $1K marketing budget.

---

## 6. Day One Playbook

**Hour 0 (Launch):**
1. Confirm support@rateright.com.au is receiving
2. Auto-reply is firing
3. All agents know their support role

**Hour 1-4:**
1. Cog monitors inbound volume
2. Susan responds to billing/sales questions
3. Herald responds to general enquiries
4. Builder on standby for technical issues

**End of Day 1:**
1. Cog compiles support report: volume, categories, response times, unresolved
2. Report included in evening voice brief
3. Patterns identified → add to FAQ if same question asked 3+ times

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*This system handles 50+ contractor questions with zero paid tools, zero calls to Michael during work hours, and self-serve covering ~80% of volume. The fleet IS the support team.*