What are Situations?
Create, test, publish, revise, and restore instructions for repeatable customer situations.
A Situation tells Anders what to do when a specific kind of customer request comes in. It keeps the customer context, response guidance, allowed actions, and after-conversation work together.
A Situation is not a general workflow builder. It can reference only actions RankLadder already supports and settings you already maintain. It cannot copy hidden provider details, bypass consent, expand a teammate's permissions, or invent a new action.
What a Situation contains
- Name. A clear internal label such as “Urgent service request.”
- When Anders should use it. Plain-language customer intent plus optional limits for channel, business hours, new or repeat customers, urgency, and service context.
- How Anders should respond. Short guidance for the tone, facts to explain, and boundaries to follow. Approved Knowledge remains the source for customer facts.
- Allowed actions. Answer from Knowledge, take a message, collect an Intake form, use a Transfer rule, offer an Appointment type, or offer a consent-gated Text rule when the channel supports it.
- After the conversation. Apply or remove a tag, notify a configured recipient, route new work to a teammate, or add eligible lead-scoring guidance.
The Situation points to existing Intake, Transfer, Text, Appointment, tag, and notification settings. Edit those source settings in their own Anders or Settings destination; the Situation does not create a second copy.
Create a draft
- Open Anders → Handling → Situations.
- Start from a template or create a Situation.
- Give it a name and describe when Anders should use it in normal customer language.
- Add response guidance.
- Choose at least one allowed action. The editor prevents actions that the selected channel cannot perform.
- Add optional after-conversation behavior.
- Choose Save draft.
A draft is private configuration work. Anders does not use it with customers.
Test safely
Before publishing, choose Test before publishing and either type a customer scenario or select a recent compatible conversation. The test uses Anders's real instructions with simulated tools.
It shows whether the Situation matched, previews the response, and lists actions Anders would attempt. The test cannot call, text, transfer, book, notify, change customer data, or consume customer usage.
Resolve every validation message and run a fresh successful test after material changes. A test expires, so RankLadder may ask you to test again before publishing.
Publish
Choose Publish, review the confirmation, and confirm Publish Situation. The tested revision becomes active for compatible new conversations. Publishing never retroactively changes an earlier conversation.
Only owners and managers can configure and publish Situations. Plan limits and connected-provider availability still apply when Anders handles a real conversation.
Revise or restore
Editing a published Situation creates a new draft while the current published revision stays live. Test and publish the draft to replace it.
Revision history keeps earlier published versions. Choosing Restore does not erase history; it creates a new draft from that version. You must validate, test, and publish it like any other revision. If a referenced rule, calendar, tag, or teammate is no longer available, fix the conflict first.
When more than one Situation could match
Anders chooses the most specific compatible Situation for the customer context and channel. Make each “When should Anders use this?” description distinct. If two Situations overlap, narrow their intent or conditions and test both with realistic examples.
If it does not work
- It did not match: rewrite the intent using phrases a customer would actually say and check the channel and hours conditions.
- An action is unavailable: activate or reconnect the referenced setting, or choose an action supported by that channel and plan.
- Publish is blocked: save the latest draft, resolve all validation messages, and run a fresh successful test.
- The wrong Situation matched: make the competing Situations more specific and test the same scenario against each one.
Related guides
Find every Anders setting
Use Overview, Knowledge, Handling, and Channels to control what Anders knows, how he handles customer situations, and how he works on calls and website chat.
Teach Anders what to say
Build a knowledge base you control with approved answers and plain-English rules. Add entries yourself or import them from your website and documents.