Cranky assistant

Bottom right, on every page of the app, there's a bubble saying "Need a hand?". Inside is Cranky: it answers questions about how CrankPal works and about what is going on in your workshop right now, and it can propose actions to carry out for you.

Only one rule really matters, and it always holds: Cranky executes nothing without your confirmation.

What it can tell you#

Cranky knows two things. First, how the app works: how to create a quote, where to set opening hours, what a status means. Second, your own data — orders coming due and orders still to be paid, today's bookings and how full the calendar is, open quotes, stock levels, a customer record with their maintenance plan, a specific work order.

It also sees which page you are on when you write, so "this order" or "this customer" is usually enough. It only sees your workshop's data: it has no access to anyone else's. And it answers in your language, the one set on your user profile.

The first time you open it you get a welcome message and an invitation to ask. You type in the box at the bottom: Enter sends, Shift+Enter starts a new line. While it thinks you see dots, then the answer appears as it is being written; while it reads your data a line appears saying it is looking things up.

Proposed actions#

If you ask it to do something — book an appointment, change an order's status, send a customer a message — Cranky does not do it. It shows you a blue card headed Proposed action, describing in plain language what is about to happen: which appointment, for which customer, with which text.

1. Read the proposal

   The card says exactly what would be done: the customer involved, the date, the new status, the opening of the message. If any of that looks off, the proposal is wrong.

2. Confirm or cancel

   Confirm runs the action, and only then. Cancel throws it away and says so in the chat. There is no shortcut that skips this step.

3. Check the outcome

   After you confirm, Cranky tells you whether it worked or not. If you wait too long the proposal expires and has to be asked for again: after ten minutes it can no longer be confirmed.

An action already handled cannot be confirmed twice, and if your user account lacks the permission to perform it, Cranky says so rather than doing it quietly.

Shortcuts and suggestions#

When an answer concerns a page of the app, Cranky adds a tag with the page name at the bottom: click it and you go there. It is a shortcut, not an automatic jump — you stay where you are until you click.

Above the text box there are two or three ready-made questions, which change depending on where you are. On a work order it offers to update its status or tell the customer it's ready; in stock, parts below their reorder point; elsewhere, orders coming due or today's bookings. Clicking one is the same as typing that question.

Under each answer there are two thumbs. They tell us, answer by answer, whether it helped or needs work: one vote per message, and once cast the buttons are replaced by a thank you. A thumbs down, if you aren't already in the support queue, immediately offers to put you through to a person.

Talking to a person#

When a question is too big for an assistant, the Operator button at the top of the panel hands the conversation to the CrankPal team. You can also get there from Cranky's own offer, or from a thumbs down: in every case it is you who asks, with a click.

From then on a yellow box appears, "An operator will answer you here", and Cranky steps aside: what you write goes to the person, not to the assistant, so the two don't talk over each other. When somebody picks the conversation up you see it stated, and their replies arrive as messages from the CrankPal Team. When they close the handover you're back with Cranky.

If support is outside its hours, or if after a few minutes nobody has answered, a Request a callback form appears in the box: pick phone or email, leave a contact and an optional note. The request is recorded and we get back to you as soon as we can.

If you close the panel and support replies in the meantime, a red dot appears on the bubble: that is the only notification there is, so you see the reply by reopening the chat.

The other channel: Support#

Next to the search box at the top there's Support: a written conversation with the CrankPal team, with no assistant in between. It's the right channel when you don't need an answer this second, or when you have something long to explain.

One useful difference: you choose whether your conversation is visible to you only or to the whole workshop. With the second option colleagues can read the thread and reply, which saves opening three requests about the same problem.

If what you've run into isn't a question but a defect in the app, or a feature you're missing, there's a third channel: the bug-shaped icon at the top sends the report straight to the people who write the software, and you follow the work from there. See Reports and updates.

Common problems#