AI Support Macro Approval Checklist for Small Businesses

Why this matters

Support macros are powerful because they get reused. That also makes AI mistakes compound quickly: one unsupported refund promise, warranty statement, legal phrase, diagnosis, deadline, or escalation rule can be copied into dozens of customer replies. This worksheet keeps reusable macros grounded in approved sources and human review.

STOP AUTOMATION: do not save, publish, or send an AI-written support macro until a named owner verifies the policy source, allowed channels, escalation trigger, refund/warranty/payment language, privacy limits, tone, and customer-safe next step.

Copy/paste macro approval card

Field	What to capture	Review rule
Macro purpose	Common issue, channel, audience, language/tone, and whether the macro is for email, chat, SMS, FAQ, review reply, or internal notes.	Do not reuse one macro across channels with different consent, privacy, or length limits.
Source policy	Policy page, helpdesk article, warranty term, refund rule, SLA, contract language, owner-approved note, or escalation SOP used.	Every promise needs a current source; missing facts become questions.
Allowed promise	What the team may say about refunds, credits, replacements, scheduling, warranty, diagnosis, data/privacy, fees, or next steps.	Remove invented discounts, guarantees, legal conclusions, medical/safety diagnoses, or timeline commitments.
Escalation trigger	When the macro must stop and route to owner, manager, legal/accounting, technician, or specialist review.	High-risk complaints, payment disputes, safety issues, private data, or policy exceptions need human review.
Customer-safe wording	Approved empathy line, source-backed explanation, next-step request, and where the customer can get help.	Keep it specific enough to help without exposing private records or blaming the customer.
Testing set	Three recent tickets/messages used to test the macro, edge cases it failed, and edits made before approval.	Do not approve from a single clean example.
Owner approval	Approver, date, version, storage location, review date, and rollback owner.	Macros should expire or be reviewed when policies, prices, service areas, or tools change.

Customer-safe starter snippets

Source-backed reply: Thanks for reaching out. Based on our current [policy/source], the next step is [approved next step]. If your situation includes [edge case], we should review it before applying this macro.

Escalation note: I do not want to guess on this. I am routing it to [owner/team] because it involves [refund/warranty/safety/private data/payment dispute/policy exception].

Missing-fact note: Before we answer, can you confirm [missing field]? We do not want to give you an inaccurate timeline, price, coverage, or next step.

AI review prompt

Act as a cautious support-operations reviewer for a small business. Use only the approved policy/source notes below. Do not invent refund rights, warranty coverage, legal obligations, safety guidance, pricing, discounts, diagnoses, deadlines, privacy claims, or escalation authority. Return: 1) unsupported claims to remove, 2) missing source fields, 3) customer-safe macro draft, 4) escalation triggers, 5) channel/privacy risks, and 6) STOP AUTOMATION items.

Approved source notes:
- Common issue:
- Channel and audience:
- Policy/source URL or document:
- Allowed promise:
- Disallowed wording:
- Refund/warranty/payment/safety/privacy constraints:
- Escalation owner and triggers:
- Three example tickets/messages:
- Review date:
- Owner/reviewer:

Fast QA before saving the macro

Check that every customer-facing promise maps to a current source.
Test the macro against normal, angry, refund-seeking, privacy-sensitive, and edge-case messages.
Remove hidden policy changes: new fees, new guarantees, new exceptions, or new support channels.
Set a review date so stale support language does not keep spreading.

Disclosure: Horizon Flow is Andrew Burton's digital product catalog. This worksheet is useful without purchase; product links are labeled and UTM-tagged.