My AI Agent Lost a Client: A Post-Mortem on Automation Without Guardrails

Описание и применение

Автоматический агент по сбору долгов отправил напоминания клиенту, который уже оплатил, из-за устаревшего входного файла, что привело к потере клиента. Добавлены проверки свежести данных, подтверждение эскалации и обработка ответов по смыслу, чтобы предотвратить повторение.

Задача

An automated collections agent sent payment reminders to a customer who had already paid, causing relationship damage and loss of business.

Результат

The agent failed silently due to stale input data, sending inappropriate reminders and damaging client relations. Adding freshness checks, escalation confirmation, and intent-based reply handling prevented future failures.

Рабочий процесс

• 1. Export ageing report to a folder
• 2. Agent reads file and parses outstanding invoices
• 3. Classify invoices by days overdue
• 4. Select message template and personalize
• 5. Send message via WhatsApp
• 6. Log send and handle replies
• 7. Escalate tone as overdue days increase
• 8. Stop sending when invoice marked paid

Доказательства

The agent kept asking for money that was already in the bank.

Источник

The failure was in the input. The ageing export was generated on a schedule and dropped into a folder the agent read from.

Источник

Freshness checks on every input the agent trusts.

Источник