Every customer's detail page (Customers → pick a customer, at /app/customers/[id]) has two AI cards sitting side by side, right under the lifetime-value and financials strip: "Who is this?" and "What should they book next?" Both start collapsed — you have to click a button before either one does anything — so a quick visit to grab someone's phone number doesn't cost you an AI call you didn't ask for.
"Who is this?" — the customer brief
This card reads the customer's vehicle on file, their appointment history, and their invoice/spend totals, then writes a short brief so any rep can get oriented in a few seconds without scrolling the whole page.
To use it:
1. Open the customer's detail page. 2. In the "Who is this?" card, click Generate brief. While it's working the button shows "Reading their history…" 3. You get back a bold one-line headline (something like "6 visits over 14 months"), 1-2 sentences of context underneath, and up to 4 short tags for a quick scan — things like VIP, At-risk, Repeat customer, Open balance, or Ceramic loyalist, depending on what's actually in their history. Tags aren't guaranteed on every customer — a brand-new customer with no history yet may come back with none. 4. Don't like what you see, or want a fresher read after adding a note? Click Regenerate underneath the result. It replaces what's there — it doesn't append a second brief.
The card's own description sums up the point: it's for ramping up before you walk to the counter, not a permanent record. Nothing here is saved to the customer's file — it's regenerated fresh each time you click.
"What should they book next?" — service suggestions
This card looks at the same appointment history plus your shop's active service catalog and the vehicle on file, and comes back with 1-3 ranked recommendations for what to offer this customer next — the kind of thing a service writer would flag: "last ceramic install was over a year ago, they're due for maintenance," or "they've never had PPF, worth a mention."
To use it:
1. Click Generate suggestions. Same "Reading their history…" loading state as the brief card. 2. Each result is a numbered card (#1, #2, #3) with the service name, a short italic reason ("Customer hasn't purchased a detailing service yet"), and a ready-to-send SMS pitch that already includes the customer's first name. 3. If the customer has already bought most of what you offer, you'll see "No clear recommendation right now — they've booked most of what you offer" instead of a list. That's a real result, not an error. 4. Two action buttons sit under each suggestion: - Send SMS takes you straight into the inbox (/app/inbox) with that customer's conversation already open and the pitch already sitting in the composer, ready to edit or send. It navigates in the same tab — nothing sends automatically, and you can rewrite or delete the text before you hit send. If the customer somehow isn't one your shop can see anymore, the inbox shows an explicit "customer not found" state instead of a blank composer. - Build quote only shows up when the suggestion is tied to one of your actual catalog services (a couple of edge-case suggestions aren't, and skip the button). It opens a new quote (/app/quotes/new) with that customer already selected — but it does not add the recommended service as a line item for you. You'll still need to add that service to the quote yourself, using the suggestion's name and reason as your reference. Treat "Build quote" as a fast way to jump into a blank quote for the right customer, not a shortcut that pre-fills the line item. 5. Regenerate at the bottom works the same way as on the brief card — it replaces the current suggestions, it doesn't add to them.
One extra piece of context on this card: if you've got Sales Playbook plays already queued for this customer (the automated review-request / cross-sell / win-back nudges that fire after a paid invoice), a small badge appears in the top-right of the card — "Next nudge in 3d," for example, or "2 queued" if there's more than one scheduled and no single next date to show. Hover it and it spells out how many playbook nudges are already queued. It's there so you don't fire off a manual text offering the same thing an automated play is about to send in a few days anyway. See "Managing the post-invoice Playbook queue" if you want to see or adjust that queue directly.
The live/stub dot
Next to both card titles, a small dot appears once you've generated a result — but only once you've generated a result, not before. Green means that result came from a real AI call; amber means it came from the shop's built-in fallback logic instead (used when this deployment isn't hooked up to a live AI connection, or in rarer cases when a shop is over its plan's AI usage limit for the period). Either way the card still works and still gives you something usable — the dot is just telling you which kind of answer you're looking at. Neither card shows an explanatory banner beyond the dot itself, so if you're not sure why you're seeing amber, that's the one signal you'll get on this screen.
A few things worth knowing
- Both cards are lazy by design — nothing generates until you click, and nothing regenerates automatically when you come back to the page later. Navigate away and back, and you'll see the button again unless the page is still mounted in the same browser tab.
- Regenerating overwrites, it doesn't accumulate a history — there's no way to see a brief or suggestion set you generated five minutes ago once you've clicked Regenerate.
- Nothing on either card contacts the customer or creates a real quote by itself. Send SMS and Build quote both hand you off to the normal inbox/quote screens with a head start, not a finished, already-sent action.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Where do I find the "Who is this?" and "What should they book next?" cards?
A: On any customer's detail page, right below the lifetime-value and financials cards near the top. They sit side by side and are collapsed behind Generate buttons until you click them.
Q: Does clicking "Build quote" add the recommended service to the new quote automatically?
A: No. It opens a new quote with that customer already selected, but you still have to add the suggested service as a line item yourself — the button doesn't carry the service or its price over.
Q: What happens when I click "Send SMS" on a suggestion — does it send right away?
A: No. It takes you into the inbox with that customer's thread open and the pitch already typed into the composer, so you can review or edit it before sending. It doesn't send anything on its own.
Q: What does the colored dot next to the card title mean?
A: Green means the result you're looking at came from a live AI call. Amber means it came from the built-in fallback logic instead — usually because this deployment isn't connected to live AI, or occasionally because the shop is over its plan's AI usage limit. Either way the card still gives you a usable result.
Q: Why does the suggestions card sometimes show "Next nudge in 3d" or "2 queued"?
A: That badge means Sales Playbook already has automated follow-up plays scheduled for this customer — so before you manually text them an offer, you can see whether an automated touch covering similar ground is already about to go out.