Message labelling
How each message is typed, and when a reply puts work back in the queue.
Two judgements, often mixed up:
| Judgement | Question | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Type | What is this commercially? | Enquiry, revision request, quotation, purchase order, sales order, follow-up, other |
| Technical impact | Does this change what we would quote? | Whether the conversation goes back in the processing queue |
A thread titled “RE: Enquiry” whose body is a debit note is not an enquiry (R5). The newest message sets the conversation’s type until a person corrects it; that correction is never overwritten (R6).
Type does not decide whether a conversation is processed. A customer revising a requirement on a thread that has already become a quotation or an order must not vanish from the queue.
A forward that carries two or more emails, with nothing of the forwarding colleague’s own beyond a greeting, “PFA”, “FYI” or a signature, is typed by the newest email inside it that moves the deal on: an enquiry, a revision request, a quotation, a purchase order or a sales order, each read on its own words, sender and subject. Emails inside it that only follow up or say nothing are passed over, and when none moves the deal on the forward is typed as one email. A forward with a note of the colleague’s own is typed as one email.
Technical impact (R10): “please send the flow curve” leaves the reading alone. A revised size, pressure, material, quantity or model re-processes. When the judgement cannot be made, it is processed — missing a real requirement is worse than re-reading. A copy of a client email already held (R2a) is not judged at all: it is not read again. A re-send with new files, or with new words beyond a greeting or filler such as “PFA”, even a short note such as “revised qty 10” or a colleague’s “client now wants 20”, or one arriving more than 30 days later or sent separately to another office, is not a copy, and is judged like any reply.
When the language-model service gives no clear answer, or types a client’s message as a quotation or sales order, which only Flowtech sends, the message waits in Needs Review for a person to say what it is, so an unsure reading neither hides an RFQ nor opens a false enquiry; one that links by our quotation number is linked by it instead (R7). When the service cannot be reached, the message is tried again and, if it still cannot be typed, goes to Needs Review.
Splitting a message and its documents into lines, and marking signatures, disclaimers and job references, is done by rule, with no model.
Related: Inbox · Business rules.