FS-DOC-03Operations
Process Runbook / SOP
VIP Customer Management
[YourCompany.com] · Customer Support Department · Prepared by FullSpec · [Today's Date]
This runbook is the day-to-day operating guide for your team once the VIP Customer Management automation is live. It explains what happens at each stage of the process, which steps the system handles without any human input, and the one point where your account manager needs to act. Keep this document accessible to anyone on the support or account team who touches VIP customers. FullSpec handles all build, monitoring, and platform maintenance. Your team's job is to own the decisions, approve any exception responses, and keep the configuration details in this document current.
01Process overview
The VIP Customer Management process automatically identifies customers who have crossed a spend threshold, updates their tier in HubSpot, sends personalised outreach, prioritises their support tickets in Zendesk, and dispatches quarterly satisfaction surveys. The entire cycle runs continuously without manual intervention. The only step that remains with your team is account manager review and response when a ticket or survey response is escalated as urgent. This replaces a ten-step manual cycle that previously consumed six hours of staff time every week.
Process name
VIP Customer Management
Trigger
A customer crosses the VIP spend threshold in Xero, or a scheduled weekly review date arrives
Final output
VIP tier updated in HubSpot, personalised outreach sent via Gmail, ticket prioritised in Zendesk, account manager alerted in Slack, satisfaction survey dispatched via Typeform
Agents running
VIP Tier Agent, VIP Outreach Agent, VIP Support Escalation Agent
Tools involved
Xero, HubSpot, Gmail, Zendesk, Slack, Typeform
Weekly volume
Approximately 40 VIP interactions per month, triggered by purchase events, ticket creation, and scheduled review cycles
Human checkpoint
Account manager reviews and responds to escalated tickets and low survey score alerts in Slack
Process owner
[Your name] — update this field once confirmed
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02Step-by-step: what happens and who acts
What you actually need to do: There is only one human step in this entire process. When the VIP Support Escalation Agent sends a Slack alert to the account manager, that person must open the linked HubSpot record, read the customer context, and personally respond to the Zendesk ticket or low survey score. Every other step is handled automatically by the system.
Step
What happens
Who acts
Type
1
Xero transaction data is monitored continuously. When a customer's cumulative spend crosses the configured VIP threshold, or the scheduled weekly review time arrives, the process is triggered automatically.
System
Automated
2
The VIP Tier Agent pulls the customer's latest spend total from Xero and recalculates their tier. The correct tier label, qualification date, and a change flag are written to the customer's HubSpot contact record without any manual data entry.
VIP Tier Agent
Automated
3
If the tier has changed, the VIP Outreach Agent generates a personalised tier-up or welcome email using the customer's name, their new tier level, and the relevant benefits drawn from the approved template library. The email is sent automatically via Gmail and logged on the HubSpot contact timeline.
VIP Outreach Agent
Automated
4
The VIP Support Escalation Agent checks whether the customer has any open Zendesk tickets. If they do, the VIP priority tag is applied to each ticket, moving them above the general support queue immediately.
VIP Support Escalation Agent
Automated
5
A Slack message is sent automatically to the assigned account manager. The message includes the customer's name, their VIP tier, and a direct link to their HubSpot record so the manager has full context before taking action.
VIP Support Escalation Agent
Automated
6
The customer is enrolled in a HubSpot check-in sequence that schedules personalised emails at 30, 60, and 90-day intervals. Each email is pre-personalised with the customer's name and relevant purchase history and sends without manual input.
VIP Outreach Agent
Automated
7
At the 90-day mark, a personalised Typeform satisfaction survey is sent to the customer automatically. The send event is logged on the HubSpot timeline so there is a complete record of every outreach touchpoint.
VIP Outreach Agent
Automated
8
When a Typeform survey response is received with a score below the configured alert threshold, a Slack alert is posted to the designated channel and the account manager is tagged for immediate follow-up.
VIP Support Escalation Agent
Automated
9
The account manager opens the Slack alert, reviews the linked HubSpot record for full customer context, and personally responds to the escalated Zendesk ticket or low survey score. This is the only step that requires a human decision and action.
Account Manager
Human
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03Handling exceptions
Situation
What the system does
What you do
A customer's Xero record does not match any HubSpot contact (mismatched email or company name)
The VIP Tier Agent logs a matching failure and skips the tier update for that customer. No email is sent and no tag is applied. The unmatched record is added to an exception log visible in the automation platform dashboard.
Check the exception log weekly. Locate the customer in both Xero and HubSpot and correct whichever record has the wrong email address or company name. Once fixed, the agent will pick up the customer on the next scheduled review.
A customer appears as a duplicate contact in HubSpot (two records for the same person)
The agent detects multiple HubSpot records sharing a Xero customer identifier and pauses processing for that contact. It posts a duplicate alert to the designated Slack channel rather than updating either record.
Open HubSpot and merge the duplicate contacts into a single record, keeping the most complete data. Notify FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com if duplicates recur frequently, as the matching logic may need adjustment.
Missing spend data: Xero returns no transactions for a customer during the review cycle
The VIP Tier Agent treats the customer as having no qualifying spend for that cycle. Their existing tier is preserved and no downgrade is applied until the absence persists beyond the configured grace period.
No action is required for a single missed cycle. If a customer's Xero data is consistently absent, check whether their transactions are being recorded under a different company name or account in Xero and update accordingly.
Account manager does not respond to a Slack escalation alert within the configured time window
The system sends a follow-up reminder to the same Slack channel after the escalation window has passed. If there is still no acknowledgement, the alert is escalated to the Support Manager's Slack handle.
Review the original Slack alert and respond to the Zendesk ticket as soon as possible. If the escalation window or reminder timing needs adjusting, contact FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com to update the configuration.
A VIP customer submits a Typeform survey but the response does not reach HubSpot (webhook failure)
The automation platform retries the webhook delivery up to three times over a 30-minute window. If all retries fail, an error is logged and a Slack notification is sent to the process owner flagging the missed response.
Check the Typeform response directly in the Typeform dashboard to read the customer's answers. If the Slack error alert appears regularly, contact FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com to diagnose the webhook connection.
A connected tool is unavailable (for example, HubSpot or Zendesk experiences an outage)
The automation platform pauses all actions that depend on the unavailable tool and queues them for retry once connectivity is restored. No data is lost and no duplicate actions are triggered when the tool comes back online.
No immediate action is needed. Monitor the tool's own status page for restoration updates. If the outage lasts more than four hours and you have time-sensitive VIP tickets, handle those manually in Zendesk and inform FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com so the queued actions can be reviewed before they release.
04Who to contact and when
Fill in the rows below once your team is confirmed. These contacts should be reviewed whenever a team member changes role or leaves the business. The FullSpec rows are fixed and do not need updating.
Role
Name
How to reach them
Process owner (day-to-day decisions, exception sign-off)
[Your name]
[Rep email]
Account Manager (human escalation checkpoint)
[Your name]
[Rep email]
Support Manager (survey and escalation oversight)
[Your name]
[Rep email]
Operations Lead (tier threshold changes, configuration updates)
[Your name]
[Rep email]
FullSpec builder (technical build questions, logic changes, new requirements)
FullSpec team
support@gofullspec.com
FullSpec support (errors, outages, unexpected behaviour, urgent issues)
FullSpec support
support@gofullspec.com
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05Ongoing maintenance
The automation runs without daily intervention, but a small number of routine checks keep it accurate and reliable. The table below sets out everything your team needs to do and when. FullSpec handles all platform-level maintenance, error monitoring, and system updates.
Weekly
Review the exception log in the automation platform dashboard for any unmatched Xero-to-HubSpot records or paused contacts. Resolve mismatches by correcting the affected record in either system.
Process owner or Account Manager
Weekly
Check the Slack escalation channel to confirm all VIP alerts were acknowledged and acted on within the expected window. Flag any missed responses to the Support Manager.
Support Manager
Monthly
Run a spot-check on five to ten recent VIP tier assignments in HubSpot. Confirm the tier label, qualification date, and sequence enrolment all match what you would expect based on the customer's Xero spend.
Account Manager
Monthly
Review outreach email templates in HubSpot for accuracy. If your pricing, product names, benefits, or brand language have changed, update the templates and notify FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com if the changes affect the generation logic.
Process owner
Monthly
Review the automation platform error log for repeated failures, skipped actions, or retry patterns. If any error recurs more than twice, contact FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com with a screenshot or the error reference.
Process owner
On team changes
Update the contact table in Section 04 of this runbook. If the account manager assigned to VIP escalations changes, update the Slack alert routing in the automation configuration by contacting FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com.
Process owner
Quarterly
Review VIP tier thresholds with the account and operations team. If spend patterns have shifted or the business has grown, adjust the thresholds to keep the VIP list appropriately sized. Any threshold change must be communicated to FullSpec so the VIP Tier Agent logic is updated to match.
Operations Lead and FullSpec team
Quarterly
Review Typeform survey alert score thresholds with the Support Manager. If the team is receiving too many or too few low-score Slack alerts, recalibrate the threshold and request an update from FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com.
Support Manager and FullSpec team
The most common maintenance issue for this process is Xero-to-HubSpot contact mismatches caused by inconsistent email formatting or company name variations between the two systems. A customer added to Xero under a trading name that does not match their HubSpot record will be skipped by the VIP Tier Agent indefinitely until the mismatch is corrected manually. Check the exception log weekly and address new mismatches promptly to prevent VIP customers from falling through.
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