What is macro?

Why it matters

Macro libraries are a good diagnostic of support health. A team with fifteen well-maintained macros is running an efficient operation. A team with four hundred is running an unmaintained one, and the existence of a macro used a thousand times a month is a precise specification for what to automate next.

What to know

• Usage counts are the useful metric. A macro used daily is a candidate for full automation.
• Macros drift out of date with the product and nobody notices, because agents assume they were reviewed.
• Combining text with actions is what makes macros valuable. Text-only macros are just snippets.
• Over-macroed support reads as robotic, which customers detect and dislike even when the answer is correct.
• Prune quarterly. Unused macros make the list unsearchable, which pushes agents back to typing from scratch.

An example

Example: a macro explaining the refund policy is applied eleven hundred times a month. That single number is a business case: the same answer, delivered the same way, at a volume that no longer needs a human to press the button.

Common mistakes

• Growing a macro library without ever pruning it
• Leaving macros unreviewed after a policy or pricing change
• Using macros where a personal reply was needed
• Ignoring usage counts, which point directly at automation candidates

Questions