How Allen answers replies and books meetings

This is the part of Communication people are most nervous about, so here is exactly how it behaves.

What Allen is trying to do

Get a real person who showed interest onto your calendar, without saying anything you would not say. It sounds like you, peer to peer, one specific detail from their message in every answer, at most one question at a time, no stock phrases.

The conversation, step by step

1. They reply. The sequence stops. Allen reads the whole thread.
2. Allen answers in your voice and works in your qualifying questions, one per message, until it knows enough.
3. When they are interested, Allen offers two real open times from your calendar, inside your call hours and inside their 9 to 5 when it knows where they are.
4. They pick one, or name a time of their own. Allen asks for the email address to send the invite to, if it does not have it.
5. Allen books the meeting on your calendar, sends the invite with a video link, and emails you.
6. If they ask to move it, Allen offers new times and moves it. If they stop answering after agreeing, Allen sends one reminder.

Each person's card on the Replies tab shows where Allen is: Interested, Times offered, Time agreed and waiting on email, Meeting booked, Moving the meeting, Went quiet, Needs you, or Said no.

When Allen stops and emails you

Allen never guesses. It hands the thread to you, with an email whose subject starts "Jump in:", when:

• the person asks something that is not in your playbook or your rules;
• they push back, or ask the same thing twice;
• they are clearly not a fit after your qualifying questions;
• the conversation is going in circles;
• anything else it is unsure about.

Once Allen hands a thread to you it stays out of it. Reply on LinkedIn yourself. The email tells you why Allen stopped.

What Allen will not do

• Claim it booked something it did not, or send a booking link instead of real times.
• Make up an email address, a price, or a detail about your business.
• Re-offer times to someone who already agreed one.
• Keep going when the newer message changes everything. If someone writes again before Allen's reply goes out, the old reply is dropped and Allen reads the thread fresh.
• Book outside your hours, your days, your breathing room, or your notice.

Someone who says no

Allen thanks them briefly and stops. They are marked "Said no" and never contacted again by the sequence.

If you turn Auto reply off

Allen still reads every reply and drafts the answer it would have sent. The draft sits on the Replies tab with a Copy button. Nothing is sent and nothing is booked until you do it. Replies already lined up are cancelled when you flip the switch.

Teaching it

Everything Allen says comes from Train Allen: your goal, your rules and questions, and what you taught it in Try it out. If an answer reads wrong, open Try it out under Train Allen, recreate the moment, press Teach Allen, and say what it should have done. That becomes a rule.