Recipe: A Billing + Tech Support Stack

This recipe builds a two-specialist Agent Stack for SaaS-style support: a Billing Specialist for invoices, refunds, and subscription changes, and a Tech Specialist for troubleshooting, with the orchestrator routing between them. Follow the copy-paste values below and you’ll have a working Customer Support stack; either specialist can then hand off to a corresponding human team.

What you’ll end up with

• A stack named Customer Support with personality preset Friendly help desk.
• A Billing Specialist with KB access to a “Billing” KB category and Handbook access to a “Billing Procedures” Handbook category.
• A Tech Specialist with KB access to a “Troubleshooting” KB category.
• Handover on, mode by_description, with prerequisites for account email (always) and order/invoice ID (when relevant).
• Outside-hours email follow-up enabled.

Before you start

• KB categories created: Billing (customer-facing billing articles), Troubleshooting (customer-facing technical articles).
• Handbook category created: Billing Procedures (internal refund and subscription policy).
• Two teams created: Billing Team and Tech Support Team, each with at least one member and Opening Hours configured.

Build the stack

1. Create the stack via wizard

1. Settings → Agent Stacks, then the New button beside the stack list.
2. Step 1 — Purpose. Answer What will this agent stack handle? with the purpose below, and fill in Stack name:
   Stack name: Customer Support
   Purpose: Handle inbound support questions about billing and technical issues. Answer common questions directly. Hand off to the Billing Team for complex billing problems and to the Tech Support Team for hardware-level issues.
3. Step 2 — Agents. The wizard suggests specialists from the purpose. Edit them, or remove them and use Add custom agent twice. Each has a name and a What does this agent do? description — that description becomes the specialist’s Responsibility, which is what the orchestrator routes on:
   Billing Specialist — Billing, invoices, refunds, subscription changes
   Tech Specialist — Troubleshooting, error messages, product issues, hardware problems
4. Step 3 — Knowledge. Pick Select specific categories for both. Tick “Billing” and “Troubleshooting” for the Knowledge Base, and “Billing Procedures” for the Handbook. Two things to know about this step: the wizard applies one selection to every specialist it creates, so both specialists come out with both KB categories and the handbook category; and it does not switch the Handbook on — new specialists are created with handbook access off, so the handbook rules it writes here do nothing until you pick a handbook per specialist. You fix both in the next section.
5. Step 4 — Personality. Pick Friendly help desk.
6. Step 5 — Review. Check the summary, then click Create Stack.

2. Refine each specialist

Billing Specialist:

1. Open the stack → Orchestrator → click the Billing Specialist node.
2. Setup tab → Instructions: Confirm the customer's account email before issuing a refund. For refunds on charges older than 90 days, hand off to a human. For subscription downgrades, confirm the customer understands the proration policy before applying. Never reveal internal refund-approval thresholds to customers. Click Save Changes — this tab does not save on its own.
3. Knowledge sub-tab → under Restrict to specific categories, untick “Troubleshooting” so “Billing” is the only KB category left. Then set the Handbook card’s dropdown from Off to your handbook — until you do, the category list stays hidden and no handbook is searched — and leave “Billing Procedures” ticked. Changes here save as you make them.

Tech Specialist:

1. From the Orchestrator canvas, click the Tech Specialist node.
2. Setup tab → Instructions: Walk the customer through standard troubleshooting steps before escalating. Required first checks: confirm device model, OS version, and reproduce-ability. For data loss, network outage, or hardware failure: hand off to Tech Support Team immediately. Don't speculate on root cause — only describe verified symptoms. Click Save Changes.
3. Knowledge sub-tab → untick “Billing” so “Troubleshooting” is the only KB category left. Leave the Handbook card on Off: this specialist needs no procedures, and leaving it off also neutralises the “Billing Procedures” rule the wizard wrote for it.

3. Configure handover

The stack needs handover routing so complex billing problems reach the Billing Team and hardware-level issues reach the Tech Support Team. The full copy-paste configuration — By description mode, routing instructions, the account-email and order-ID prerequisites, and outside-hours email follow-up — is in Recipe: Two-Team Handover Routing by Description. Complete it before testing below.

4. Wire the stack to channels

The stack only handles conversations on channels you connect. For web chat: Settings → Web Chat → Routing, then set Route Conversations To to Customer Support under the Agent Stacks group.

Test before going live

1. Testing tab → Full Stack.
2. Send a billing question: “I need a refund for my last invoice.” The Billing Specialist should pick it up, ask for the account email and invoice number, and hand off if you say the charge is older than 90 days — the threshold its Instructions actually name.
3. Click New Test and send a tech question: “My device won’t connect to the network.” The Tech Specialist should pick it up, ask for device model and OS version, and walk through troubleshooting.
4. Click New Test and send “This is unacceptable, I want a manager.” Expect it not to hand over on that turn: a bare request for a human with no stated issue never satisfies the orchestrator’s help-first rule, so it replies asking what you need help with. Say what the problem is, let it attempt help, and only then does handover become available.

Verify it worked

• The two specialists appear on the Orchestrator canvas, each showing a “knowledge” count of 1.
• The Personality tab’s preset card for Friendly help desk is selected, and the Live preview returns a reply in that tone.
• Test conversations route correctly to each specialist.
• Handover triggers when expected and the AI asks for the right prerequisites first.

Troubleshooting

• Symptom: Both specialists overlap on some questions and the router picks the wrong one. Fix: add an orchestrator-level routing rule like “For invoice-related questions, prefer Billing Specialist” in the orchestrator slide-out’s routing-rules box, then Save. See Define routing topics.
• Symptom: Customers complain the AI is too informal. Fix: switch the personality preset to Expert advisor or Concierge on the Personality tab.

See also

• Create an Agent Stack
• Recipe: Two-Team Handover Routing by Description
• Set the stack personality