thinkhard.SI

Prompt repository Customer support & success

Reply to a customer's feature request you cannot promise

A customer asked for a feature that is not planned or not decided, and you need an honest reply that keeps them on side.

Registry no.
SUP-021
Collection
Customer support & success
Laid out for
Any chat model
Score
10 out of 10
Blanks to fill
5
Added

Customer support & successAny chat

The prompt

Score 10 of 10, Excellent

Use it when A customer asked for a feature that is not planned or not decided, and you need an honest reply that keeps them on side.

  • {{customer_message}}
  • {{status}}
  • {{workarounds}}
  • {{tracking}}
  • {{agent_name}}
Full prompt and why it works
Prompt
Write a reply to the customer's feature request below, for a support or success agent to review and send. The customer should come away knowing exactly where their request stands, feeling heard, and with the best option they have today.

The customer's message:
"""
{{customer_message}}
"""

Where the request stands, from the product team or our roadmap notes (not planned, under consideration, planned with no date, or similar): {{status}}
Workarounds or existing features that cover part of the need: {{workarounds}}
How we track requests, and whether we tell customers when something ships: {{tracking}}

Write the reply in three short paragraphs:
1. Restate what they want to achieve in their terms, which shows we understood the goal behind the request.
2. Say plainly where it stands, using only the status above, and what that means for them.
3. Offer the workaround with numbered steps if there is one, and say what happens to their request next.

Keep it to 90 to 160 words of plain text, signed "{{agent_name}}".

Do not promise or hint at a release date, a timeline or that the feature will be built unless the status says so, because a vague "soon" becomes a broken promise. Avoid "Great suggestion!" and "I'll pass this along to the team" with no follow-up. Do not discuss other customers or what competitors offer.

For example, a status sentence with the right honesty: "This isn't on our plan for this year, so I don't want to give you false hope. I've added your use case to the request so the product team can see why it matters."

If the status is unknown or blank, write the reply without a status in paragraph 2 and add a first line, "FOR THE AGENT: confirm the status with the product team before sending." If the request is really a bug, or something the product already does, say so in that line instead.

Variables

{{customer_message}}
The customer's message, as received.
{{status}}
Where the request stands, in the product team's words, or "unknown".
{{workarounds}}
Existing features or workarounds that help, or "none".
{{tracking}}
For example "logged in our feedback board; we email customers when a request ships".
{{agent_name}}
The name the reply is signed with.

Why it works

  • What to avoid. It may not hint at dates or a build unless the status says so, because "soon" is the promise customers remember.
  • An example. A sample status sentence shows how to say no clearly while still recording why the request matters.
  • If unsure. An unknown status puts a FOR THE AGENT line on top instead of a guessed answer, and a request that is really a bug is caught there too.

How to use it

  1. Press Fill in variables and type your details into each blank. What you type stays in this browser.
  2. Copy the filled prompt into the AI tool you already use, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, or open it in the Grader or the Prompt Tester here.
  3. Before you rely on it, try it on three or four real examples. The Prompt Tester runs them all at once and shows which ones go wrong.
Use it from code

Get this prompt as JSON from the free REST API, with your own text in the blanks, or let an AI assistant fetch it through the MCP server. No key.

curl -s https://thinkhard.si/api/v1/prompts/feature-request-reply

With the MCP server added to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or VS Code, call get_prompt with {"prompt": "feature-request-reply"}, or just ask for it by name.