Plan requirement
| Subscription | Suite Growth or higher, Support Team or higher |
| Access | Admin |
Test the call first, then the conversation around it. Separating those two is what makes a fault findable.
Test it
- Save the action or the action flow first. Testing runs against what is saved, not against what is on screen.
- Open the Test action flow sidebar and fill in the inputs. Only the variable ones need a value; what the trigger would normally supply is simulated for you.
- Check what comes back is what you expect, then run it with values that should fail.
- Then test it inside a conversation.
A test sends real requests. Every step calls the system it is pointed at, so a test that creates an order creates a real order. Use test data: a test ticket, a test issue, an account you are willing to break.
Four cases, every time
- A value that works. The straightforward case.
- A value that does not exist. An order number that is not there.
- Nonsense. Letters where a number belongs, an empty answer.
- The system unavailable. Harder to arrange and the most important, because it will happen.
That last one behaves differently from the rest. Retry on error only covers 429 and 503; every other error code fails straight through without a retry. And where it does retry, it waits 15 seconds, then 3 minutes, then 36 minutes, then an hour, so a failure test does not resolve while you are watching it.
Watch what the customer sees
An action failing is not the problem; an action failing silently is. Run each failure inside a conversation and read what the agent says. A technical error reaching a customer is worse than no answer.
Check what it reveals
Confirm the reply contains only what the customer should see. Actions often return more than is needed, and a field that seemed harmless in the response can be repeated back in the conversation.
Test as somebody without permission
Where the action shows personal data, verify that a customer who cannot be identified gets nothing. This is the test that is skipped and the one that matters most.
Retest after any change
To the action, the procedure using it, or the system at the other end. The last of those is the one nobody remembers, and a field renamed elsewhere breaks an action silently.
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