Categories and skills

Everything in Nemma hangs on categories. When a customer email lands, the AI first picks one category for it - for example Order status or Returns. The category decides two things: which skill the AI writes from, and whether the reply may be sent automatically.

Your categories

You start with 12 categories, which are created automatically when your organisation is set up: Order status, Delayed delivery, Cancellation, Address change, Returns, Refunds, Faulty or damaged item, Product questions, Size and exchanges, Discount code, Invoice or receipt and Other. You can use them as they are or adapt them: you can create new ones, rename and delete (see below).

If an email does not clearly fit any of them, it goes into Other. If Nemma has got a single case wrong, you can correct it: click the category's name under the subject in the case, and choose another. If the case has an open draft, Nemma writes a new one so it follows the new category. For each category you decide for yourself what happens - the mode (Manual, Draft or Auto-send) you choose under Automation, and you write the skill under Skills.

Create, rename and delete categories

Only the owner can create, rename and delete categories. You do it under Automation.

Create a category

1. Click New category above the table.
2. Write a Name of 2 to 40 characters, for example Warranty. Two categories cannot have the same name, and that applies even if one is written in capitals and the other in lower case.
3. Write a short Description of what the cases are about (see below).
4. Click Create category.

The new category starts on Draft and gets a template skill, which you fill in under Skills. You can have up to 20 categories.

Rename a category

Click ⋯ next to the category, choose Rename, edit the name or the description, and click Save. The category's skill, history and statistics follow along - it is the same category, just with a new name.

Delete a category

Click ⋯ next to the category and choose Delete category. The window tells you how many cases are moved. All the category's cases (resolved ones too) are moved to Other, so no case is left without a category. The category's skill is deleted with it, and new emails are no longer sorted into it. This cannot be undone.

"Other" is locked. The Other category cannot be deleted, renamed or moved by anyone, not even the owner. It is the one Nemma falls back on when nothing else fits, and the one that deleted categories' cases are moved to. You can still write a description, choose a mode and fill in the skill for Other.

The description helps the AI sort

When an email comes in, Nemma chooses a category from the email's content. Your Description of the category (up to 300 characters) is read along with it, so Nemma knows what you mean by the category. Write what belongs there, in your own words, for example: Questions about warranty, complaints after more than 30 days and warranty certificates. A category without a description is still sorted by its name, but a short description gives fewer mis-sorts, especially for categories that look alike. The description is only an aid to sorting: it does not change what the AI may answer (the skill does that), and it is shown under the category's name in the table.

What a skill is

A skill is your recipe for one category. It is sent to the AI every time it answers an email in exactly that category. You find them under Skills in the menu (the Set up Nemma group, which is called Configuration once setup is finished) - one skill per category.

Each skill starts as a template with four sections:

• Policy - your deadlines, prices and terms
• Procedure - how this type of case should be solved
• Example reply - a typical reply for this type of case
• Never - what the AI must never offer

How the AI sounds - form of address, length, emojis and your own words about the voice - you set once for the whole shop under Settings → Tone, so it does not need to be in every skill.

Why a filled-in skill is essential

The AI must not make up policies. If a customer asks about delivery time, right of withdrawal, returns or warranty, the AI answers only from your skill or from what it has looked up in Shopify. If the answer is in neither place, it does not invent anything - it refers to the relevant page or passes the case on to you.

In practice that means: an empty template gives cautious, general replies that often end up with you anyway. A filled-in skill gives replies you just need to press Send reply on.

That is why a category can only be on Auto-send once its skill is filled in.

Order data is an exception: the AI fetches it itself from Shopify. The skill should not repeat order numbers or stock status - only what is not in your shop.

How to fill one in

1. Go to Skills and choose a category in the list. On a narrow screen the list is a dropdown, Choose a category.
2. Write your real policy in place of the texts in brackets. The helper Questions a customer should get answers to shows questions that fit exactly that category. On a wide screen it is in a column on the right; otherwise it is a row above the text field that you can expand. Click a topic in the helper, and a heading is inserted into the text at the cursor, and you write the answer under it. It is an aid, not a form - write freely.
3. Click Save in the card header, next to the category's name.

If you have written in a skill without saving, a pencil appears next to the category in the list and Not saved under the name. The text stays when you switch to another category on the page, but it is only saved once you click Save.

The list shows a status next to each category: a light grey dot for Not filled in, a yellow dot for Partly filled in and a dark dot for Filled in. Above the list it says how many are filled in, for example 3 of 12 filled in. The status is also shown under the category's name in the card. It follows the text: as long as the template's placeholders, shown as (Fill in: ...), are there, the skill is not finished. Once they are all rewritten, it shows as Filled in.

By default only the owner can edit Skills, because they are the AI's rulebook. The owner can give an agent permission with Can edit Skills under Settings → Team (see Team and permissions). Without permission you can read all skills, but the text field is read-only, the writing helper is hidden and Save is switched off. It says Only the owner or someone with permission can edit Skills.

Start with the categories where you get the most emails. If you have changed a skill and regret it, you can see earlier versions, restore them and test a change on a real case before you trust it - see Skill history and Test on case. Once a skill is in good shape, you can consider moving the category from Draft to Auto-send - see Manual, Draft and Auto-send.

Links for customers

Besides skills you have a common item that applies to all categories: Skills → Shared → Customer links. Here you put your important links - for example the returns portal, size guide and shipping info - with a name and an address (up to 12). The AI shares the relevant link when a customer asks, for example your returns portal in return cases. Click Save links. Only the owner can save links.