Every change is preceded by a confirmation naming what is about to happen. That screen is the check, and it takes a few seconds to read.

For a registered action Avvi enforces that check itself, so it cannot be skipped. Scheduling something for later and releasing quarantined mail in bulk rely on Avvi asking rather than on the enforced check, so read those two confirmations with more care.

Three things on it are worth checking every time: the person, the change, and which client it applies to. A mistake in any of those is cheap to correct at that point and expensive afterwards.

Correcting a confirmation is done by saying what is wrong, in the same conversation. Nothing has happened yet.

Before you begin

Know what you asked for in your own words. Comparing that against the confirmation is the whole technique.

Have the client in mind. The confirmation names it, and a request typed against the wrong client reads perfectly well otherwise.

Read the confirmation

1. Check the person named. A common surname is where this goes wrong.
2. Check the change itself, including any direction. Access to a mailbox and access for that mailbox are different requests.
3. Check the client named.
4. Confirm, or say what is wrong.

Saying what is wrong replaces the pending change rather than adding to it. Avvi asks again with the corrected details.

Good to know

When somebody reports that Avvi acted on the wrong person, the confirmation is where that went wrong and where the record of it sits.

A confirmation covering several changes lists all of them. Read to the bottom, because an unwanted extra step is easier to spot there than afterwards.

Where a name was ambiguous, Avvi asks which person you meant before it gets as far as a confirmation. Answering with the number is enough.

Verify it worked

After confirming, read the reply. It reports what was done, and it should match what the confirmation said.

Where the reply reports fewer steps than the confirmation listed, treat that as unfinished rather than complete.

If something doesn’t look right

If the confirmation names the wrong person, say the correct email address rather than repeating the name.

If it names the wrong client, stop and check which client the conversation is against before correcting anything else.

If you confirmed something you did not mean to, ask for the opposite immediately. Most changes reverse cleanly, and the ones that do not are listed on their own page.

If a change ran that you never confirmed, open a support conversation from the Help drawer. For an ordinary action that should not be possible and is worth reporting.

FAQ

Q: Can I approve everything up front?

A: No. An approval covers the exact change described and nothing else.

Q: Avvi asked twice for the same thing.

A: A confirmation is single use. If the first went stale or the details changed, a second is expected.

Q: Can I turn confirmations off?

A: No. For a registered action the check is enforced and cannot be skipped. Scheduling and bulk release rely on Avvi asking rather than on that check, so read those confirmations especially carefully.