Listening: categories the agent remembers

Listening lets you name categories of context the agent watches for
without asking. When the contact volunteers something that fits, the
agent writes a short note in its own words to the contact's memory.

How it's different from Rules

Rules write a known value to a known field. Listening captures free-text
context the user couldn't have anticipated. Read
Rules vs Listening for the full comparison.

Anatomy of a listening category

1. Category name — a short label (e.g. "Family context", "Pain points")
2. Listen for — a plain-English description of the kind of thing this
3. Example phrases — real phrases to help the agent generalise

That's it. No field, no value — the agent decides what to write.

Example

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Category name | Family context |
| Listen for | family members, health issues, life events |
| Example phrases | my mum is sick, just got engaged, dealing with a lot at home |

When a contact says "my mum had a heart attack last week", the agent
writes a note: "Mother recently had a heart attack — contact dealing with
family health issue."

What happens to the note

It's stored in the agent's private memory for that contact. On every
future conversation with this contact (on any channel), the agent sees:

## What You Already Know About This Contact

- Family context: Mother recently had a heart attack — contact dealing with family health issue.
- Pain points: Budget is tight; mentioned avoiding anything above $500.

The agent then uses it naturally — not by quoting it, but by softening
tone, remembering to check in, avoiding tone-deaf recommendations.

Where the note is NOT

It's not pushed to GHL. It's not on the contact record. It's not in a
field any automation can read. This is deliberate — this info is the
agent's private notebook, not structured CRM data.

Good categories

• Family context — spouses, kids, parents, life events
• Pain points — frustrations with current solution, specific objections
• Preferences — morning vs evening, phone vs text, direct vs friendly
• Deal context — timing pressure, stakeholders, competing options
• Personal touchpoints — pets, hobbies, sports teams, holidays

Less-good categories

• Anything you'd want a workflow to fire on → use Rules + a field
• Anything that belongs on a form → use Qualifying questions