# "What do I do until you get here?" prompt: free ChatGPT template > Answer an emergency caller with safety first: your approved wording for calling 911 or the utility, what to stay away from, and no repair steps at all. Source: https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts/emergency-what-to-do-until-we-arrive-prompt · Updated 2026-10-01 · Free from Stepthrough (https://learn.ynteractive.com) [Customer emails](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts#job-customer-emails) · [Trades](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts#industry-trades) · Works in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot Updated October 1, 2026 · By [Robert Breen](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/about) Use this when a customer with a real emergency (a gas smell, water pouring from the ceiling, sparks at an outlet) asks what to do until you arrive. This is the worst place for an AI to improvise; it will cheerfully explain how to relight a pilot. This prompt allows only your own approved safety lines, word for word, written with your licensed techs. It puts emergency services first when they apply and never gives repair instructions. ## The prompt Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every `[BLANK]` with your own details. It uses the four parts from [Prompt Writing 101](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompt-writing-101-role-context-task-format): Role, Context, Task and Format. Copy prompt ```text Role: You help the office at [BUSINESS] answer customers who report an emergency and ask what to do until a technician arrives. Safety comes before everything else. Context: Approved safety lines, to be used word for word and never reworded: [SAFETY LINES]. What we can truthfully say about timing: [TIMING]. Never give repair, reset, relight or shut-off steps unless that exact step is in the approved lines. If the message mentions anything in the approved lines that calls for 911 or the utility, put that first. If no approved line fits, tell them to call our office now at [OFFICE PHONE]. Task: Read the customer's message and write a reply that gives the matching safety lines first, then the timing, then the office number. Format: A text under 320 characters, then a short phone script under 80 words for whoever calls them back. Calm and direct, no emoji, no reassurance that everything will be fine. The customer's message: [CUSTOMER MESSAGE] ``` ## Fill in the blanks **`[BUSINESS]`** Your company name and trade. **`[SAFETY LINES]`** The exact sentences your company tells customers for each emergency type, approved by your licensed techs. Nothing else gets used. **`[TIMING]`** What you really know, such as "a tech will call you within 15 minutes to set an arrival time." Don't guess at arrival. **`[OFFICE PHONE]`** The number that reaches a person right now, such as your after-hours line. **`[CUSTOMER MESSAGE]`** What the customer wrote, as they wrote it. ## Example, filled in **A made-up example** from the free lesson [Build an AI Service Request Form for Your HVAC Company](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/hvac-service-request-form-ai-lovable-n8n). Cedar Ridge Heating & Air is the made-up HVAC company in the AI Service Request Form lesson, whose agent tells anyone who mentions a gas smell to leave the house and call the gas company from outside. The other safety lines here are made up for the example. Copy example ```text Role: You help the office at Cedar Ridge Heating & Air answer customers who report an emergency and ask what to do until a technician arrives. Safety comes before everything else. Context: Approved safety lines, to be used word for word and never reworded: Gas smell: "Leave the house now and call the gas company from outside." Carbon monoxide alarm sounding, or anyone feels dizzy or sick: "Get everyone outside and call 911." Water leaking from the system: "Turn the system off at the thermostat and keep people and pets away from the wet area." What we can truthfully say about timing: a tech will call you within 15 minutes to set an arrival time. Never give repair, reset, relight or shut-off steps unless that exact step is in the approved lines. If the message mentions anything in the approved lines that calls for 911 or the utility, put that first. If no approved line fits, tell them to call our office now at (555) 014-3380. Task: Read the customer's message and write a reply that gives the matching safety lines first, then the timing, then the office number. Format: A text under 320 characters, then a short phone script under 80 words for whoever calls them back. Calm and direct, no emoji, no reassurance that everything will be fine. The customer's message: Furnace just shut off and the basement smells like gas, kind of like rotten eggs. Should I try to restart it? What do I do until you get here? ``` ## What a good answer looks like - The gas line first and word for word: leave the house now and call the gas company from outside. - The timing as given: a tech will call within 15 minutes. - A phone script that first checks they're outside. ## How to check it before you use it An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the [Reply Faster lesson](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/chatgpt-reply-to-customer-emails): check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out. - Check every promise and compare every safety sentence with your approved lines. Reworded or new safety advice gets deleted, even if it sounds right. - Search the draft for "reset," "relight," "restart," "open" and "flip." None of them should appear as an instruction. - For gas, carbon monoxide or fire, a person should call the customer, not just text. ## Why this prompt works Word-for-word safety lines are the strongest [guardrail](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/guardrails) you can give an AI: it can pick the line that fits but can't improve on it. Keeping a person on the phone for real emergencies is [human in the loop](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/human-in-the-loop). ## Practice it in the free lesson **[Build an AI Service Request Form for Your HVAC Company](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/hvac-service-request-form-ai-lovable-n8n)**: Build a service request form in Lovable for Cedar Ridge Heating & Air and connect it to n8n — the AI agent sorts each job into repair, maintenance, install or emergency, saves the lead to Google Sheets and emails a… You do every step yourself in a practice copy of Lovable and n8n, and nothing touches your real accounts. [Start the free lesson](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/lovable-n8n-hvac) Also useful: [Build an AI Emergency Request Form for Your Plumbing Company](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/plumbing-emergency-request-form-ai-lovable-n8n) ## Terms used here [Guardrails](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/guardrails) · [Human in the loop](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/human-in-the-loop) · [Triage](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/ai-triage) ## Related prompts - [Emergency service request triage prompt](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts/emergency-request-triage-prompt): Sort a batch of plumbing service requests by your own priority rules, flag unclear ones to call, and draft first replies using… - [After-hours voicemail script prompt](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts/after-hours-voicemail-script-prompt): Write your after-hours voicemail greeting: who you are, what counts as an emergency, your safety line, the emergency option and… - [Missed call text back prompt](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts/missed-call-text-back-prompt): A ChatGPT prompt for the automatic text you send after a missed call: who you are, an honest callback time, what to send you… [All free prompt templates](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts) · [AI glossary](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary)