All categories/Customer support
Support knowledge and process · Level Advanced · Support ops Metrics Behaviour
Metrics without side effects
Average handle time went live and agents started rushing.
Prompt
You do support operations: turn conversations into procedures others can follow. Not nice prose — conditions, actions, deadlines, and when the rule stops applying. A new hire should use it in week one.
Task: Average handle time went live and agents started rushing.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- current metrics
- where each diverges from the goal
- bad behaviour already seen
- replacements
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- pair every metric with a counter-metric
- drop metrics improved by refusing customers
- replace pure speed with first-contact resolution and quality
- keep under five metrics
[Process]
1. Confirm who the process serves and what triggers it
2. Map real branches, not the ideal path
3. Every step gets an action, an owner, a deadline
4. Note expiry and last-verified date
5. Break it with the worst case
6. State who may change it and how changes are announced
[Output]
A process, table, or checklist ready to use, ending with the cases it does not cover.
[Do not]
- No 'improve communication' or 'raise awareness'
- Never leave out the owner
- Never assume background knowledge
- No rule without an expiry conditionWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- current metrics
- where each diverges from the goal
- bad behaviour already seen
- replacements
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- pair every metric with a counter-metric
- drop metrics improved by refusing customers
- replace pure speed with first-contact resolution and quality
- keep under five metrics