Using Decision Trees For Customer Support & Contact Centers

Imagine this scenario. Your agents are trained and prepared to solve all your customer problems. But then they are bombarded with hundreds of calls from frustrated customers. Your agents inevitably succumb to pressure and make errors – frustrating the customers even more.  

Customer support is not supposed to be a memory game. To provide fast and accurate customer support, you need to equip your agents with actionable knowledge. Using customer support decision trees is one way of doing this.  

Decision trees are workflows that help agents navigate complex customer queries. They do this by guiding them to the next best action based on the context of the problem. 

In this blog, we are going to explore what decision trees for customer support are and how you can provide exceptional customer experience by using them.  

What is a Decision Tree?  

Think about your doctor’s visits. When you go to a doctor, you tell him your symptoms. And your doctor asks you a series of questions to correctly diagnose the disease. 

Similarly, a decision tree is a flow chart that helps your agents ask the right questions in the right order to correctly diagnose the cause of the customer’s problem. Each question leads to two or more possible answers, which further leads to more questions.

Once the cause of the problem is identified, the decision tree guides the agents through steps to correctly resolve the customer query.  

Why Do You Need a Decision Tree for Customer Support?  

1. To reduce the average handling time (AHT) by providing the agents with all the information they need in one place.  

2. To reduce agent errors by providing step-by-step guidance for correctly resolving customer queries.  

3. To increase the first contact resolution rate (FCR) by reducing unnecessary escalations.  

4. To improve ticket deflection by enabling chatbots to correctly diagnose and resolve common customer queries. 

See How Jupiter Improved It’s CX With Knowmax Decision Tree

How To Use Decision Trees for Customer Support?

Step 1: Identify Common Customer Issues 

Start by identifying common customer issues by analyzing customer feedback support tickets and interacting with agents.  

Based on your observation, prioritize these customer issues based on impact and frequency.   

Step 2: Gather Troubleshooting Process Information 

Gather information on how the issues are currently being handled. This means information about the steps taken, information required, and typical outcomes.  

You can gather this information by interviewing experienced customer support representatives, analyzing past ticket resolutions, and reviewing process documentation. 

Step 3: Create a Decision Tree Flowchart 

Design a contact center decision tree by mapping out every potential decision point starting from the initial customer contact.  

Each node will represent a question or decision point that leads to different branches based on possible customer responses or problem diagnostics. 

Step 4: Review with Stakeholders 

Get the decision tree reviewed by key stakeholders, like customer support managers and experienced agents. This will ensure that you accurately cover all necessary bases in your decision tree. 

Pilot-test your decision trees with a few support agents. Observe how they help in issue resolution.  

Incorporate the agents’ and stakeholder’s feedback to improve your customer support decision tree.  

Step 5: Distribute the Decision Tree  

Distribute the decision tree to your agents by hosting it on a centralized platform like a knowledge management system (KMS). This will make it easier for you to organize, share, and update your decision tree.  

You can integrate your decision trees into your CRM and internal knowledge bases or provide them as part of the digital resources available to your customer support team.  

Step 6: Train Your Users 

Create a phased plan to implement your call center decision trees. Train your support team on how to use them.  

Ensure they understand how to navigate through the tree, use the scripts or solutions provided at each node, and how to handle situations if they go off-script. 

Step 7. Monitor and Optimize 

Take feedback from agents and customers to understand how your decision trees for customer support are performing in real scenarios. Then look at the analytics to further identify areas for improvement.  

Based on the feedback and changes in business processes, regularly update the decision trees.

Use Knowmax to Build Dynamic Decision Trees for Customer Support 

Knowmax is an AI-powered knowledge management platform that enables you to create and share interactive decision trees quickly.  

With Knowmax, you can easily create, access, update, and manage your decision trees; and even repurpose existing SOPs into decision trees automatically.  

We empower your support agents to deliver mistake-proof service with dynamic decision trees for call centers.