Starting point, in your words

• Tell me briefly which single call or contact type you want to pilot and why it matters right now Options: Billing inquiries, Technical troubleshooting, Account changes, New activations, Cancellation/retention, Other
• How many total contacts of that type do you receive each month across voice, chat, and social combined? Options: Under 5,000, 5,000–15,000, 15,000–50,000, 50,000–150,000, Over 150,000
• Walk me through the last time this contact type overloaded your team, what sequence of events unfolded and who felt the impact first
• On average for that contact type, what are your current baseline KPIs: first contact resolution, average handle time, and CSAT (give values or typical ranges)
• Which channels carry the majority of this volume today Options: Voice, Chat, Email, SMS, Social messaging, Mix of channels

When spikes happen, what actually breaks

• If hold time spikes again during a campaign, what downstream cost matters most to you, churn, overtime spend, SLA penalties, or something else Options: Increased churn, Overtime and temp staffing cost, SLA penalties or credits, Higher abandonment rate, Brand damage / complaints, Other
• Who finds out first internally when those costs start to show up Options: Your operations leader, Workforce management, Head of CX, Finance, Marketing, Other
• How long does it typically take your team to stabilize after a major spike Options: Hours, 1–3 days, 4–7 days, 2+ weeks
• Which single system or dependency has most often slowed recovery in past incidents, for example telephony routing, provisioning API, or CRM access Options: Telephony routing, Agent desktop integrations, Provisioning APIs, CRM or billing data access, Workforce management configuration, Other
• Walk me through the last major spike, were there integration or data handoffs that repeatedly caused rework or callbacks

Where the operational friction lives, by example

• Which repetitive task or inquiry do your most experienced agents say pushes them toward leaving Options: Billing adjustments, Account verification steps, Basic troubleshooting resets, Manual credits and refunds, Escalation routing, Other
• How many tenured or senior agents have you lost in the last 12 months and what's your typical annual attrition rate Options: Under 15%, 15–25%, 26–40%, Over 40%
• Describe how knowledge and troubleshooting context are transferred today when a senior agent departs
• If a managed operation could demonstrably reduce repetitive touches for senior agents, how would that change your retention goals over 12 months Options: Reduce attrition by 10 points, Reduce attrition by 5–10 points, Modest improvement expected, Unclear / need proof
• If the solution could not deliver measurable retention improvement within six months, would that rule out a production agreement Options: Yes, rule out, No, renegotiate, Depends on other benefits, Unsure

Who needs to be bought in, and what would convince them

• Which single stakeholder's concern, if left unaddressed, would stop the project immediately Options: VP Customer Operations, CFO / Finance, CTO / Engineering, Legal / Compliance, Head of Experience, Procurement
• List the primary evaluation criteria each stakeholder will use, for example cost per contact, retention impact, SLA exposure, or data governance
• Who will own day to day measurement of pilot success once it starts Options: Your operations team, A shared ops lead, The seller's pilot team, Program management office, Other
• How quickly do procurement and legal need to see final commercial and SLA terms before they will sign off, immediate, weeks, or quarters Options: Within 1 week, 1–3 weeks, 1–2 months, Longer than 2 months
• If the pilot hits target metrics, who can authorize moving to production and in what timeframe Options: VP Customer Operations within 2 weeks, Procurement and Legal in 30–60 days, Finance signoff required, Multiple committees, timeline varies

Other paths you're actively weighing

• Which alternative are you most likely to choose if this pilot cannot start on your required timeline Options: Keep internal operation, Renew incumbent managed provider, Switch to a BPO, Invest in automation internally, Scale temp staffing, Other
• Which incumbent or internal option have you evaluated recently, and what did you learn about its strengths and blind spots Options: Current in-house operations, Existing managed provider, Outsourced BPO option, Automation vendor proof of concept, Workforce optimization vendor, Other
• What specific result would your current approach need to deliver for you to stay with it instead of changing
• Has anyone inside proposed solving this without an outside partner, who, and what is their plan Options: Yes, engineering-led build, Yes, WFM-led optimization, Yes, data/AI team project, No internal proposal, Unsure
• Which contractual or labor constraints make it harder to switch providers or change the model Options: Existing vendor term, Union or labor rules, Platform lock-in, Budget cycle timing, None of the above, Other

Can your systems and teams actually support the pilot

• Which single integration gap would block the pilot as scoped, for example no API access to billing or no agent desktop integration Options: No billing API access, No provisioning API, No agent desktop integration, No telephony routing control, Data sharing restrictions, Other
• Who owns the integration endpoints we would need, and can they assign a technical point person for the pilot Options: Internal engineering team, Platform vendor, Shared responsibility, Third-party integrator, No owner assigned yet
• How ready is the data you need for KPIs, for example historical FCR logs and CSAT records Options: Fully ready and accessible, Partially ready, needs cleaning, Not available in a usable form, Unknown
• Do you have a named operations or technical resource who can commit roughly 5–10 hours per week during the 8–16 week ramp Options: Yes, named resource ready, Yes, we can assign one, No, not available, Maybe
• Which compliance or legal approvals could gate timeline, for example data residency, PCI, or consumer consent Options: Data residency / localization, PCI / payment processing, Consumer privacy consent, Regulator notification, No expected approvals, Other
• If required integrations cannot be completed within eight weeks, would you pause, accept a reduced scope, or cancel Options: Pause until ready, Accept reduced scope, Cancel pilot, Renegotiate timeline

What success looks like and next steps

• Which single KPI threshold, if reached by the pilot, would make you comfortable moving to production within 30 days Options: FCR improvement of 10 percentage points, AHT reduction of 20% or more, CSAT increase of 0.5 points, Cost per contact reduced by 15%, Combination of two or more
• Describe how you calculate first contact resolution today and any known blind spots in that measurement
• Who will sign the pilot acceptance paperwork and what timeline do they require after pilot close to approve Options: VP Customer Operations within 2 weeks, Procurement and Legal 30–60 days, Finance approval required, Executive committee
• If the pilot misses the primary KPI by more than 20 percent, which path would you most likely take Options: Stop the program, Renegotiate scope and retest, Extend the pilot for another cycle, Proceed with conditional measures
• Realistically, what are the three earliest next steps you would expect from your side if we agree to run a pilot

• Solution Experience Session

• Confirm the current state and its cost to your team
• You confirm the current-state description and accept the stated business consequences as accurate and urgent.
• Deliver a tailored pilot design document with explicit acceptance criteria, staffing plan, and integration checklist within 5 business days.
• Show voice billing inquiry, end-to-end
• You confirm the demonstrated workflows resolve billing inquiries on first contact and reduce handle time compared to your current operation.
• Provide three representative billing inquiry call recordings and two chat transcripts that reflect peak and off-peak conditions.
• Show chat and self-service deflection handling
• Provide a list of current integration endpoints, API access windows, and any required test credentials.
• You agree on the remaining evidence and tasks required to approve a time-boxed pilot and its acceptance criteria.
• Schedule a technical detailed review to validate API connectivity and sample data mapping before pilot kickoff.
• Demonstrate peak-event sequencing and staffing response
• Surface measurable proof against your KPIs
• Validate that this matches your requirement

• Solution Experience Session
• Solution Experience Deck
• Solution Brief

• meeting
• slides
• document

• Operate 24/7 Voice Contact Queue
• Operate Chat Support Queue
• Operate Email Ticket Handling
• Operate Social Messaging and Moderation
• Deploy Integrated Agent Desktop
• Integrate Desktop with Billing and Provisioning
• Enable Network Diagnostics and Remote CPE Actions
• Deploy AI-Assisted Agent Assist Tools
• Operate Pilot: Billing Inquiry Handling
• Provide Workforce Management Operations
• Implement Automated Self-Service Deflection Flows
• Execute In-Interaction Account Adjustments and Credits
• Manage Technical Escalation and Callback Avoidance
• Deliver Agent Onboarding and Role Training

Operate 24/7 Voice Contact Queue

• Which inbound voice call types should be included in the 24/7 queue (for example: billing inquiries, outage reports, service activation)? Options: Billing inquiries, Outage reports, Service activation, Technical troubleshooting, Other
• How many average concurrent voice contacts do you see at peak hour for the selected call types? Options: Less than 100, 100-500, 500-1,000, More than 1,000
• Who on your operations team is authorized to approve queue routing rule changes and peak overflow thresholds?
• Provide the acceptable average handle time (AHT) target in seconds for the included voice call type(s). Options: Less than 300 sec, 300-600 sec, 600-900 sec, Custom
• Indicate the IVR (interactive voice response) entry points and prompts that must be preserved for caller segmentation (include menu text or prompt IDs).
• Specify any regulatory or compliance constraints on voice recordings or CDR (call detail record) retention for these queues. Options: Standard retention (90 days), Extended retention (custom), Regulatory hold required, None

Operate Chat Support Queue

• Which chat channels do you expect to route into the managed chat queue (website widget, mobile app, in-product chat, SMS-to-chat)? Options: Website widget, Mobile app, In-product chat, SMS-to-chat, Other
• Estimate your peak simultaneous chat sessions for the pilot channel(s). Options: Less than 50, 50-200, 200-500, 500+
• List required chat routing rules tied to customer attributes (for example: premium account, outstanding outage ticket, high-risk churn indicator).
• Describe the expected chat response time SLA for initial response and for agent follow-ups (in seconds or minutes).
• Are chat transcripts required to be attached to the source CRM ticket automatically? Options: Yes, No
• Indicate if proactive chat invitations should be used for specified webpages or billing pages and provide trigger URLs or page IDs. Options: Yes - provide trigger pages, No

Operate Email Ticket Handling

• Which incoming email addresses or ticket categories will be included (for example: billing@, support@, refunds@)?
• How many inbound email tickets per day do you currently receive for the selected categories? Options: Less than 100, 100-500, 500-2,000, More than 2,000
• Provide required SLA targets for first response and full resolution for email tickets (hours).
• Specify any mandatory email signature, compliance footer, or opt-out language that must appear on agent replies.
• Do you need automated ticket categorization or priority assignment based on billing account status or order age? Options: Yes, No
• Identify any downstream workflows triggered by email closure (for example: billing credit, service dispatch ticket, order cancellation).

Operate Social Messaging and Moderation

• Which social messaging channels must be monitored and supported (for example: public comments, direct messages on social platforms)? Options: Public comments, Direct messages, Mentions, Community forums, Other
• Specify rules for escalation from social moderation to a live agent (for example: billing mention with account number, outage confirmation post).
• Describe any brand or legal guidelines for public replies, including required escalation for regulatory claims.
• How quickly must social direct messages receive an initial response during business hours? Options: Under 30 minutes, 30-60 minutes, 1-4 hours, Next business day
• Are sentiment scoring and moderation labels required to feed back into your CRM for churn risk scoring? Options: Yes, No
• Who on your policy or legal team will approve canned public responses and moderation playbooks?

Deploy Integrated Agent Desktop

• Which systems must surface in the agent desktop at minimum (for example: billing ledger, provisioning console, network diagnostics panel)? Options: Billing ledger, Provisioning console, Network diagnostics, Order history, Other
• Specify the single sign-on (SSO) method your identity provider uses (for example: SAML 2.0, OpenID Connect) and provide required connector endpoints.
• List required desktop widgets or quick actions (for example: apply credit, push firmware update, open remote session) with exact labels used by agents.
• Provide acceptable screen-load latency for the agent desktop when a billing account is opened (seconds). Options: Under 1s, 1-3s, 3-5s, Over 5s
• Indicate whether your desktop must support in-session co-browsing or secure remote control of CPE (customer premises equipment). Options: Co-browsing required, Remote control required, Neither
• Specify acceptance criteria that will confirm the integrated agent desktop is production-ready, including API availability %, SSO success rate %, and max screen-load latency.

Integrate Desktop with Billing and Provisioning

• Which billing systems and provisioning APIs must the desktop integrate with (give API types or document names rather than vendor names)?
• Describe required live operations from the desktop against billing accounts (for example: apply credit, bill adjustment, invoice reissue) and any authorization workflow.
• Indicate required reconciliation tolerance during pilot for automated account changes (for example: acceptable failed transaction rate). Options: Less than 0.1%, 0.1-0.5%, 0.5-1%, More than 1%
• Specify the audit trail fields needed for each billing action (for example: actor ID, timestamp, reason code, ticket ID).
• List any required transactional rollback or sandbox modes for provisioning API calls during pilot. Options: Sandbox mode required, Rollback support required, Live only
• Provide acceptance criteria that will confirm billing and provisioning integrations are safe for live account changes (include reconciliation thresholds and audit completeness).

Enable Network Diagnostics and Remote CPE Actions

• Which diagnostics must be available from the desktop (for example: signal-to-noise ratio, modem firmware version, node utilization)? Options: Signal metrics, Firmware version, Node utilization, Provisioning state, Other
• How many remote CPE action types are required (for example: reboot, firmware push, configuration reset)? Options: 1-2, 3-5, 6+
• Describe the required latency and success-rate targets for remote CPE actions during normal network conditions.
• Identify any devices or CPE models that require special handling or separate provisioning endpoints.
• Indicate whether diagnostics results must be automatically logged to the ticket and which fields are mandatory. Options: Yes - include diagnostics summary, No - manual attach only
• Who on your network operations team will approve remote CPE action gating rules and safe-time windows?

Deploy AI-Assisted Agent Assist Tools

• Which AI-assist capabilities do you want in-scope (for example: response suggestions, knowledge retrieval, real-time triage, automated summary)? Options: Response suggestions, Knowledge retrieval, Real-time triage, Automated call summary, Other
• Specify any forbidden actions for AI assists (for example: never auto-apply credits, never auto-authenticate).
• Describe the knowledge sources that the assist should surface (for example: billing KB article IDs, provisioning runbooks, outage status page).
• Indicate the required human-in-the-loop policy for AI suggestions (for example: agent must accept before action; agent may edit suggested text). Options: Agent must accept, Agent may edit then send, Auto-apply with audit
• Provide expected accuracy or precision targets for intent classification used to deflect to self-service for billing inquiries. Options: Greater than 80%, 80-90%, 90%+
• Describe data privacy constraints for AI uses, including whether PII (personally identifiable information) can be stored in model logs. Options: PII in logs allowed, PII masked in logs, PII not stored

Operate Pilot: Billing Inquiry Handling

• Which specific billing inquiry subtypes will the pilot cover (for example: invoice explanation, late fee disputes, payment posting delays)?
• How many unique customer accounts and daily contacts should be included in the pilot sample? Options: Less than 500 accounts, 500-2,000, 2,000-10,000, More than 10,000
• Specify the pilot duration in weeks (typical pilots run 4-8 weeks) and any blackout dates to avoid. Options: 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, Custom
• List the data feeds required to support the pilot (for example: billing ledger export schedule, payment reconciliation API, customer account status webhook).
• Indicate the pilot routing path for callers who require escalation to engineering or field dispatch to avoid callback loops. Options: Direct escalation to engineering, Create high-priority ticket + callback, Field dispatch ticket creation
• Specify acceptance criteria for the billing inquiry pilot that will confirm success, including numeric thresholds for first-contact resolution (FCR), average handle time (AHT), and customer satisfaction (CSAT).

Provide Workforce Management Operations

• How many full-time equivalent (FTE) agent seats do you expect us to manage for the scoped channels during pilot and production ramp? Options: 1-50, 51-250, 251-1,000, 1,000+
• Describe your target schedule adherence and shrinkage assumptions for forecasting (for example: 85% adherence, 35% shrinkage).
• Identify preferred shift patterns and any blackout windows for training or maintenance.
• Indicate whether you require intraday reforecasting and automated schedule swaps for reason codes like sick or training. Options: Yes - intraday reforecast, No - daily only
• Who on your operations team will own headcount sign-off, time-off approvals, and payroll reconciliation during pilot?
• Provide expected quality monitoring coverage targets (for example: % of calls QA reviewed per agent per week). Options: 1-2% per week, 5-10% per week, Custom

• decision_readiness
• stakeholders
• gaps
• success_criteria
• desired_state
• current_state
• gaps
• decision_readiness
• success_criteria
• current_state
• desired_state
• stakeholders
• current_state
• decision_readiness
• stakeholders
• decision_readiness
• decision_readiness
• decision_readiness
• decision_readiness

• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Statement of Work (SOW) — Pilot and Ramp
• Order Form / Subscription Agreement
• Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Pilot Acceptance Agreement
• Pilot Acceptance Certificate
• Transition Governance Plan
• Change Order Agreement
• Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
• Service Termination and Exit Plan

• Go-live Health Check (weeks 1-4)
• First Measurement Review (weeks 4-10)
• Acceptance Gate Meeting (around day 90)
• Ongoing Operational Review (monthly)
• Quarterly Performance and Governance Review

• Update the enhancement backlog with prioritization, provisional delivery dates, and acceptance criteria for each item.
• Publish the signed acceptance record or documented conditional acceptance with remediation items and retest dates.
• Execute the incumbent decommission or retention tasks and report completion with evidence.
• Schedule follow-up verification to confirm remediation items were implemented and met acceptance criteria.
• Operational KPI review
• Confirm FCR and CSAT remain within the accepted operating band or document corrective steps if they do not.
• Advance or close top backlog items and record delivery windows for decided items.
• Reduce the open action-item count by agreed targets before the next monthly review.
• Re-confirm success criteria and owners
• Execute agreed corrective actions for any KPI deviations and report status at the next operational review.
• Produce a short monthly monitoring summary highlighting any trends in AHT, FCR, and CSAT for leadership distribution.
• Quarterly KPI trend presentation
• Confirm quarterly performance for FCR, AHT, and CSAT against the Pilot Evaluation baseline and agree any governance actions required.
• Approve the priority list and provisional schedule for the quarter's top enhancements or fixes.
• Confirm mitigation plans for high-impact risks and the owners responsible for execution.
• Publish the quarterly performance brief with agreed governance actions and the prioritized enhancement list.
• Finalize resource and training windows needed to deliver the quarter's prioritized items and communicate them to scheduling teams.
• Update the risk register with new mitigation deadlines and report on progress at the next monthly operational review.
• Confirm production integrations and agent desktop mappings are functioning to the point where outcome data will be reliable.
• Agree a prioritized remediation plan for any critical blockers with target completion dates.
• Establish the cadence and owner for the first measurement meeting and data handoff.
• Publish the go-live validation checklist and current blocker list with owners and target dates.
• Confirm data pipeline and reporting sources for FCR, AHT, and CSAT that will feed the first measurement meeting.
• Schedule any required short training or coaching sessions addressing early adoption gaps.
• Present first-window outcome data
• Decide whether FCR and AHT are trending toward the Pilot Evaluation targets or require escalation.
• Produce a prioritized remediation plan with named resolution dates for the top 3 root causes.
• Confirm the data window and report that will be used for the acceptance gate around day 90.
• Deliver a short diagnostic report showing metric trajectories for FCR, AHT, and CSAT and the evidence behind each diagnosed root cause.
• Implement the agreed corrective actions with target dates and report progress at the next operational review.
• Prepare the formal dataset and presentation for the acceptance gate meeting citing Pilot Evaluation targets.
• Restate acceptance criteria and numeric targets
• Produce a documented pass or fail per acceptance criterion recorded in Pilot Evaluation and capture the named signatory decision.
• If any criteria failed, agree a remediation plan with dates for retest and acceptance re-evaluation.
• Confirm the legacy system decommission plan or formal retained-read-only state and next steps to complete wind-down.
• Detailed review on persistent issues
• Governance and contract compliance review
• Present outcome data against each criterion
• Gap diagnosis and root cause analysis
• Deployment and integration validation
• Enhancement and backlog triage
• Pass/fail determination and documented decision
• Enhancement prioritization and resource planning
• Agree corrective actions and timelines
• Early adoption and usage signals
• Risk register and mitigation updates
• Open issues and blockers
• Confirm timeline to acceptance gate
• Action burn-down and risk items
• Remediation plan for any failed criteria
• Immediate remediation actions
• Incumbent system wind-down confirmation