The 3 Domains framework for Customer SupporT (+ free template)
What is the 3 Domains Framework?
The 3 Domains Framework is a model to guide the development of a scaling Support team. The hypothesis is that if a Support team can function well in all 3 domains, they will be a well rounded, and growing function. This framework can be used to evaluate the current standing in specific areas, and provide focus for a team to develop further in them as well.
In my experience, I have used this framework to not only guide the roadmap for the development of the Support function, but I have also been able to use this framework as a guide to create a cohesive team. We have been able to highlight specific areas of ownership, and build a team where each member has a unique, but complementary skillset.
The 3 Domains of Customer Support
The more information our teams have, the deeper knowledge about our product, and the better knowledge practices we have – the better we’ll be set up for a higher quality experience. The better we can maintain a high-quality interaction experience, and the better quality processes/systems that we have in place, the better the experience for our customers will be. If we can then gather and leverage the data that comes out of those interactions (quantitative or qualitative) we can better inform our organizations, and learn more about our customer needs, informing us of what actions to take. Continuing this cycle to iterate and feed into the cycle leading to better customer experiences.
Three domains of Customer Support are:
Knowledge: How well do we leverage the information and knowledge we have available to us and better enable customers.
Quality: How well do we set ourselves up to deliver the high-quality experience to our customers that we aim to do.
Data: How well do we utilize the data available from interactions to inform product directions, service improvements, and the business.
The first domain: Knowledge
The Knowledge domain focuses on how well we leverage the information and knowledge we have available to us to better enable customers and our teams. Here there are some main areas to consider:
Self-Service Experience: Can customers get the answers where/when they need it, what is the quality and usage of that content? This centers around having a full Support Content strategy in place. (Self-Service Experience can also include the use of customer-facing AI as well, and we will address the use of AI in this framework later on).
Knowledge Management: Can agents readily find the information they need to be successful? This centers around making sure that knowledge for our teams is accessible, easily searchable and up to date. This also focuses on how information is collected from other departments and shared so that our team is informed of what is going on in the business.
Training & Enablement: How are we training and upskilling team members to keep them growing and performing well, gaining a deeper understanding of our products, services, and function? This centers around maintaining a level of knowledge that is increasing. Keeping people up to date and informed.
Having information readily available for customers, and teams, helps support the availability for them to be able to support themselves and access the information they need anywhere, at any time. For customers, this means being able to scale effectively through contact prevention, and for teams, this means faster onboarding and better continuity of information as teams grow, making sure everyone is on the same page.
As they say “Knowledge is power.”
The second domain: Quality
Here we don’t just mean Quality Assurance. While yes, there is that part to it, it’s not the only thing we talk about when we say ‘quality’. We also mean the quality of our policies, processes, and operations. This is how well we set ourselves up to deliver the high-quality experience to our customers that we aim to do. Here are some key focus areas:
Communication Quality: How are you maintaining a standard of excellence in conversations? Here we're looking at conversation review and QA, saved reply management, and how we maintain consistent quality across channels.
Operating Quality: Are we setting our systems and product up to function smoothly, and reduce friction for customers, agents, and the business? Focus on reducing friction and automating manual work in a methodical and systematic way - Scaling efficiently.
Training & Enablement: How are we training and upskilling team members to keep them growing and performing well, gaining deeper understanding of our products, services, and function? This centers around maintaining a level of knowledge that is increasing. Enabling our teams, and setting them up for success when delivering to our customers.
Here, you may notice that ‘Training & Enablement' cuts across both the Knowledge, and Quality domains. That is because while we need training to inform our teams of what is going on with our product and business, we also need coaching and enablement to to help them maintain a high-quality delivery.
The third domain: Data
In order to better inform the decisions that we make for our customers, teams, and organizations, we need to be data-driven. How we gather, measure, and leverage information is critical to move us forward, and validate (or invalidate) our assumptions. This third domain is all about how well we utilize the data available from interactions to inform product directions, service improvements, and the business.
Here are the main focus areas when it comes to data:
Metrics & Measures: How well do we measure the success of our function, and do we have the capabilities to measure what is impactful to the business? This area focuses on ensuring we have the right data in place and can get the proper reporting to provide us with insights on performance and allows us to take action on them.
Customer Insights: How well do we share insights with the organization, can we advocate for customers, and can we answer key questions that our business has? This centers on being able to turn our conversations into insights that impact the business, and can be used to influence the directions we take.
As an additional note, consider customer insights in the following way:When, where, and from whom we collect customer information
Getting the right information to the right people at the right time to inform decisions
The process for uncovering insights and testing hypothesis
Cross-functional cadences to discuss and break silos
Design customer-centric processes for improving the Customer Experience
Ensuring action is taken on learnings on a continuous basis
How can you use this with teams?
The best thing about these domains is the clarity in ownership that it provides to team members. If you are in a growing business, you may work within a ‘generalist’ format, where everyone does a bit of everything.
If that’s the case, you may get asked questions about what projects team members can work on to promote their growth, and help them and the team develop. Are there projects that I can work on? What can I work towards in the future?
If you are seeing this, you can use each domain as a focus area for team development. By using each domain as a focus area, you can create specialisms, and unique development paths for the team’s interests, and create a complementary skillset within your team members. Maybe you have one team member who focuses on your Support content strategy, and another that focuses on team enablement and training. Or another team member that focuses on raising insights to the business.
All these skills can be leveraged and inform each other for collaboration and better development of your function. As a leader, it provides a clear path for delegation, ownership, and growth for your team.
Why IS AI NOT INCLUDED?
This is a great question! AI can be utilized as an appropriate solution. When you know the domain or area’s specific problems, you can identify the appropriate solution for solving them.
The goal is not to utilize AI. THe goal is to elevate the experience, efficiency and success of the function. If that happens to be through using AI, then awesome! AI is not the goal. AI is an enabler or a path to reach a certain outcome.
Some examples where AI could be leveraged:
If you want to improve your self-service and create an interactive experience for customers, you could leverage a Customer-facing AI chat solution.
If you want to train your agents in a safe environment and upskill in certain conversational practices, you could leverage AI for agent conversational training and feedback.
If you want to scale your QA processes you could use an AI Auto-QA solution for conversation review at scale.
If you want to get better, and more full insights to the organization more effectively, you could leverage a Voice of the Customer or AI Insights solution.
There are endless possibilities and use-cases for AI, and it is important to keep in mind that AI is not the goal. AI is an enabler or a path to reach a certain outcome.
Considerations for this framework
This framework focuses on the goals and outcomes for a strong foundation. How you make them successful, and what success in these areas means to you, is dependent on your organization.
This framework is meant to be guiding, and a helicopter view. Broad enough to remain flexible for your organization, and specific enough to highlight opportunities for growth.
Consider what this means for you. At early stages, this may just be focusing on getting the foundational practices in place. In later maturities and situations, this may mean refinement, and the leveraging of new technologies. Each organization will be unique, but I truly believe that these building blocks are universal.
Resource
To support your process in understanding the 3 Domains framework, you can use this sheet that includes critical questions to consider how you currently stand.
Support's 3 Domains Framework - Guiding Questions | Growth Support
Are there any considerations that you would add, or note? Let me know! This framework is being continuously updated and developed.
