So you just adopted Zingtree’s agent scripting and/or knowledge management solution and you're eager to start putting it to work. You’re excited to start documenting your processes and reap the time and efficiency benefits you’ve heard so much about during your Sales intro calls.

Before you start building your first trees though, it’s a good idea to pause and reflect on the processes/scripts you already have in place and ask yourself some fundamental questions.

Pre-build Questions

Process

• Is the process/script in question still the most effective way to perform the task?
• What are the mandatory or key steps in the process?
• Can the process/script be improved or redesigned?
• Can we pair it down to make it more efficient?
• Does it really focus on what’s important? Does it drive the right outcome for the users?

Zingtree functionality

• Where can you utilize Zingtree to automate decisions in the process?
• Can Zingtree perform and/or replace any existing actions? (send an email, notify someone, create a document, etc.)
• Can you merge existing processes in Zingtree? For example, can you catalog multiple processes of the same nature under a single Tree?
• Can you create a more engaging or efficient Knowledge Base using Zingtree?
• Can the reporting and insights available from Zingtree help paint the bigger picture? (For example, can it prove direct links to performance failures when not used by your team? Or vice versa demonstrate consistent performance where there’s high usage?)

The Workforce & Future Strategy

Once you’ve considered the above, and before you start documenting anything, you'll want to think about all aspects of the workforce and departmental/company's future strategy:

• Where’s your workforce located geographically?
• Do any processes touch more than one team or department?
• How are the processes distributed across the workforce?
• Are there any plans to cross-train or outsource any processes (either partially or fully)?
• Are there plans to automate any processes? (AI, Chatbots, etc.)
• Is launching or further developing self-serve options on the roadmap?
• Are there plans to adopt new systems or change any existing systems in the company?

Rollout plan                                                                                                               

Once you’ve considered all the different needs and variables it’s good practice to create a rollout plan of some shape or form. You’ll want to consolidate and validate all the thoughts and ideas you’ve come up with. This can be as detailed or as high-level as needed depending on the circumstances and business requirements.

A little effort here will give you clearer direction, help you plan a timeline, prioritize Tree building activities and help you avoid the need to go back and re-do any of your work.

When creating your plan consider the following:

1. Identify what is important to the Company right now. What is the priority? This will help you pick the most relevant processes to document first. Common themes to help prioritize are:
   1. Complaint drivers or customer dissatisfaction
   2. Processes or tasks that are generating repeat contacts
   3. Complex processes (these can be streamlined and Average Handle Time (AHT) reduced through the use of Zingtree)
   4. Processes associated with a high volume of contacts/queries
   5. Processes related to areas where there are challenges with Quality and/or Compliance
   6. Processes related to regulatory change/s or imminent internal or external audits.
2. Evaluate and estimate the LOE (Level Of Effort) to build the required trees. You can easily do this by building an average size tree and timing how long it takes you to complete it. If possible replicate it with 1 or more colleagues. The goal is to have a good estimate of the number of hours/days to include in your rollout plan. Not every company has the luxury of dedicated full-time tree building resources, so if you only have x amount of hours per week/month then you’ll want to account for this in the planning. Setting realistic implementation expectations will help you in the long run.
   
   
3. Estimate a timeline to roll out and publish the required Trees. Generally, depending on the number of Trees you need it may be a good idea to segment this by department or team so as to focus on promoting the right level of engagement and effort. You can also classify key achievements as Milestones to help you track your high-level progress.
   
   
4. Create a Benefits Realization Plan to track the ROI (return on investment) that was likely part of the Business Case you made to adopt Zingtree. This plan needs to be closely aligned with the prioritization plan in order for you to realize the returns in real-time as you reach milestones. Returns mean different things to different companies, but some common examples are Time-savings, Cost Savings, Reduction in the % of Complaints or Contacts, etc.

Measure Success                                                                                                               

Your plan should include details on how you will be measuring success. List your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and quantify these as much as possible.

Examples of these could be:

1. X number of trees built and published by X date
2. Reduction of AHT by X% within X number of months
3. Reduction of Overall % of complaints or even specific types of complaints by X date
4. Reduction of Contacts or Repeat Contacts of X% by X date
5. Reduction in Training efforts and/or Employee ramp time by X%
6. New reporting & analytics created to track usage and content performance (which could provide direct connections to operational performance)