Contact Drivers

Defining the categories of inquiries within workstreams

Contact Drivers

Contact drivers are the second level of your hierarchy. They represent the main reasons or categories of inquiries within each workstream.

What is a Contact Driver?

A contact driver answers: “Why is someone reaching out?”

Each workstream contains multiple contact drivers that cover the major categories of inquiries it handles.

Examples

Under “Customer Support Chat”

• Order Issues
• Account Problems
• Billing Questions
• Product Returns
• Shipping Inquiries

Under “Sales Inquiries”

• Pricing Questions
• Product Comparison
• Feature Requests
• Trial Extensions
• Enterprise Inquiries

Under “HR Support”

• Benefits Questions
• Time Off Requests
• Policy Clarifications
• Payroll Issues
• Workplace Concerns

Creating a Contact Driver

1. Open a workstream
2. Click Add Contact Driver
3. Fill in the details:

Name

Clear, concise identifier:

• “Order Issues” ✓
• “Problems with orders and stuff” ✗
• “OI” ✗ (too abbreviated)

Description

Explain what this contact driver covers:

Good:
"Inquiries about existing orders including modifications,
cancellations, tracking, and issues with received items."

Bad:
"Order stuff"

The description helps:

• Team members understand scope
• AI categorize inquiries correctly
• Identify overlaps with other drivers

Integrations (Optional)

Systems involved in handling these inquiries:

• Shopify (order management)
• Stripe (payments)
• Shipping carriers (tracking)

How Many Contact Drivers?

Per workstream guidelines:

Workstream Size	Contact Drivers
Focused	3-5
Standard	5-10
Complex	10-15
Very Complex	15-20

Aim for contact drivers that each contain 5-15 scenarios. If a contact driver has 30+ scenarios, consider splitting it. If it has only 1-2 scenarios, consider merging.

Designing Good Contact Drivers

Mutually Exclusive

Each inquiry should clearly belong to one contact driver:

❌ Overlapping:
- Refund Questions
- Billing Issues
- Payment Problems

✅ Distinct:
- Refunds & Returns
- Billing & Invoicing
- Payment Methods

Collectively Exhaustive

Together, contact drivers should cover all scenarios in the workstream:

❌ Gaps:
- Orders (what about non-order questions?)
- Shipping (what about products?)

✅ Complete:
- Orders & Shipping
- Products & Catalog
- Account & Profile
- Billing & Payments

User-Centric Language

Use language that matches how users describe their issues:

❌ Internal jargon:
- SKU Discrepancies
- Fulfillment Exceptions

✅ User language:
- Wrong Item Received
- Delivery Problems

Organizing Contact Drivers

By User Goal

What is the user trying to accomplish?

• Get Help with Order
• Manage Account
• Make a Purchase

By Topic Area

What subject does this relate to?

• Orders & Shipping
• Products & Inventory
• Billing & Payments

By Urgency (if relevant)

How quickly does this need resolution?

• Urgent Issues
• Standard Requests
• General Inquiries

Managing Contact Drivers

Moving Between Workstreams

If a contact driver belongs to a different workstream:

1. Create the contact driver in the correct workstream
2. Move or recreate its scenarios
3. Delete the original

Merging Contact Drivers

If two contact drivers overlap too much:

1. Decide which to keep
2. Move scenarios from the other
3. Delete the empty one

Splitting Contact Drivers

If a contact driver is too large:

1. Create new, more specific contact drivers
2. Distribute scenarios appropriately
3. Delete the original if empty

Next Steps

With contact drivers defined:

1. Create Scenarios
2. Map Knowledge to Scenarios