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  • 1 min read

When to hand a question to a person

Some questions should never get a drafted reply. Here is how support teams decide which ones, and how to route them.

Rows of numbered sockets on an old telephone switchboard, with one thick cord plugged in.

A drafting tool is only as good as the questions you keep away from it. The teams that trust their drafts most are the ones that decided early which topics always go to a person.

The usual list

  • Anything about money that is not already a written rule: refunds outside policy, chargebacks, discounts.
  • Legal and licensing questions.
  • Complaints that mention a person by name.
  • Anything about a customer’s account that needs a check of identity.

Route by topic, not by keyword

Keywords catch too much (“refund” appears in thank-you notes) and too little. Set the topic on the handoff rule, and look at the first two weeks of handoffs to see what it missed.

Tell the customer

If you turn on the handoff note, the customer gets one line saying a person will reply and when. It is the single setting that most reduces follow-up messages.