EXAMPLE:
Auto Attendant

Auto Attendant (Phone Tree)
Design and Scripting

Problem.   The Director of a  municipal government agency contacted his T-21 Team Manager (TM) for help with a new telephone Auto Attendant ("telephone tree") system.   Complaints about their previous "phone tree" and its scripting were numerous, so an agency committee was working with a local installer to develop scripts for the new one.   But, the Director was unhappy with the new scripts, finding them confusing and verbose.
 

Action.   His TM received the proposed scripts, their organizational chart, descriptions of each department's services, and a copy of the current auto attendant system text.   The TM assembled an Auto Attendant Design Team that restructured the proposed scripting so that it made sense to anyone who did not know much about the agency.

The Team then devised a graphic branching chart, showing the proposed options at each step in the "tree."   The Team's Editors, after receiving the agency's reactions and suggestions, forged new, concise text for each step in the system.   The TM then sent an annotated branching chart, showing the:

• "Tree" structure (graphic),

• Text, in each step, that the Auto Attendant would read to callers,

• Options available at each step.
   

After receiving the agency's comments, the T-21 Team produced a final chart and script for the new system.
  

Results.   The new T-21 script was about one-third shorter than the one originally proposed.   After approval, the agency placed the new Auto Attendant design and scripting into service, verbatim.   In a follow-up conversation, the Director said that the system was performing very well;  they had received overwhelmingly positive comments on it.   The agency's staff was happy with it as well, since the T-21 Team had preserved the intent and focus of their original scripts.