Customer Research Skill Overview

The customer-research skill is a structured methodology for investigating customer questions through multi-source research. Here are its key components:

Core Process

The skill follows five steps: understanding the question, planning search strategy, executing systematic searches, synthesizing findings, and presenting with attribution.

Source Hierarchy

Sources are prioritized by authority:

1. Tier 1 (Highest): Official documentation, knowledge bases, policies, and internal roadmaps
2. Tier 2: CRM records, support tickets, internal documents
3. Tier 3: Chat history, emails, calendar notes
4. Tier 4: Web searches, forums, third-party resources
5. Tier 5: Inferences and analogous situations

Confidence Scoring

Answers are labeled as:

• High: Confirmed by authoritative sources or multiple corroborations
• Medium: Found in informal sources or single sources without corroboration
• Low: Inferred or from outdated/unreliable sources
• Unable to Determine: No relevant information available

Escalation Triggers

Escalate when answers involve roadmap commitments, pricing, legal terms, security/compliance, precedent-setting, custom configurations, specialized expertise, or high-risk situations.

Documentation

Research findings should be captured in the knowledge base when they address recurring questions, required significant effort, or correct common misunderstandings, with date-stamps and quarterly reviews.