Ticket deflection occurs when customers are able to self-serve to information instead of opening a ticket with customer service. When done right, ticket deflection empowers your customers and frees up your customer service team to handle only the issues that require human intervention.
Why Does Ticket Deflection Matter to Customer Service?
Forrester Research recently predicted that self-service would become a #1 customer service trend. The research noted that as customers move away from traditional phone support options, they’re gravitating toward web and mobile self-service options as a first point of contact with brands. For many customer service organizations, phone volume has decreased as growth in every digital customer service channel has increased.
The foundation of ticket deflection is a robust knowledge base of content that both customers and automated bots can draw from to solve problems and answer questions. Self-help resources must be both comprehensive and discoverable. Using AI, much of this process can be automated. Brands that combine self-service tools and incorporate automated workflows powered by bots perform better than their industry peers.
While 91 percent of customers say they would use an online knowledge base if it were available and tailored to their needs, self-service support options will never fully replace human agents. But they do segregate customer support issues into those that are candidates for ticket deflection and those that require more sophisticated response. Enabling ticket deflection with technology is one of the smartest ways to reduce your customer support organization’s costs and increase its efficiency.
How Helpshift Supports Ticket Deflection
Ticket deflection is best achieved in-app. Forcing customers to go to a web forum or Google to find answers decreases the odds customers will solve their own problems. The goal is to keep users engaged in your app, so sending them “off app” to self-serve is counterintuitive. Building a knowledge base within your app is the first step to enhanced ticket deflection. Helpshift offers a searchable in-app FAQ that helps with this goal.
Helpshift also offers extensive analytics which help you determine the rate of ticket deflection you’re achieving. In the Analytics Dashboard, the User Engagements area shows metrics for Opened Help, Read FAQs, and Reported Issue. By comparing these numbers, you can see how many users are reading FAQs to find answers, and how many Reported Issues you have as opposed to Opened Help.
Additional Information About Ticket Deflection
- Support: Guide: Helpshift Analytics
- Support: Customer Service Analytics and Reporting
- Blog post: Today’s Self-Service Tools Put Your Customers First
- Blog post: Ticket Deflection 101: How A Knowledge Base Will Save You Money
- Blog post: What to do When a Customer is Ready to Break Up With You Before a Conversation Has Even Started
