Customer demand for support is on the rise, with no indication of a future slowdown. Support and Success leaders universally agree: Effective self-service deflection is critical to meeting this demand. Is it working? Here’s a look at self-service deflection performance trends over the past decade.
For the past decade, reported self-service deflection has averaged 22.8%. In 2020 self-help deflection rose to 23.9% – Perhaps a covid-19 bounce. The industry trend for deflection has sloped down slightly.
Self-Service Deflection Performance Trends 2010-2020
(Source: ServiceXRG)
That stubborn 22% Self-Service deflection ceiling
There is no single reason that deflection appears pegged at about 22%. This may indicate that there is a practical limit caused by the confluence of the elements that make defection possible:
- The rate that known issues are adequately captured and presented as reusable knowledge.
- The willingness of customers to fully accept an answer without verification by a human.
- The limits of aligning available answers to unique customer circumstances with search, AI, and automation tools.
If we are truly going to increase deflection, then we need to address and improve all three of these factors simultaneously.
