{"id":251652,"date":"2021-03-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/blog\/six-steps-to-measure-self-service-deflection\/"},"modified":"2023-05-04T12:36:05","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T16:36:05","slug":"six-steps-to-measure-self-service-deflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/blog\/six-steps-to-measure-self-service-deflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Steps to Measure Self-Service Deflection"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"et_pb_row_inner et_pb_row_inner_0\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_4_4 et_pb_column_inner et_pb_column_inner_0 et-last-child\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_0 et_pb_text_align_left et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\">\n<p class=\"p-lead\">Self-Service deflection is the rate at which self-help and automated resources satisfy customers\u2019 service demands that would otherwise be handled by assisted service staff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_row_inner et_pb_row_inner_1\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_4_4 et_pb_column_inner et_pb_column_inner_1 et-last-child\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_1 et_pb_text_align_left et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\">\n<p>Using an accurate measure of deflection is imperative. If deflection is not measured correctly, it is easy to overstate the impact of self-help and service automation on assisted support demand. ServiceXRG has developed a proven reliable formula for measuring Self-Service deflection rates in your operations.<\/p>\n<h1>Deflection Defined<\/h1>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"callout-box callout-box--med-blue\">\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Deflection is the rate at which automated, and self-help resources satisfy service demand that would otherwise be handled by assisted service staff.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The attainable rate of deflection is highly dependent upon factors such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the maturity and complexity of a product<\/li>\n<li>the skills of the end users<\/li>\n<li>the quality of tools and content provided by the service provider.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is easy to overstate the impact of self-help and automation by equating their overall effectiveness with reduced need for assisted support. Yes, many issues may be resolved through self-help and automated means. Yet not all issues are destined for or entitled to resolution through assisted support channels.<\/p>\n<p>For a case to be considered as successfully \u201cdeflected,\u201d it must meet the following criteria:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The customer submitting the case must be\u00a0entitled\u00a0to assisted support.<\/li>\n<li>An issue must be\u00a0successfully resolved.<\/li>\n<li>The customer submitting the case requires\u00a0no further action\u00a0from assisted support resources to validate or clarify the answer provided through self-help or automated means.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Six Steps to Measure Deflection<\/h1>\n<p>ServiceXRG has developed the following approach to measuring deflection rates. Each of the inputs for the deflection calculation are described below. Here are the steps:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 123px;\" width=\"881\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"100\">\n<h3>Step 1:<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<td width=\"552\">\n<h2>Establish the number of\u00a0<strong>Self-Service events<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Determine the number of self-help and automated service events during a specified period of time. You can include all:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Self-help transactions on the support web portal.<\/li>\n<li>Automated self-help responses through chatbot or other automated means.<\/li>\n<li>Any other activity that provides customers with an answer to a support case and did not require any support staff involvement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table style=\"height: 123px;\" width=\"881\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"100\">\n<h3>Step 2:<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<td width=\"552\">\n<h2>Establish the Self-Service\u00a0<strong>success rate<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Determine how many self-help and automated service events successfully provide customers with an answer to their question and did not require involvement by support staff.<\/p>\n<p>To capture the success rate, you will need to ask customers if they were successful through a web-based questionnaire (e.g. \u201cdid this answer your question\u201d) or follow-up transaction survey.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: Self-help success is an important indicator to suggest how useful self-help tools and content are, but self-help success is not the same as deflection (read-on for the reasons why).<\/em><\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 123px;\" width=\"881\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"100\">\n<h3>Step 3:<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<td width=\"552\">\n<h2>Establish customer\u00a0<strong>entitlement<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Determine the number of Self-Service events that were performed by customers that are entitled to assisted support.<\/p>\n<p>Do not count Self-Service events that were conducted by customers that do not have access to assisted support.\u00a0 You cannot deflect a case from assisted support if a customer is not entitled to access assisted support resources.<\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 123px;\" width=\"881\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"100\">\n<h3>Step 4:<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<td width=\"552\">\n<h2>Establish\u00a0<strong>intent\u00a0<\/strong>(optional)<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Determine how many Self-Service events are conducted by entitled customers that intend to request support assistance if they are not successful with self-help.<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of this is to eliminate the casual browsers from your deflection calculations.\u00a0 Some customers just browse a support knowledgebase but never really intend to open a case).<\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 123px;\" width=\"881\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"100\">\n<h3>Step 5:<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<td width=\"552\">\n<h2>Determine that there is\u00a0<strong>no further action<\/strong>\u00a0after a successful self-help event<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Establish the rate of self-help events that do not require any further action after an entitled customer successfully finds an answer.<\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 123px;\" width=\"881\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"100\">\n<h3>Deflection Rate =<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<td width=\"552\">\n<h2>Self-Help Service Events by Entitled Customers <em><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">x<\/span><\/em> Success Rate <em><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">x<\/span><\/em> Intent Rate <em><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">x<\/span><\/em> No Further Action Rate<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5>Do you have a deflection gap?<\/h5>\n<p>Read\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/blog\/self-service-falls-short\/\">Self-Service Initiatives (Still) Fall Short<\/a><\/p>\n<h5>How can you use ChatGPT-like tools (Large Language Models and Generative AI) to scale support?<\/h5>\n<p>Read\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/blog\/generative-ai-applications-for-customer-support\/\">Generative AI Applications for Customer Support<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Self-Service deflection is the rate at which self-help and automated resources satisfy customers\u2019 service demands that would otherwise be handled by assisted service staff. This article introduces a concise definition &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":251653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[27,46,50,9,14],"tags":[69,37,90,33,57],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251652"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251652"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253813,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251652\/revisions\/253813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}