When a business grows, the volume of support tickets created increases daily, which strains support agents as they try to solve every customer’s issue.
Having the right ticket deflection strategies, such as self-service options and AI-powered assistance, can help minimize the time it takes to resolve problems. What’s more, it assists to maintain a sustainable level of customer service for both support teams and customers.
Effective ticket deflection allows support agents to work more comfortably and more efficiently.
In this blog, we will explore the subject of ticket deflection, ways to monitor ticket deflection metrics, and how ticket deflection benefits companies of all sizes.
What is ticket deflection?
Ticket deflection is a strategy that businesses use to minimize the number of support tickets that their customer support teams have to handle.
Implementing this strategy often takes the form of self-service platforms that allow customers to find answers independently rather than contacting support agents for help.
These self-help options can include knowledge bases, FAQ pages, community forums, and AI-powered live chat support.
A survey Higher Logic found that 84% of customers try to solve support issues on their own before contacting customer support, and that 79% of customers expect businesses to offer self-service service tools to help them find answers without contacting support teams.
By implementing ticket deflection techniques, businesses can reduce support costs, enhance customer satisfaction, and increase the efficiency of their support teams.
Metrics for ticket deflection and self-service support
You should evaluate targeted support metrics before and after adopting any ticket deflection techniques to understand your plan’s effectiveness.
Here are several metrics that are vital for accurate assessment:
Ticket deflection rate
The ticket deflection rate is the percentage of support tickets are solved using self-service support options.
The formula for finding ticket deflection rate is:
A higher ratio indicates better ticket deflection, meaning more customers found solutions to their problems independently.
Self-service engagement rates
Measure how long, how often, and how many users interact with self-service content. Common measurements include time spent on articles, video views, unique users, link clicks, and upvotes.
Use these metrics to:
- Gauge whether customers find your self-service content useful.
- Identify common customer pain points.
- Know the areas for improvement in your content, your product, and your support.
Tip: Utilize reporting and analytics to collect these metrics in real time and make informed decisions on the fly to enhance customer service.
Effective ways to reduce support tickets
There is no universal approach to ticket reduction. To effectively reduce incoming customer requests, especially those that concern frequently asked questions, consider these tactics to find the best approach for your business.
Proactively engage customers
Don’t wait for customers to contact you for support. Deliver proactive customer service by initiating conversations, assisting with product choices, and providing knowledge base articles.
Include answers to familiar questions on product pages to enable customers to check FAQs before they need to open a ticket. This helps customers resolve issues without contacting an agent, increasing ticket deflection.
Prepare detailed instructions and tutorials
Create interactive resources that can help customers resolve their issues independently, such as troubleshooting guides and how-to videos.
By ensuring that these resources are accessible 24/7, your customers can help themselves beyond regular business hours. This helps to reduce support tickets being generated.
Develop a comprehensive FAQ page
Develop answers to the most frequently asked questions and common issues that customers face. You can then store them in a central, customer-facing location.
Periodically review and update them to incorporate the latest support trends and customer feedback. This improves ticket deflection and lets customers find solutions to their queries on their own.
Offer a community discussion board
Create an online community forum to help customers engage with one another. It also helps them address any issues with your products or services, and share their experiences.
The forum will allow customers to troubleshoot issues and share tips, providing an alternative to traditional FAQ pages.
In addition, community forums can serve as valuable resources for:
- Gathering product ideas.
- Identifying bugs.
- Collecting customer feedback.
Create an easily accessible knowledge base
A self-service knowledge base enables customers to find the information they need independently instead of waiting for assistance.
Keep your knowledge base articles up to date with the most current information and solutions.
Optimize articles for search by including common keywords and phrases that customers will likely use.
Provide multilingual support
Offer multilingual self-service options to reach a worldwide customer base and efficiently address customer demands.
Developing a multilingual self-service portal will simplify your clients’ search for answers and act as a ticket deflector tool for your support team.
Offer omnichannel assistance
Ensure that your self-service support is accessible across all customer interaction points.
This includes offering omnichannel support that allow support agents to handle customer issues from various communication channels such as, email, mobile apps, and social media within a unified platform.
Coordinating your self-service tools with these customer communication channels is essential to increasing ticket deflection. It ensures delivery of a seamless self-service support experience across all touchpoints.
Integrate AI into your customer service portal
Incorporate AI into your customer self-service portal to deflect tickets. This can be achieved by:
- Offering answers 24/7 through smart live chat.
- Suggesting relevant resources through AI-powered prediction tools.
Using AI frees up your support team, empowers customers, and saves everyone time.
Benefits of ticket deflection
Ticket deflection is crucial to customer support teams because it has several positive effects on their daily performance. These are a few of its major advantages:
- Improves agent productivity and satisfaction: By diverting simple questions away from support agents, agents can spend more time solving difficult issues rather than performing repetitive tasks. This helps them be more efficient and satisfied in their job.
- Increases revenue: Happy customers are loyal customers. When their problems are quickly and easily solved using self-service options, they are more likely to remain a customer and might even spend more.
- Boosts brand reputation: Providing excellent self-service experiences strengthens perceptions of the brand, potentially attracting new customers.
- Minimizes customer support costs: Fewer tickets mean less time spent by agents resolving them. This translates to lower overall costs for running your support team.
- Enhances customer experience: Customers can find answers quickly and conveniently without waiting for an agent. This empowers them to take control.
Enhance your ticket deflection strategy
Implement self-service options and ticket deflection techniques to help your support agents become more efficient with their time and give your customers a level of control in resolving their issues.
To see how BoldDesk customer service software can help you increase ticket deflection rate and boost support efficiency, arrange a live demo or start a free trial to explore its many features.
If you have any questions about BoldDesk and its capabilities, contact the BoldDesk support team.
Do you have any suggestions for reducing support ticket inflow that you would like us to add to this article? Please leave your thoughts and recommendations in the comments section below.
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