Ticket deflection
Ticket deflection is the practice of answering customer questions through self-service, such as a help center, FAQ or chatbot, so they never become support tickets. It reduces support workload and gives customers faster answers. Its success is measured by deflection rate, ideally checked against whether the questions were actually resolved.
Example
Adding a clear returns article and a chatbot that links to it cuts weekly "how do I return this?" emails from 60 to 15.
Why it matters for a website chatbot
Deflection only helps if the answers are right; deflecting someone to a wrong answer costs more later. ChatBento deflects with answers from your own content and lets anyone who still needs a person leave their email with the conversation attached.
See it in practice: Reducing support email
Related terms
- Deflection rateDeflection rate is the share of support requests that are handled through self-service, such as a chatbot, help center or FAQ, instead of reaching a human agent. It is usually calculated as self-service sessions without a follow-up ticket divided by all support sessions, and expressed as a percentage.
- Self-serviceSelf-service in customer support means giving customers the tools to find answers and solve problems on their own, without contacting staff. Common examples are help centers, FAQ pages, community forums, account portals and chatbots. Many customers prefer it for simple questions because it's available at any hour and needs no waiting.
- Resolution rateResolution rate is the percentage of conversations or tickets in which the customer's issue was actually solved. For AI chatbots, automated resolution rate counts conversations the bot resolved without a human, typically confirmed by the customer's feedback, a follow-up review or the absence of a repeat contact.
- Help centerA help center is a section of a website, or a separate site, that collects support articles, guides and answers to common questions, usually organized by topic and searchable. Customers use it to solve problems themselves, and support teams link to its articles when replying, so the same answers stay consistent.