Ticket deflectionDeflect the ticket by getting it done.
Ticket deflection means a user gets help without your team taking a ticket. This page covers how to work out your deflection rate, which tickets can be deflected, the difference between answering and doing, and how an in-app AI agent takes the “how do I” requests and passes the rest to your team.
What ticket deflection is
A user needs help. They can open a ticket and wait for your team, or they can get the help another way: a help article, an answer inside the product, or an agent that does the thing for them. When they get it without a ticket, that request has been deflected.
Deflection matters because many tickets ask for something your product already does. Each one takes a person on your team to read, reply and follow up. To put a number on that, try the support ticket cost calculator.
How to work out your ticket deflection rate
In words: deflection rate = help requests resolved without a ticket ÷ all help requests, where all help requests are the ones resolved without a ticket plus the ones that became tickets. Use the same period and the same channels on both sides.
For example, say that in one month 1,000 users looked for help. 400 of them got what they needed without a ticket, and 600 opened one. The deflection rate is 400 ÷ 1,000, or 40%.
- help requests in the month
- 1,000
- resolved without a ticket
- 400
- ticket deflection rate
- 40%
The hard part is the top line: knowing that a user was resolved, not just that they stopped. More on that below.
Which tickets can be deflected
- Questions with a known answer. “Do you support SSO?”, “what does this setting do?”. Your help content already has these.
- “How do I” requests. “How do I change my time zone?”, “how do I add a teammate?”. The answer is a set of steps in your own product.
- Not these. Bugs, billing exceptions, changes that need someone on your side to approve, and anything that needs judgement. These should reach your team quickly, with the context attached.
Answering and doing
There are two ways to deflect a request, and they suit different kinds.
- AnsweringReplies with the steps or the right help article; the user follows them. Good for questions.
- DoingCarries out the steps in the product while the user watches. Good for requests to change something.
- Handing overWhat neither can do reaches your team, with the context attached. Good for everything else.
Many products use both: answers for questions, and an in-app agent for the requests where the user wants something set up or changed.
Deflection should mean the user got it done
A user who reads an article and gives up has not opened a ticket, but they have not been helped either. Counting them as deflected makes the rate look better while the problem stays. They may churn quietly, or come back angrier next week.
So count deflection by outcome where you can. Did the setting change? Did the invite go out? Did the same user ask the same thing again within a few days? A doing agent makes this easier to see, because the result is in your product: the change was made, or it wasn’t.
How Stiro handles “how do I” requests
Stiro is an in-app AI agent. A user asks in their own words, such as “add Saturdays 10am to 2pm to my hours”, and Stiro does the steps in your real interface while they watch.
- One script tag, nothing to train. It reads your live screens, so nothing breaks when you ship a redesign.
- The user keeps the final say. Anything that sends, spends or deletes is prepared and handed back for them to press.
- An honest stop. If your product can’t do what was asked, or the record doesn’t exist, it says so and changes nothing.
- Your team for the rest. A signed-in user can message your team from the same panel, with the request and the reason attached, or it goes to your existing help desk.
- everyday requests passed, cold, in three apps it had never seen
- 44 of 44
- requests the apps couldn’t do, stopped with a reason and nothing changed
- 7 of 7
- median time from request to reply
- 19.5 s
See the whole support side on the AI support agent page, or watch a real request in Cal.com. The free plan includes 50 runs a month; see the pricing page for the rest.
Ticket deflection questions.
What is ticket deflection?
Ticket deflection is when a user who needs help gets it without opening a support ticket: from a help article, an answer in the product, or an AI agent that does the steps for them. Each deflected request is one your support team doesn’t have to handle by hand.
How do you calculate ticket deflection rate?
Divide the help requests resolved without a ticket by all help requests, both those resolved on their own and those that became tickets. For example, 400 resolved without a ticket out of 1,000 requests in total is a 40% deflection rate. Count the same period and the same channels on both sides.
What is a good ticket deflection rate?
It depends on your product and on what your users ask. A product whose tickets are mostly “how do I” requests can deflect more than one whose tickets are mostly bugs or billing. Compare your rate with your own earlier months, and check that the deflected users actually got what they needed.
What kinds of tickets can be deflected?
Questions with a known answer, such as “do you support SSO?”, and “how do I” requests where the answer is a set of steps in your product, such as changing a setting or inviting a teammate. Bugs, billing exceptions, account changes that need a person and judgement calls should still reach your team.
What is AI ticket deflection?
AI ticket deflection uses an AI agent to resolve requests before they become tickets. Some agents answer from your help content; an in-app agent like Stiro goes further and does the steps in your product for the user, while they watch, then hands anything it can’t do to your team.
Does ticket deflection hurt customer experience?
It can, if “deflected” only means the user went away. Good deflection means the user got the thing done. Measure it by outcome: did the setting change, did the invite go out, did the user come back with the same question. Always leave an easy way to reach a person.
Let your users just ask.
Stiro does the steps in your app for your users. One script tag, 50 runs a month free, no card.