Customer Support · Self-service and knowledge · Component

The deflection

Whether reading it actually avoids a contact — because a visit followed by a contact is a failed article counted as a success.

The deliverable

What it is

Page views measure whether people arrived. Deflection measures whether they left with an answer, and the two diverge sharply.

An article visited before a support contact is the most useful signal available: it identifies exactly which article failed and on which question.

One level in

What it is made of

Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.

  1. The rate

    How often a visit avoids a contact.

    3 attributes: Deflection rate · Article · Visits

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  2. The failures

    Articles visited before a contact.

    3 attributes: Article · Question asked afterwards · Occurrences

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  3. The value

    What deflection is worth.

    3 attributes: Contacts avoided · Value · Maintenance cost

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An article read just before a support contact is a failed article, and the ticket contains the real question.