There are high expectations among today's customers, it is important to them that their queries are resolved quickly and as easily as possible. Moreover, they don't want to be waiting on hold to speak with a customer service representative, and they want multiple options for communicating with businesses - even better if they can self-serve.

According to Hubspot research, 50% of customers rate an “immediate” response as essential or very important when they have a customer service question. 60% of customers define immediate as 10 minutes or less.

You can benefit greatly from call deflection if your team regularly favours short and easy-to-answer customer calls, costing you 40% of their productive time and leaving them without a chance to answer more complex or nuanced questions from other customers.

You can move your customer service operations to digital channels by introducing call deflection, this could include self-service chatbots and live agents for issues that can't be resolved by chatbots. Some immediate benefits will result from this:

• Customers get a quick, smooth and more convenient customer experience

• Calls can be diverted to digital channels because they are cheaper, and customers have a better experience on these channels. It reduces the number of time-consuming and expensive phone calls by deflecting them.

• Files and links can be sent to callers, which may help them resolve the issue on their own.

• Queries can be answered outside of normal working hours.

• It is easier to manage chats than voice calls because of their asynchronous nature, customers don’t expect an immediate response and agents can search the knowledge base for the best and most precise information to provide customers.

• Agents can handle multiple chat interactions simultaneously, which isn’t possible with voice calls.

• Agents have more time to handle complex customer queries as their performance is optimised.

Many different call deflection use cases and strategies are available to businesses.  The following are just a few:

• Deflect calls by letting your customer choose their preferred digital channel, 

• Offer your customers chat self-service - a chatbot will answer frequently asked questions, while your agents can deal with more complex ones.  Make your chatbot even more conversational by training it to recognize intent to provide even faster service.

• If there are a lot of people ahead of them in the queue, provide customers with the option of switching to digital channels instead of waiting on hold. You can define specific rules to provide a consistent experience

• If you do not have a 24/7 call centre, redirect customers to chat during non-office hours.  Using rich media such as videos or website links, chatbots can provide useful information to users.

• Provide customers with the option to switch to digital channels so that they can get information (e.g. track orders, view profiles, view account balances, etc

• Monitor the types of questions customers ask and update FAQs on the website or other self-service channels to address them.

• Provide customers with the option of switching to digital channels to automate sending documentation (e.g. certificates, invoices, terms of use

Through call deflection, telephone interactions can be streamlined into digital interactions.

McKinsey and Company found that brands that switch to digital customer service can reduce costs by 30% while increasing customer satisfaction by 19%.

To reduce customer frustration and give them a choice in how you resolve their issues, call deflection is the way to go. Call deflection can eliminate wait times, reduce call volumes, and ultimately reduce your cost.