Customer self service software: the deflection savings
- Saved a month after the portal's cost
- $2,841
- Tickets deflected a month
- 360
- Saved a year
- $34,092
- Set-up cost, one-off
- $800
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. Deflectvo publishes no industry deflection rate, no agent cost and no vendor price beyond the ones it cites: the share the portal answers, the cost of a ticket and the articles an answer needs are yours, and the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own figures.
The figures above start from a worked example ($2,841). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the Customer self service software: the deflection savings worked example (CSV)
This is a customer self service software worksheet that works the case for a portal before it is bought or built. Tickets a month times the share the portal will answer is the tickets deflected; deflected tickets times the cost of an agent-handled ticket, less the portal's cost, is the saving a month; times twelve is the year; set-up hours times a rate is the one-off cost; and the set-up over the monthly saving, in days, is the payback. Every figure is yours, the share above all: the worksheet publishes no industry deflection rate and no agent cost. Free, on the page, no account; the paid plan keeps the deflection per month against the customers and the articles that produced it.
Deflected: the share, applied to the ticket count
1,200 tickets a month at a 30% share is 360 tickets the portal answers before an agent sees them. The share is the whole worksheet: read it from the ticket log by asking how many of last month's tickets an article or an account page would have closed, and enter that, because a share assumed from a vendor's brochure is a saving that never arrives.
Saved: the agent cost, less the portal
360 deflected tickets at $8 of agent time each is $2,880, less a $39 portal is $2,841 a month and $34,092 a year. The agent cost is minutes per ticket at a loaded hourly rate, your own figure; the portal cost is whatever you will pay, and the worked example uses this site's price.
Set-up, and the payback in days
20 hours at $40 to configure the portal and write the first articles is $800, and $800 over $2,841 a month is 8 days of payback on the worked example. A long payback usually means the share was set too high or the articles are not written; the content plan worksheet sizes the second.
Customer self service software: the deflection savings: common questions
Is this free customer self service software?
It is a free worksheet that works the business case, not the portal: enter tickets, the share answered, the agent cost, the portal cost, set-up hours and a rate, and it works tickets deflected, the monthly and annual saving, the set-up cost and the payback in days on the page with no account and no card. Deflectvo Pro is the portal and the record.
What deflection rate should I use?
Your own, read from last month's tickets: count the ones an article or an account page would have closed and divide by the total. The worked example uses 30% to show the arithmetic and nothing more; this site publishes no industry rate.
How do I work out the cost of a ticket?
Agent minutes per ticket at the agent's loaded hourly cost: fifteen minutes at $32 an hour is $8, the worked example's figure. Include the time to read, answer and close, and use your own numbers; the worksheet takes the figure as an input.