What is a deflection in Virtual Agent utility?

[Yousuf Kamal]

I searched in the docs as well but I could not find what a deflection does and how does it work? I have seen it being used in OOB topics but cannot understand what is it being used for. Can someone guide me here?

[Richard Kiss1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Yousuf Kamal,

The Deflection basically a fancy way to count something.

Usually it is used to be able to report ot to analyze some custom/unique thing and  to see how well your VA bot performs.

It is called Deflection because the default concept is to see how much and what kind of work/effort the VA deflects from other places for ex. live agents, fulfiller users etc.

You can create Deflection Patterns and set an outcome for them (confirmed deflection, potentional deflection or failure (or something like this). After that you can use the deflection at any point in a topic flow and if the topic reaches the deflection, it will be counted as that deflection pattern.

For example:

You create2 deflection patterns

- name: self sollved, outcome: confirmed deflection. Let’s say you have topics that if ran successfully no further actions required by anyone (ticket opened and closed automatically, approvals approved, info given etc). You are using this deflection in those topics

- name: search offered, outcome: potentional deflection. Let’s say you use it when a search result is shown and it is not clear if the info was helpful.

This way you will be able to tell that in a month XYZ tickets were deflected from the agents/resolver groups and by that ABC dollars and hours were saved

Also DEF times a possible solution was shown.

I think figuring out what deflections should be created and used is the job of the business people based on what kind of indicators they would like to see (based on how to measure the business success of the VA)

Richard