Deflection Rate

Deflection is measured enthusiastically and often wrongly. A question answered badly enough that the user gives up counts as deflected in most reporting, and the abandoned enquiry reappears later as a complaint or a compliance issue. Meaningful deflection requires that the self-service answer be correct and be recognized as correct, which returns the problem to grounding and citation. It also has a ceiling: enquiries requiring judgement should reach a person, and a system tuned to maximize deflection will start intercepting them.

Escalation rules in Centralpoint are governance-tier skills, so categories requiring human judgement route to a person regardless of how the question is phrased, rather than being answered because the system could. Deflection is therefore bounded deliberately, and the Interaction Log records which questions were deflected and which escalated, so the composition is reportable rather than a single flattering number.