Deflection vs. Resolution
The crucial distinction between a contact being avoided and a customer's problem actually being solved.
This is less a metric than a discipline for reading the other ones honestly. Deflection and containment count contacts that didn't reach an agent. Resolution counts problems that were actually solved. The two diverge exactly when a customer gives up, abandons a bot, or reads an unhelpful article and quietly churns.
The honest version pairs every deflection or containment figure with an independent resolution signal — a follow-up survey, a repeat-contact check, a confirmed "did this solve it?".
What it hides: reporting deflection alone lets avoidance masquerade as help. A rising deflection rate with rising repeat contacts or falling CSAT means you are pushing customers away, not serving them. Always ask: deflected to where, and did it work?