Are your customers waiting on hold while agents juggle simple requests? Text-to-speech enables real-world use cases by turning FAQs and knowledge base content into spoken answers via IVR, voice bots, and virtual assistants, thereby providing people with assistance without needing a live agent. This article shows how Call Deflection, utilizing self-service channels such as chatbots, web chat, SMS, and automated routing, can reduce call volume and support costs, expedite response times, and foster customer satisfaction and loyalty. Many businesses exploring automation also ask what is text-to-speech used for, and the answer ranges from accessibility and customer support to learning tools and productivity apps.
Voice AI’s text to speech tool brings those paths to life, speaking help content naturally to deflect routine calls, reduce transfers, and free agents to solve the complex issues that build customer loyalty.
What Does “Call Deflection” Mean in a Contact Center?
Call deflection involves redirecting incoming customer calls from live agents to other support channels that can resolve the issue more quickly or at a lower cost. Channels include:
- Self-service knowledge base articles
- IVR prompts
- Chatbots
- Web FAQs
- Guided tutorials
- SMS
- App workflows
- Live chat
Contact centers use call deflection to lower call volume, reduce cost to serve, and speed up resolution for routine questions.
Why Contact Centers Use Call Deflection: Efficiency, Cost, Speed
Contact centers route routine or repeatable inquiries into automated or digital channels so agents handle more complex, high-value work. That reduces hold time, transfers, and improves average handle time for live calls.
Businesses cut staffing and telephony costs while keeping service levels steady. Customers get faster answers and a choice of channels, which lowers friction and supports retention.
Example of Call Deflection: Product Activation via IVR and FAQ
A caller wants to activate a product. The IVR offers two options: wait for a live agent or visit a short URL for step-by-step activation instructions. The caller types the URL, follows an FAQ page with screenshots, and finishes activation.
The page also shows a live chat button if the customer still needs help. The caller avoids hold time and resolves the issue through self-service.
Benefits of Call Deflection: For Customers, Agents, and Operations
- Customers gain choice and faster answers when you offer guided help across channels. Some prefer self-service on mobile or web instead of waiting on the phone.
- Agents avoid low-value, repetitive calls and spend time on cases that need judgment, which raises job satisfaction and lowers burnout.
- Operations reduce cost to serve, telephony expense, and the need for oversized staff during peaks. Studies show proper deflection can lower cost to serve by a large margin, freeing budget for better agent training and automation.
- Deflection also supports omnichannel routing, call containment, and higher first contact resolution when paired with good knowledge management.
What is Call Deflection Rate: A Practical Metric
Call deflection rate measures how many inquiries that would have gone to the phone were handled by other channels. It captures successful shifts to digital or self service support and helps you measure the impact of IVR scripts, chatbots, and knowledge base improvements.
How to Calculate Call Deflection Rate: Steps and Key Inputs
Choose a time period and gather these counts:
- Self-service events by entitled customers: times customers selected self-service instead of calling.
- Success rate: percentage of those events that gave the needed answer.
- Intent rate: percentage of those customers who had intended to contact the contact center if self-service failed.
- No further action rate: percentage who found the answer, intended to call, and required no additional help.
Multiply those factors to estimate how many potential calls were avoided and then convert to a percentage of the total entitled contact volume.
Call Deflection Rate Example: The Math Made Clear
Suppose 400 customers used self-service instead of calling. If 80 percent of those found the answer, 60 percent of them would have called if self-service failed, and 40 percent who found the answer also said no further help was needed, then calculate:
400 x 0.80 x 0.60 x 0.40 = 76.8 percent
This shows how many of the eligible contacts were effectively handled outside the phone channel.
Call Deflection in Action: Health Insurance Claim Tracking
A member calls to check a claim status. The IVR asks a few yes no or keypad questions and provides an account overview and expected resolution dates. The IVR also points to the claim portal, the mobile app, and an FAQ page for more details.
The caller can switch to chat if they need live help. That process keeps routine claim follow-ups off the phone and uses automated routing to match the query to the right channel.
Call Deflection in Action: Telecommunications Data Top Up
A mobile customer opens the operator app and asks a chatbot how to top up data. The bot runs security checks and then offers options:
- Follow a step-by-step guide in the app
- Send an SMS command to top up
- Connect to an agent
The bot may also escalate to chat to reduce friction. This kind of channel choice supports reactive deflection and uses virtual agents to contain simple requests.
Which Queries Should You Deflect? Ask These Questions
- Is the answer repeatable and rule-based?
- Can a knowledge base article, guided workflow, or IVR script resolve it?
- Does the channel support the customer device and context?
Prioritize deflection for routine tasks like status checks, billing lookups, password resets, and basic troubleshooting.
How to Optimize Deflection: Technology and Measurement
Use clear IVR prompts, searchable knowledge base content, context-aware chatbots, and in-app guides. Track deflection metrics, containment, customer satisfaction, and repeat contacts to identify areas for improvement. Test changes with A/B experiments and monitor escalation rates to avoid pushing customers into more effort.
What Risks Should You Watch For?
Poorly designed deflection pushes customers to repeat contact or to social channels in frustration. Broken links, outdated FAQ content, and opaque IVR flows increase transfers and lower satisfaction. Monitor churn signals and channel feedback to avoid creating friction.
How to Balance Automation and Human Support
Route routine work to automation and preserve agent capacity for nuance, empathy, and complex problem solving. Train agents on handling escalations from digital channels and close the loop with feedback to improve knowledge base accuracy.
How Do You Measure Success Beyond Deflection Rate?
Track key performance indicators, including containment rate, first contact resolution, average speed of answer for live calls, customer effort score, and agent productivity. Pair these with cost per contact and customer satisfaction to understand the full impact of deflection on the support ecosystem.
What Tools Support Effective Call Deflection?
- IVR systems
- Conversational AI
- Chatbots
- Knowledge management platforms
- Mobile app workflows
- SMS integrations
- CRM driven omnichannel routing work together to reduce live call volume
Implement telemetry and analytics to link digital events to potential phone calls and to refine routing rules.
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5 Key Call Deflection Use Cases
Customers expect to use the apps they already have on their phones. For international brands, this means supporting:
- Viber
- Apple Messages for Business
- As well as web chat
- SMS
- And in-app messaging
A 2022 telco study by Infobip found 60 percent of customers choose digital channels for convenience.
They cited faster answers, persistent chat history, and the ability to pick up conversations on another device as key advantages. Build call deflection around the channels that are dominant in each market, so customers get faster service where they prefer to message.
1. Queue Dodging: Avoid Long Hold Times With a Smooth Handoff
- Customer situation: A caller experiences a long hold time during peak hours and wishes to avoid waiting. They need a quick answer or a follow-up up but do not require an immediate live agent.
- Deflection channel used: IVR-driven offer to switch to web chat, SMS, or WhatsApp with callback options; self-service FAQs and knowledge base links delivered via SMS or chat.
- Benefit to the customer: They avoid waiting on hold and get an answer faster on their preferred device while keeping the conversation history.
- Benefit to the business: The contact center reduces concurrent voice load, lowers average handle time, and improves agent focus on complex issues. Apply a rule such as offer digital transfer when estimated wait time exceeds 5 minutes or when more than 10 callers are ahead, and include an opt-in for chat transcripts.
2. Out of Hours Sales Support: Capture Shoppers Any Time
- Customer situation: A shopper researching products late at night needs pricing, stock status, or assistance with checkout, but live sales agents are offline
- Deflection channel used: 24/7 sales chatbot on web, mobile app, WhatsApp, or Apple Messages for Business with rich media, product carousels, and payment links
- Benefit to the customer: They get immediate product information, images, and secure checkout links at their convenience without waiting for business hours
- Benefit to the business: You increase conversion rate from after-hours traffic, reduce missed sales, and collect lead data for follow-up. Configure the bot to hand over to an agent or schedule a callback when complex negotiation or verification is required.
3. Sending Documentation: Replace Postage With Secure Digital Uplinks
- Customer situation: A customer needs to submit a signed contract, ID, or certificate as part of verification or a claim and does not want to mail documents.
- Deflection channel used: Secure chat channels, app upload, or email attachments with guided prompts from a virtual agent that accepts photos or PDFs and confirms receipt.
- Benefit to the customer: They submit documents instantly from their phone and receive confirmation, reducing friction and travel time.
- Benefit to the business: Faster verification cycles, fewer lost documents, and a lower cost per transaction compared with manual processing. Integrate OCR and automated tagging to route documents directly to the correct workflow, eliminating manual handling.
4. Appointment Booking: Self-Service Scheduling That Reduces Calls
- Customer situation: A customer needs to book or change an appointment for service, deliveries, or consultations and does not need to talk to an agent.
- Deflection channel used: Web-based booking widget, chat or messaging bot that shows available slots, manages conflicts, and sends calendar invites and reminders.
- Benefit to the customer: They pick the exact date and time that fits their schedule and receive confirmations and reminders across devices.
- Benefit to the business: Fewer scheduling calls, reduced no-shows with automated reminders, and more predictable resource planning. Offer an agent escalation path for special requests or complex scheduling rules.
5. Video Support: Escalate to Live Video When Visuals are Required
- Customer situation: A repair technician needs to view a broken device part, or a customer needs a visual walkthrough that voice alone cannot deliver.
- Deflection channel used: Chat-driven workflow that generates a secure video call link or WebRTC session from the contact center Conversations tool and pushes it to the customer via their preferred messaging app.
- Benefit to the customer: They get a fast, guided visual diagnosis without travelling to a service center and can show the issue live.
- Benefit to the business: Faster resolution for hardware and installation issues, reduced onsite visits, and higher first contact resolution. Record permissions and session metadata so agents can file tickets and escalate with full context.
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7 Ways to Automate Call Deflection in a Hurry
1. What Callers are Really Asking For: Use Speech Analytics to Find Intent
Record and analyze a sample of recent calls to reveal trending topics and repeat questions. Use speech analytics and call transcript mining to identify intents such as:
- Billing
- Returns
- Account updates
- Route them away from live agents.
Pair call intent data with web search logs and IVR choices to identify the issues customers attempt to resolve independently. Tag the top intents and map each to an available self-service path, such as an online form, account setting, or FAQ article.
2. Put Intelligent Bots in Front of Routine Talk: Conversational Virtual Assistants That Work
Deploy intelligent virtual assistants and chatbots that handle natural language so callers get answers without waiting for an agent. Use production-ready IVA packages trained for your industry to accelerate time to value and reach 40 to 80 percent call containment quickly.
Let bots escalate when intent confidence drops and hand off context to an agent to avoid repeating information. Run a small pilot on high-volume intents and measure deflection rate and containment time.
3. Turn Customers Into the First Line of Support: Build a Peer Community Hub
Create an online customer community where users post questions, share fixes, and vote on helpful answers. Promote the community on your support pages and within automated responses so people find peer solutions before calling.
Moderate lightly, surface top answers, and pin official guidance to reduce misinformation. Track community adoption and the number of solved posts to quantify call avoidance.
4. Stop The Call Before it Starts: Proactive Messaging and Clear Guidance
Send targeted emails, SMS, and website banners that guide customers to self-service during spikes in call volume. Place a clear note on your contact page about long wait times and direct callers to specific self-service paths, for example, how to switch to paperless billing or schedule a callback.
Provide examples of issues that still require a live agent, allowing people who must call to do so. Use behavioral triggers to show these messages when customers search common help terms.
5. Remove the Pain of Waiting: Callbacks, Scheduling, and IVR Answers
Offer automated callbacks and scheduled appointments to prevent customers from sitting on hold; this approach protects customer time and reduces repeat calls. In your IVR and voice channel virtual assistant, automatically answer high-frequency questions to handle simpler inquiries.
While customers wait for callbacks, send links to relevant help pages so many will self-resolve before needing an agent. Instrument callback outcomes to measure the conversion rate of callbacks to deflected interactions.
6. Push Customers to Cheaper Channels: Promote Chat, Email, and Forms
Promote chat, email, and web forms as alternatives to calling and use an IVA to triage questions that arrive there. Route routine questions to asynchronous channels where agents can work more efficiently and where IVAs can self-serve answers.
Place prominent CTAs on your site and in transactional messages so customers learn how to access these digital channels. Track channel shift metrics to understand where callers migrate and which channels deliver the best containment.
7. Make the Correct Answers Easy To Find: Centralize and Optimize Your Knowledge Base
Use call intent and site search data to identify the most requested answers and push those articles to the top of your help center. Maintain a single source of truth across all channels to ensure agents and IVAs use identical guidance.
Update articles as facts change and include surface update timestamps to ensure customers trust the content. Use analytics to measure article usefulness and iterate on the highest traffic topics.
How to Maintain a Good Customer Experience with Strategic Call Deflection
Start with call drivers, not assumptions. Use call transcription analysis, speech analytics, customer feedback surveys, and support ticket tagging to identify why people pick up the phone. Which queries repeat? Which steps in the user journey trigger the most calls? Match those drivers to channels where customers already search for answers.
Ask: Do customers call for status updates, billing, technical setup, or policy questions?
That clarity guides whether you build a short IVR path, a searchable article, or an automated notification.
Set Up Call Deflection Tools
Implement an interactive voice response system that routes simple requests and surfaces self-service options first. Integrate AI chatbots and virtual assistants across web, mobile, and messaging apps to resolve routine queries through natural language processing efficiently.
Configure escalation paths so the bot hands off smoothly to a live agent when intent confidence drops. Focus on intent recognition accuracy, response timing, and seamless transfers to preserve customer trust.
Build Better Self-Service
Replace shallow FAQ pages with a searchable knowledge base, guided tutorials, and in-product assistance that meets customers where they are. Offer blog posts for common scenarios and short social videos for product setup or troubleshooting.
Use chatbots as a bridge that points to articles or walks customers through steps. Keep content concise, searchable, and indexed by common phrases customers use when they call.
Design Proactive Communication
Use proactive notifications to cut avoidable calls. Send SMS or email alerts for shipping updates, appointment reminders, outage notices, and delivery windows.
Trigger messages at predictable points in the customer lifecycle, such as purchase confirmation, first use, or subscription renewal. That reduces status check calls and improves perceived transparency.
Proactive Call Deflection Tactics
Apply automation to push status updates and predictive alerts when problems occur. Offer conversational chatbots that predict intent and propose solutions before a live contact is needed.
For example, use an automated FAQ bot that suggests steps based on a detected outage or a billing error. When the issue is complex, route the customer directly to an agent with context so the transfer feels intentional and fast.
Reactive Call Deflection Options
When a call arrives, give customers alternatives:
- Switch to web chat
- Accept an SMS link to a help article
- Schedule a callback
Let customers drive the interaction on their preferred channel. This reduces talk time and lets agents handle multiple concurrent web sessions while preserving options for voice when needed.
Resource Center That Works
Create a comprehensive resource hub featuring:
- Troubleshooting guides
- Decision trees
- Video tutorials
- Interactive tools
Prioritize searchability and clarity. Offer multiple formats so visual learners and readers both find what they need. Keep content current and use agent feedback to fill gaps. Include versioning and analytics to track which articles deflect contacts and which need improvement.
Proactive Notifications
Send targeted alerts for product updates, delivery exceptions, or maintenance windows. Tailor messages by customer preference and channel. Avoid blunt blast messaging; choose triggers that predict a call and preempt it with a single explicit instruction or link to a solution.
Troubleshoot with Decision Trees
Build interactive decision trees that ask a few diagnostic questions and provide next steps. Capture inputs and use them to refine flows.
Add a feedback prompt to help you identify which paths resolve issues automatically and which require human intervention. Decision trees shorten resolution time and feed analytics that improve your knowledge base.
Agent Training and Support
Train agents regularly on new features, common pain points, and best routing practices. Share insights from transcription analysis and frontline feedback so agents can update self-service content.
Teach agents to close the loop by adding resolution notes and suggested articles to the knowledge base, which prevents future calls about the same issue.
Give Customers Answers Before They Call
Trigger guided emails or SMS after purchase or during onboarding that answer likely questions. For example, send a setup checklist at delivery and a troubleshooting link after the first login. Those timed nudges reduce follow-up calls and help customers feel supported without waiting on hold.
Track Customers Across Channels
Use an omnichannel contact record so interactions from chat, form, email, and phone appear together. If a customer submits a form and then calls, the agent should see that history and the preferred channel:
- Link session transcripts
- Previous resolutions
- Product data to improve routing and personalization with each contact.
Measure the Right KPIs
Define and track key metrics, including call deflection rate, contact volume by channel, first contact resolution, speed to answer, CSAT, and cost to serve. Monitor intent recognition accuracy for bots and handoff success rates.
Review these KPIs weekly and refine flows, content, and training based on the numbers.
Practical Steps to Start Today
Prioritize the top three call drivers and test one self-service path for each. Launch an IVR tweak, a proactive SMS for a single use case, and a limited scope chatbot flow. Measure deflection, resolution time, and satisfaction, then iterate.
Reassurance and Best Practices
Design every deflection path to preserve choice and dignity. Make self-service fast and straightforward. Train agents to identify when automation cannot resolve an issue and to instrument every handoff with context.
Use robust analytics and transcription insights to refine content and routing continually. Aim for consistent measurement and minor, frequent improvements so experience improves as costs stabilize.
Remember the broader aim: strategic call deflection is not only about lowering costs but about shaping smoother, more satisfying customer journeys that keep people informed, reduce friction and let agents focus where they add the most value.
Try our Text to Speech Tool for Free Today
Voice AI stops you from spending hours on voiceovers or settling for robotic narration. Our text to speech engine delivers human-like voices that carry emotion and personality.
Choose from a growing library of AI voices, generate speech in many languages, and get studio-quality audio without a studio. Who needs to sit through long takes when a single render gives clean, consistent output for video, podcasts, and e learning?
How Natural Speech Drives Call Deflection and Self-Service
Use natural-sounding TTS inside IVR and voicebot flows to shift routine contacts away from agents. Clear, friendly voice prompts and guided troubleshooting reduce repeat calls and lower average handle time.
When callers hear a real-sounding voice walking them through a knowledge base article, they often solve the issue without talking to an agent. That reduces call volume, shortens queues, and frees agents for complex problems that need human judgment.
Practical Placements That Cut Incoming Calls
Where should you put the generated speech to see results? Add it to IVR menus, self-service portals, in-app help, outbound notifications, and audio FAQs. Use speech for proactive alerts that prevent tickets, and for step-by-step voice guides that replace a support call.
Combine voice prompts with chatbots and web-based knowledge articles so people can switch channels without repeating information. This channel shift improves first contact resolution and reduces escalation.
Developer Friendly Integration for Contact Centers
We provide APIs and SDKs that integrate with IVR systems, voice platforms, and contact center suites, such as Amazon Connect, Twilio, or your proprietary stack. Support for SSML lets you control pacing, pauses, and emphasis so prompts sound natural and clear.
You can programmatically generate different voice prompts per campaign, localize audio files, and automate updates to FAQ recordings. How fast can you replace stale recordings in your IVR and start reducing call counts?
Design Tips for Effective Call Deflection With TTS
Use short prompts, step-based instructions, and confirmation tones so callers know next steps. Link each voice script to a relevant knowledge base article and provide the link via SMS or email at the end of the call.
Provide clear escalation triggers and an easy transfer path for callers who need live help. Track metrics like deflection rate, containment rate, and call avoidance to measure impact on cost per contact.
Use Cases for Creators, Educators, and Product Teams
Content creators get consistent narration across videos and podcasts without studio time. Educators create multilingual lessons and accessible audio for learners with reading challenges.
Product teams add in-app voice coaching for onboarding and tutorials. Each use reduces friction for users and can reduce support demand when explanations are more transparent and more accessible.
Multilingual Support, Personality, and Custom Voices
Generate speech in many languages and regional accents so callers hear a voice they recognize. Adjust tone and pacing to fit the brand character or the complexity of the content.
For brands that need a unique identity, we offer custom voice options to match corporate tone and ensure a consistent customer experience across digital channels.
Measure Success and Iterate Quickly
Track reduced call volumes, lower wait times, and fewer transfers to live agents. Monitor user satisfaction and containment metrics to refine scripts and improve deflection.
A structured test and learn approach helps you tune prompts, tweak automation rules, and raise the share of contacts handled by self-service without harming customer experience.
Try Voice AI and Get Started Without Extra Cost
Sign up, generate sample audio, and run a pilot in your IVR or support flows. You can evaluate quality, measure deflection effects, and scale voice automation as you gain confidence in the results. How much agent time would you reclaim if routine calls stopped reaching your phone queues?
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