What does moving contacts out of voice actually save?
Moving contacts from voice to chat, email or a bot pays only when enough of them resolve in the new channel to cover the ones that fail and call back, the harder calls left on voice, the cost of the change, and how much freed time you can turn into cash. This model counts each stage separately: contacts shifted, contacts resolved, voice calls actually replaced, and the money finance can book.
Every formula, constant and a worked example are in the published method. AHT is average handle time.
Net realizable
-$4K/mo
net cost
Voice displaced
11,350
leave voice each month
Bounced to voice
5,000
failed in the new channel each month
Voice FTE freed
3.1
net capacity, in full-time agents
20,000 shifted: 11,350 displace voice, 5,000 come back. Net 23,205 agent minutes a month freed: $0 of realized labor less $4K of bot fees gives -$4K/mo.
Integrity checks
High
Check thisNet negative (-$4K a month). Repeat calls back to voice, new demand and bot fees outweigh the voice time freed. Either the volume being moved is the wrong volume, or the resolution rate is too low.
Unknown
Your choice is still openNo capacity action selected, so the freed agent time is valued at $0. Choose one in question 3 before presenting any savings figure.
Unknown
NoteImplied assumption: the 11,350 displaced contacts average 5.4 minutes against your 7.0 minute voice baseline, and the voice work left behind rises to 7.3 minutes. Total voice minutes are unchanged. If the volume you are shifting runs longer than that, lower the curve.
Shift detail by target
Chat
Shifted
10,000
Displaced
6,800
Bounced
1,500
Incremental
1,700
Bot
Shifted
10,000
Displaced
4,550
Bounced
3,500
Incremental
1,950
Transition investment
Chat reskilling
$7K
Ramp productivity loss
$6K
Payback (headline)
Never
What it means · shift the volume that can resolve
Of 70,000 voice contacts, 42,000 (60%) are eligible to shift. 20,000 of those are shifted. The number to watch is 11,350: the contacts that both resolve in the new channel and replace a voice call. That is the real shift, and it is smaller than the headline percentage.
5,000 contacts do not resolve and come back to voice. Those customers would have called anyway, so the new cost is only the extra time a frustrated repeat call takes (your 1.2x return factor). Displacement matters too: a digital contact that does not take a call out of the voice queue is new demand and saves nothing. Together these bring the result down to -$4K a month net.
Freed voice time is capacity until a capacity action turns it into cash. The realizable figure assumes Not selected. Bot platform fees ($4K a month) are cash and are netted in full. Under your moderate complexity curve the voice work left behind runs 4.3% longer: the agents still on voice handle your hardest demand.
Check this assumption before you rely on the number. With total voice minutes held constant, a 4.3% residual uplift means the 11,350 contacts you displace must average 5.4 minutes, against your 7.0 minute voice baseline. If the volume you plan to shift is about as long as your baseline, the curve is set too high and this case is understated. If it is far shorter, the curve is set too low and the case is overstated.
This answers the operating-capacity question only. What those interactions are worth to the business is a separate question for Return per Contact. The full investment case (ramp timing, phasing, the approval pack) belongs in Business Case Builder, which can take the headline from here.
How sure the result is · Directional
bound by evidence and realization. Contact volume, voice handle time, eligibility, chat resolution, chat displacement, bot resolution and bot displacement are still at the tool default. Agent wage, marginal overhead and bot fee are still at the tool default. No capacity action is selected, so none of the freed time converts to cash.
How others report it
Published figures to hold your result against. Each measures something slightly different, so read what it counts before you compare. None of them changes your result or its grade.
Channel mix and preferenceBenchmark study
What centers handle and what customers say they prefer are different measures; they are shown apart.
62%Live telephony, share of inbound, end of 2024Email about 19%, web chat 8%, telephony self-service 9%.ContactBabel, read on Contact Center Pipeline, 14 Aug 2025. The 2025 US Contact Center Decision-Makers' Guide, as reported in "The Great Contact Center Standoff".
35%Phone as the preferred channel, US adultsSurvey of peopleEmail 23%, live chat 10%, in person 8%, chatbot 1%.YouGov, 13 Mar 2025. How Americans prefer to contact businesses for customer service.
Cost of an inbound callBenchmark study
A cross-industry US average reported by contact centers. No free source publishes cost per contact by industry, so none is shown.
$7.20Average cost of an inbound call, US47% more than an email and 23% more than a web chat, as ContactBabel states it.ContactBabel, 2026. The 2026 US Contact Center Decision-Makers' Guide, key findings.
Self-service and AI resolutionSurvey of people
Three different questions asked of different people; none is a containment rate. Vendor-defined resolution rates are left out.
14%Issues fully resolved in self-serviceCustomers' own account of their last issue.Gartner, 19 Aug 2024. Gartner Survey Finds Only 14% of Customer Service Issues Are Fully Resolved in Self-Service (survey of 5,728 customers, December 2023).
18%Web chats handled without a human agent, USBenchmark studyReported by centers; 6% in 2020.ContactBabel, 2026. The 2026 US Contact Center Decision-Makers' Guide, key findings.
30%Service cases handled by AIService professionals' own estimate.Salesforce, 13 Nov 2025. State of Service, 2025 (survey of 6,500 service professionals in 39 countries, April to June 2025).
Agent pay where your agents workOfficial statistic
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics median for customer service representatives, May 2025. The tool opens at the national median; if you know your own pay, enter it in the tool.
$21.53Median hourly wage, customer service representatives, United States$44,770 a year, before benefits. Half earn more, half less.US Bureau of Labor Statistics, read on O*NET OnLine, May 2025. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Customer Service Representatives (43-4051), by state.
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No capacity action chosen yet, so freed time counts as $0 and only the bot fees show. 11,350 contacts a month leave voice for good.
How sureDirectionalHeld by evidence and realizationShows the direction and rough size. Something behind it is still a default, an estimate or an open choice.
The decision
Choose a capacity action first
Freed voice time counts as $0 until you say how it becomes cash. Bot fees are cash either way and are already counted. Choose the capacity action in question 3 to see whether the shift clears its break-even.