What is Call Abandon Rate in a Call Center?

Call center calls are often abandoned due to customer frustration, which results from having to wait several minutes to talk to a customer service agent. During peak hours, agents often struggle to manage incoming calls effectively. Hence, many call centers use Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems that collect caller information, like phone numbers or the purpose of the call, and direct them to the right agent. Nevertheless, if the IVR menus are too long or confusing, customers may hang up before reaching an agent, particularly when they require quick help.
 

1. Long wait times: Call centers often receive a high volume of calls during peak times, making it difficult for agents to answer every call promptly. Additionally, technical errors can prevent agents from responding on time, leading to longer wait times, which ultimately results in customer frustration and call hang-ups.
    
2. Lack of IVR System: IVR system can help call centers with appropriate call directing and self help options; however, complicated automated menus can frustrate callers and increase call abandonment rate. Without a good IVR, call centers often struggle to make the right use of agents’ time, offer self-help options to customers, promote appropriate routing, and enhance overall efficiency.
    
3. Unhelpful agents: Poorly trained agents often have a hard time dealing with multiple customer calls and queries simultaneously. They must know how to talk to clients, answer questions, route calls and carry out the entire communication to decrease abandoned calls, especially when customers are in a hurry and seeking quick resolutions.
    
4. Technical issues: Technical problems such as poor call quality, dropped calls, or irregularities in electronic devices can cause customers to hang up out of frustration. These technical issues negatively impact customer perception and can lead to a higher call abandonment rate.

The Call Abandonment Rate (CAR) measures the number of callers hanging up before reaching a live agent. It is crucial for evaluating call center performance, customer service efficiency, and overall customer satisfaction. To calculate and manage CAR accurately, it's important to understand three key factors: active calls, on-hold calls, and abandoned calls.
 

1. Active calls: It refers to the calls currently managed by live agents. It indicates the agent’s workload and availability to handle more incoming calls.
    
2. On-hold calls: It represent calls waiting in line to be answered by an agent after initial contact with a forwarding agent or automated system. A high on-hold call rate signals the need for better staffing and call distribution.
    
3. Abandoned Calls: It occurs when callers disconnect the call before speaking with a live agent. It usually occurs due to long wait times, complex IVR menu, or technical issues.

To calculate the call abandonment rate, divide the total number of abandoned calls by the total number of calls over your desired time, then multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage.
 

Formula to calculate call abandon rate:

                                          Number of abandoned calls
Call abandonment rate:   ———————————————— *100
                                          Total number of inbound calls

 
Suppose you receive 200 calls in a day. 80 calls were abandoned in five seconds or less, but 120 calls were successfully handled.
 

Call abandoned rate = (80 / 200)  x 100    =40%

The call abandonment rate in call centers represents customer satisfaction, agent productivity, and operational efficiency. Sometimes, customers may have to wait for too long to talk to the agent or may not easily find their way through the call system. Prolonged frustration might lead to customer dissatisfaction and build a negative brand image.
 

The call abandonment rate helps call centers determine whether staff training, call routing optimization, an IVR system update, and other crucial changes are needed. Call centers achieve customer satisfaction and improve performance by chasing lower abandonment rates. Keeping the abandonment rate low shows that the call center delivered a good customer experience and operational success.

A standard call abandonment rate benchmark for call centers should not cross 5%. Keeping CAR low helps businesses meet customer expectations and maintain a positive brand reputation. Call abandonment rates are carefully monitored and analyzed to influence various metrics, such as performance, service quality, and customer satisfaction.
 

By focusing on some major key performance metrics, call centers can identify areas for improvement and implement effective strategies to reduce call abandonment.
 

1. Average Response Time: It measures agents’ average response time to an incoming call. As customers do not want to wait too long, responding to short and sweet messages will help to enhance customer satisfaction.
    
2. Service Level: It measures the number of calls answered within a predetermined threshold, expressed in percentage. It reflects the service provider's efficiency and accessibility.
    
3. Accuracy in Forecasting: It is the accuracy with which a business can predict future call volumes based on historical data and trends. It involves estimating the number of incoming calls for a specific period.
    
4. Observance of the schedule: If agents are unavailable or too busy, customers may have to wait longer. Agents must adhere to their work schedules to meet demand effectively.
    
5. Occupancy rate: This evaluates the number of agents on duty at any particular time and calculates after-call activity and completion rate.
    
6. After-call work: The time agents utilize when a customer terminates a call to wrap up the call-related work, which usually involves updating records, sending follow-up emails, or scheduling future tasks.
    
7. Call duration: It records the average time a call is on. Tracking call duration helps in the handling of discussions and resolving issues.
    
8. Customer satisfaction: It measures customer satisfaction through post-call surveys, which give insight into how customers experience the quality of service they receive.
    
9. First call resolution: It measures the agent's efficiency in resolving customer issues on the first call without further follow-ups. High rates are often correlated with higher customer satisfaction.

Reducing call center abandonment rates is key to improving customer satisfaction and productivity. Optimizing call queue management, improving staffing during peak hours, and offering self-service options like IVR can significantly lower wait times. Besides, callback features and regularly monitoring call patterns allow callers to return calls and identify issues to address them.
 

1. Optimize call queue management: Use intelligent call routing systems to distribute calls efficiently and reduce the time customers spend waiting in line. Implement callback options to offer an alternative to waiting.
    
2. Improve staffing levels: Ensure that your call center is adequately staffed, especially during peak hour so that there are enough agents to handle incoming calls each time. This prevents long hold times and reduces the number of abandoned calls.
    
3. Provide self-service options: Providing self-service options to customers, like IVR systems can enable callers to quickly resolve minor queries without waiting for an agent. This enhances agent productivity and improves the caller's communication experience.
    
4. Use callback features: The callback feature allows customers to request a return call instead of waiting on hold. It reduces call abandonment rate by lowering frustration, and ensuring their issue gets addressed promptly.
    
5. Monitor and analyze call patterns: Monitor and analyze call patterns regularly, such as peak call times and common reasons for abandonment. Use this data to make informed decisions about resource allocation and operational improvements to keep abandonment rates low.

Monitoring abandoned calls improves call center performance and customer satisfaction. Tracking call wait times, queue lengths, and the number of abandoned calls helps businesses identify problem areas and implement strategies to reduce call abandonment.
 
Calilio is a modern business phone system that offers interactive voice response, call queue, call forwarding, and call routing. These features help direct calls to the right team, pass ongoing calls to another agent, distribute calls evenly, and guide callers through a customized menu for improved response rate.

Call abandonment rate is the percentage of inbound calls terminated before the caller gets connected to a live agent or achieves their calling purpose. It is a key metric used by call centers to measure agent performance, operational flow and customer service.

The abandoned call threshold measures the number of abandoned calls before entering an agent's incoming call queue. In most industries like call centers the abandoned call threshold can be set between 5-10 seconds.

You can calculate the abandon rate by the number of inbound calls—number of calls abandoned— number of calls successfully handled / (number of inbound calls—number of calls abandoned in five seconds or less) x 100.