What is Call Abandonment?
Call Abandonment can be defined as the point at which an inbound caller disconnects whilst being queued on an automated call management system - without speaking to a customer representative.
Several factors determine the amount of time a customer will stay on the other end of the line in a queuing system. This can be a relatively short in terms of sales, to long waiting times for customer support or payment queries. More vital industries and services such as utilities and banking enjoy more inflated waiting times, and relatively smaller abandonment rates.
Who is this KPI for?
The Call Abandonment volume and percentage are Key Indicators of the performance of the call center or support line in adequately processing customers enquiries in a timely manner. Measuring this KPI is the first step in helping to reduce these waiting times. Monitoring both the volume and the times of day to determine when abandonment is more likely can enable a company to ensure adequate resources are available to process these calls more efficiently
Reducing call abandonment rates
Once the volume and frequency of the abandonment is known then several things can be done to help reduce the rate, namely:
- Increase the number of customer service agents during high volume times.
- Create a message that encourages a caller to stay on-line, keep it concise and avoid statements such as 'we are experiencing unusually high volumes at this time' these just serve to irritate callers and hike up abandonment rates.
- Increase the initial ring time and experiment with varying message frequencies.
- Offer a call back option.