Call Center Abandoned Call Rate ZERO

An abandoned call is a call or other type of contact initiated to a call center that is ended before any conversation occurs. When inbound calls are abandoned, it is often because the caller is frustrated with the time on hold

Teledata Call Center Handles 100% Incoming Calls – ZERO Abandoned Call

Using a mix of system, people, and technology, our call center agents have handled all incoming calls for the past three months in a row with zero abandoned call for the period.

It’s probably safe to say that at some point, you’ve abandoned a call when faced with an excessive hold time – I certainly have.

Abandoned call is just that- one where a caller hangs up while on hold waiting for an agent. The more successful your call center is – that is, the more calls you get – the more likely you are to face increased hold times and, in turn, an increased abandoned rate.

Why is the abandon rate important? It speaks directly to customer dissatisfaction and the negative impact it has on customer loyalty. As the experts rightly point out, it’s less expensive to keep existing customers happy rather than acquire new ones.

Keep the customer informed.

Customers appreciate honesty – even if they don’t like the message. If hold-times are an issue, we consider preparing customers by placing a message in the IVR informing callers of the estimated wait time, or indicating a period of high volume (“… we’re experiencing a higher than normal call volume …”).

Where peak times are predictable (as is the case for many call centers), another option is drive callers to call back during periods of lower call volume. For example, a message might say, “… we normally experience higher than normal call volume the first week of each month …”.

Though, at first, this approach can encourage call avoidance, over the long term it can help lower handle times and abandon rates by encouraging customers to call during off-peak periods.

Employ a call-back solution!

Call-back technology (otherwise known as “virtual queuing”, or “replacing hold-time with a call-back”) can improve the customer experience, reduce cost-per-call and lower the abandonment rate in our contact center.

By giving callers the option to “press 1 to receive a call-back when an agent is available”, we can smooth out call volumes while lowering caller frustration. According to Forrester, for customers, “The option to hold their place in queue and go on to do something else is highly appealing, with 75% stating a preference for it.”