What is call abandonment rate?

Call abandonment rate is a critical contact center KPI that is the percentage of inbound phone calls that are abandoned by the customer before speaking to an agent. It’s one of the KPIs for a contact center that directly affects customer satisfaction (CSAT)

How to calculate abandonment rate for call centers

Call abandonment rate is calculated by dividing the number of abandoned calls by the total number of inbound calls, and then multiplying that value by hundred. The resultant number will tell you what the abandonment rate percentage is in the call center.

Calculating call abandonment rate

(Number of abandoned calls / total number of inbound calls) x 100

What is a good call abandonment rate?

A average call abandonment rate range is around 5-8%. The target is to keep call abandonment rate as low as possible, where 2% is considered good.

What are ways to reduce call abandonment rate?

Here are tactics contact centers us to reduce call abandonment rate:

Avoid complicated IVR menus: Interactive Voice Response (IVR) automatically interacts with callers, gathers information, and routes them to the appropriate recipients. When this system is long and complicated, callers tend to get frustrated and lose patience.
Improve first call resolution: A customer’s likely to hang up faster if it’s their second or third call regarding the same problem.
Optimize workforce management: If a contact center doesn’t have enough agents to handle the high call flow, call abandonment rates go up. That’s why it’s important to have proper scheduling, leave and break policies, and accurate call routing in place.
Reduce after call work (ACW): Agents getting tied up in too much after call work can lead to delays in answering calls, eventually translating into call abandonment.