Customers who call your company for support expect prompt and effective service. If they’re left waiting in a queue or find themselves transferred between multiple departments, they might end the call before they speak to anyone. This is known as an abandoned call.
Abandoned calls represent a failure to deliver a smooth and satisfying customer experience. Customers may find themselves forced to call back at another time or pursue a different communication channel. Either way, they’re unlikely to have a positive impression of your business – and may feel prompted to look to your competitors.
Below, we’ll explain the different types of abandoned call, what can cause them, and how you can minimise their impact on your business.
What is an Abandoned Call?
An abandoned call refers to any instance where a customer ends a call before speaking with an agent. As we’ll explain below, this can happen in a number of different ways and for a variety of reasons. But what unites them all is the likelihood that your customer was calling for a particular purpose – and they haven’t managed to fulfil it.
Abandoned calls are a type of lost call. A lost call is any instance where the customer did not achieve the outcome they were looking for. Other common types of lost call include:
- Dropped calls. This is used for cases where a technical difficulty caused the call to be terminated prematurely. This might be because the customer lost signal or because there was an error with your inbound call centre software.
- Missed calls. This refers to calls that do not connect because there are no agents available to answer them. They may be automatically disconnected when a maximum wait time is reached.
While all types of lost call can have an impact on customer satisfaction, abandoned calls usually indicate an active dissatisfaction on the part of your customers – and that’s something you need to take very seriously.
How to Measure Your Call Abandonment Rate
To assess whether your customer service team has an issue with abandoned calls, you’ll need to monitor your call abandonment rate. You can calculate this as follows:
(number of abandoned calls ÷ total number of calls) × 100
This will show you the percentage of calls to your contact centre that end without the customer speaking to someone. The higher the percentage, the bigger the problem.
You may want to set your own target for your call abandonment rate, but according to the Australian Customer Experience Professionals’ Association (ACXPA), the national average is 8%. If your abandonment rate is higher than this, you should take action as soon as possible.
What are the Causes of Abandoned Calls?
The first step to minimising the number of abandoned calls you experience is to understand what causes them. There are a range of reasons that a customer might abandon a call, including:
- Long wait times. The most obvious reason customers would abandon a call is simply because they’re left waiting too long. This can be particularly frustrating if their query is urgent or if they wait for an extended period before being forced to abandon the call to get on with their day.
- Lack of self-service options. For some customers, speaking to an agent isn’t their preferred approach. They may want the ease of an automated system or it may suit them better to call at a time when agents aren’t available. If you don’t offer self-service options, they may choose to abandon the call instead.
- Complex IVR systems. An Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system can ensure customers are routed to the most relevant department for their concerns, improving your First Contact Resolution (FCR) rate and minimising wait times. But if your IVR system is too difficult to navigate, customers may abandon the call in frustration when they can’t find the right option.
- Human error. While we’ve stressed the negative implications of abandoned calls, they won’t always reflect a failure on your part. Sometimes customers dial the wrong number or hang up by accident – unfortunately, there’s little you can do to avoid this!
Identifying which of these causes is contributing most to your abandonment rate will help shape the next steps. Once you’ve worked out which reasons are having the strongest impact, you can develop a focused strategy for tackling them.
4 Key Ways to Reduce Abandoned Calls
1. Optimise Resource Allocation
It’s an obvious point but it bears stressing – your abandonment rate will always be an issue if you do not have enough call centre agents on hand to answer calls. Wait times will be higher than they should be, and customers with less patience or less free time will be penalised.
With this in mind, it’s essential that your call centre is adequately staffed. But it’s not just about the raw number of agents you have on hand – it’s about predicting times of high demand and planning your resource needs accordingly. You may need to introduce policies around staff members taking holidays at peak times or make sure you have a sufficiently flexible workforce.
A comprehensive workforce management solution can be an invaluable help here. It will allow you to monitor absences, including holidays and sick leave, and give you the visibility you need to plan ahead effectively.
2. Streamline Your IVR Options
In theory, IVR should reduce your call abandonment rate. It enables customers to self-serve for certain queries and ensures that those who do want to speak to an agent can find their way to the right department.
However, if your IVR options are unclear or hard to navigate, customers may find themselves struggling to find the right option. After moving back and forth through various menus, they may simply decide it’s not worth their time and abandon the call.
By adopting a user-friendly IVR automation tool, you can quickly build fully customised self-service options tailored to your customers’ needs. This won’t just reduce the number of customers who need to speak with an agent, but it will also make it easier for those who do want to speak to an agent to find the right option.
3. Monitor Key Metrics
Your abandonment rate won’t just indicate whether your call centre is providing a less-than-stellar service – it can also help you measure improvements or identify underlying issues.
Does your abandonment rate vary across different days of the week? Or perhaps it spikes at certain times of year? By monitoring your abandonment rate across different periods, you can identify patterns and pinpoint likely causes.
But your call abandonment rate isn’t the only metric that can give you guidance here. You can also keep an eye on:
- Average time in queue. The higher your average time in queue, the more likely customers will become frustrated and decide to abandon the call.
- Occupancy rates. This refers to the proportion of their working time your agents spend taking calls. If occupancy rates are low, you may struggle to ensure calls are answered promptly.
- CSAT and NPS scores. Your abandonment rate may be indicative of wider issues. Monitoring key customer satisfaction metrics can help you identify any red flags.
By monitoring these metrics, you’ll have a wealth of data to help you identify issues that may be impacting your abandonment rate. And as management expert Peter Drucker famously put it, “what gets measured gets managed.”
4. Provide Omnichannel Support
Not all of your customers want to make a phone call to resolve their issues. In fact, almost a third of customers prefer to use live chat functionality to communicate with companies. If these customers are forced to pick up the phone, they won’t just be frustrated that their preferences aren’t supported – they’ll also increase the burden on your inbound call centre team.
An effective omnichannel solution empowers your customers to contact you in the way that best fits their needs. It’s a great way to improve your overall customer experience, and it can significantly contribute to tackling your abandonment rate. Of course, to make this a success, you’ll need flexible omnichannel call centre software to support you.
Reduce Your Abandonment Rate with MaxContact
Abandoned calls are bad news for your customer service efforts. In most cases, they suggest that your customers can’t quickly and easily get the support they need. And that means that minimising your call abandonment rate should be a top priority if you want to keep your customers happy.
To give your call centre team the best chance of success, it’s important to invest in software that truly supports their needs. At MaxContact, we’re committed to empowering call centre teams with cutting-edge tools that make delivering top-quality service as simple as possible.
With MaxContact’s advanced capabilities at their fingertips, your call centre teams will be able to minimise their call abandonment rate and deliver the quality of service your customers expect. Get in touch today to book a guided demo and see how it works first-hand.
.png)
