Have you ever called a support line and were immediately put on hold before you could speak to a service rep?
I know I have and it's incredibly frustrating especially when you have a quick question that only takes a few moments to answer. Being immediately put on hold makes you feel like there's a roadblock preventing you from communicating your problem to the business. And, if that hold is long enough, it's very common to get frustrated and hang up the phone before we ever speak to a service agent.
When we do reach this breaking point, call centers categorize it as an "abandoned" call. We never spoke to a service agent and we never made an official [removed] , but our opinion of the businesses was still affected by this experience. Call centers need to keep track of this metric so they know how many people are calling support and never reach a service agent.
This metric is called, "call abandonment rate" and it's critical for analyzing [removed] . The more consistent your support team is with providing a speedy response, the happier your customers will be.
In this post, you will read about everything you need to know about call abandonment rate including what it is, how to calculate it, and some industry benchmarks to compare your business to.
What's a Call Abandonment Rate?
Call abandonment rate is the percentage of people who hang up the phone before they're answered by a service rep. This tells you how often your support team can successfully provide a solution before the customer gets frustrated and abandons the call.
[removed] of consumers say an immediate response is "important" or "very important" when they have a customer service question. This means if your call abandonment rate is high, then your customers aren't gaining enough value from their service experience. The higher this percentage is, the more customers you'll have that have left the phone feeling unsatisfied and still in need of support.
If you're not sure what your call abandonment rate is, read on to the next section to learn how to calculate it.
How to Calculate Call Abandonment Rate
Calculating your call abandonment rate is relatively simple. You just need to follow the steps below.
1. Determine the Number of Calls You've Received.
The first step is determining how many calls you've received during a given time. Typically, most companies will measure on a monthly basis, but you can use a week, year, or whichever period that fits your needs.
2. Subtract the Number of Calls You've Handled.
Once you know how many calls you've received, the next step is to subtract the number of calls you've handled.
For this step, some businesses may define a "handled call" differently than others. For instance, calls that are shorter than five seconds may be categorized as abandoned because the interaction was very brief.
3. Divide the Result by the Number of Calls You've Received.
After you subtract the number of handled calls from the total calls received, the next step is to divide the difference by the number of calls received. This should give you a decimal value that you can multiply by 100 to get your percentage.
Here's what this formula looks like when it's written out.
Let's do a quick example.
Say our call center received 300 calls this month and our team handled 280 of them. That would mean our call abandonment rate is about 6.7% (300 - 280 = 20; 20/300 = 6.7%).
But, now that you know how to calculate your abandonment rate, how will you know if it's any good? To give you an idea of where you stand, read on to review some abandonment rate industry benchmarks in the section below.
Call Center Abandonment Rate Benchmarks
Like most customer service metrics, call center abandonment rates will vary by industry. That's because [removed] change depending on the product or service offered, resulting in different expectations for different companies.
That being said, on average most call centers have a call abandonment rate of about [removed] . And, thanks to research conducted by [removed] , we can see what the standard is for abandonment rates across different industries like software, retail, and more.
Do you have a metric for your call abondonment rate?
Monitoring your company’s call abandonment rate is an important way to measure the impact of your customer service team as well as the happiness of your customers. Here’s what you need to know about making your call abandonment rate the best it can be.
What Is a Call Abandonment Rate?
The abandonment rate refers to the percentage of calls that an inbound caller ends or abandons before connecting with a customer service agent. You can determine your [removed] with a simple calculation. Subtract the number of calls the center handled in a specified amount of time from the total number of calls received during that period and divide the result by the total number of calls received. Multiply the result by 100 to determine the percentage of abandoned inquiries.
When calculating abandonment rate, remember that it’s standard to omit calls ended within the first 10 seconds. Typically, customers hang up this quickly only because they genuinely misdialed, fear that they entered the wrong phone number, or weren’t prepared for the call. These are considered errors and thus eliminated from most abandonment rate calculations.
How to Measure Success
For many call centers and their clients, abandonment rate is a key performance indicator (KPI). This percentage shows how well you perform and whether you’ve successfully met goals. In the call center industry, an abandonment rate of 2 percent generally signals good to excellent performance, while rates up to 5 percent are considered acceptable. If your call center experiences rates higher than 5 percent, consider a few strategies to improve customer service and satisfaction.
Add More Staff Members
Unusually high abandonment rates often reveal that your customer service center isn’t adequately staffed. The easiest way to address this problem is to hire additional staff members to handle inquiries. By increasing your staff, your center will be able to process more requests, thus decreasing the likelihood that inbound callers will hang up before an agent answers.
Improve Training
Adding new customer service representatives to your team might allow your center to process more inquiries in theory, but this may not play out in practice if you don’t properly train your staff. Analyze completed calls to determine where training-related problems arise. When working with tech support agents, do they understand your customers’ issues and provide effective solutions in order to resolve problems efficiently? When working with sales agents, do they follow a streamlined procedure to capture and process orders quickly? Consider adding advanced [removed] or revising scripts if necessary.
Implement a Call Back Option
Some inbound customers hang up and try again later because they simply can’t spare the time to wait on hold. Though they may be able to resolve their issue with a subsequent call, this doesn’t make for happy customers or great abandonment rates. [removed] hold customers’ place in line and allowing them to request a call back instead of remaining on the line. Implementing this option is easy from a technological standpoint and can greatly reduce the inconvenience that your customers might otherwise experience.
Understand Peak Demands
For customer service centers, long wait periods often signal greater demand for new sales or product support. While sudden increases in demand can sometimes come as a surprise, more often than not, they’re predictable. Approach this by reflecting on past results as well as looking forward. Analyze data from the previous quarter or year to understand weekly, seasonal, or event-related customer service demands. Anticipate future demands by understanding client timelines for product releases and service needs, and plan accordingly.
Your abandonment rate speaks volumes about the [removed] your company provides. These solutions will help you keep your abandonment rates low and your customers satisfied.