What‘s a Call Abandonment Rate & How Do You Calculate It?
If you‘ve called a business and been stuck on hold listening to crackly elevator music for what felt like forever, you may have given up and terminated the call out of sheer frustration. You‘re not alone – the average person will abandon a call after waiting on hold for just 2 minutes.
When this happens, it gets chalked up as another "abandoned call" – one where the caller hangs up before speaking with a representative. Call centers track their call abandonment rate as a key performance indicator (KPI), since a high abandonment rate signals major problems with the customer experience.
In this guide, we‘ll take an in-depth look at what call abandonment rate really means, why it matters so much, how to calculate it and what the latest industry benchmarks tell us. Most importantly, we‘ll arm you with proven strategies to lower your call center‘s abandonment rate and recapture those missed opportunities to wow customers.
Why Abandoned Calls Are a Big Deal
Inbound calls are the entry point to customer service for many businesses. 47% of customers still prefer to contact companies by phone vs. digital channels.
When a customer makes the effort to call, only to encounter friction like long hold times or confusing phone menus that cause them to abandon the interaction, it leads to immense frustration. One survey found 32% of consumers will stop doing business with a company after just one negative phone support experience.
Clearly, abandoned calls don‘t just represent missed conversations – they represent damaged customer relationships and lost revenue. Research shows that for some industries, a mere 5% improvement in customer retention can boost profits by 25-95%. Keeping callers on the line is key to keeping them loyal.
There‘s also an opportunity cost to factor in. CSRs waste valuable time on calls where the customer has already hung up, creating a lose-lose scenario. And if customers don‘t get their issues resolved on the first call, it sparks extra contacts that further strain your call center. An estimated $62 billion is lost by US businesses each year due to poor customer service.
How to Calculate Call Abandonment Rate
Now that you understand the business impact of abandoned calls, let‘s dive into how to actually measure your call abandonment rate. The formula is fairly straightforward:
Call Abandonment Rate = Number of Abandoned Calls / Total Inbound Calls
So let‘s say one day your call center receives 1,000 calls, and 75 callers disconnect before speaking to an agent. Your abandonment rate for that day would be:
75 abandoned / 1,000 total calls = 0.075
0.075 x 100 = 7.5% call abandonment rate
Most call centers track this daily, with an eye on weekly and monthly trends. But there are a few nuances to be aware of that can skew your data:
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How you define an "abandoned" call. Most centers exclude disconnects that occur within 5 seconds of entering the queue, since the caller likely misdialed or changed their mind immediately. Typically, abandonment is defined as occurring after 5-10 seconds in queue, but before reaching an agent.
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Excluding certain call types. Some businesses omit specific categories of calls when calculating abandonment rate, such as calls outside of business hours, calls to certain departments or calls that don‘t enter the queue. Consistency is key for accurate tracking.
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Repeat callers. If the same caller makes multiple attempts to reach an agent within a short timeframe, each abandoned attempt would still be counted individually.
The most accurate call abandonment metrics will come from automatically extracting the data from your call center platform. Manually counting abandoned calls based on agent input introduces too much room for human error.
Call Abandonment Rate Industry Benchmarks
So what does "good" look like in terms of call abandonment rate? The short answer is, it depends. While the average rate across industries hovers around 7%, there‘s quite a bit of variation between sectors:
| Industry | Call Abandonment Rate |
|---|---|
| Financial Services | 4.6% |
| Utilities | 6.8% |
| Telecom | 6.2% |
| Insurance | 6.0% |
| Technology | 5.8% |
| Healthcare | 9.5% |
| Retail | 8.7% |
| Travel/Hospitality | 7.3% |
Sources: Call Centre Helper, LiveVox
As you can see, industries with more urgent or complex customer service needs like financial services and healthcare tend to have lower abandonment rates, since customers are highly motivated to stay on the line. More transactional industries like retail have more abandonment.
Company size is also a factor – smaller call centers with under 50 agents have an average abandonment rate of 10%, compared to just 5% for large call centers with over 500 agents. Bigger teams can absorb call spikes more easily.
Of course, the events of 2020 threw a major curveball at these benchmarks. As call center agents transitioned to working from home, abandonment rates spiked to 20% on average.
The key takeaway is that while industry benchmarks are useful guideposts, tracking your own call center‘s abandonment rate over time is most important to spot red flags early. Even going from 5% to 10% abandonment is a worrying indicator you need to dig into.
Proven Strategies to Reduce Abandoned Calls
If you‘ve determined your call center‘s abandonment rate has room for improvement, what can you do to bring it down and provide a better caller experience? Here are some of the most effective solutions to implement.
1. Shorten Hold Times
Unsurprisingly, long hold times are the #1 cause of abandoned calls. One study found 60% of customers won‘t wait on hold longer than 1 minute. Reducing hold time has the biggest impact on preventing abandonment.
How to do it:
- Streamline your IVR to quickly identify caller needs and route them to the right agent
- Staff to meet demand so there are enough agents to handle volume spikes
- Offer expected wait time announcements so callers at least know what to expect
2. Implement Callback Options
When hold times are unavoidable, a callback option is the next best thing. Over 63% of customers prefer a callback vs. waiting on hold. When the caller requests a callback, they can hang up while saving their place "in line."
How to do it:
- Implement virtual queuing technology that captures the caller‘s info and automatically calls them back when an agent is free
- Make the callback option easy to find in your IVR
- Keep the caller updated on their callback status (e.g. "you‘ll receive a callback within 15 minutes")
3. Add Self-Service Options
Sometimes customers call with basic needs that could be resolved without speaking to a live agent. Providing self-service support channels lowers inbound call volume, and thus shortens the queue for those who truly need agent assistance.
How to do it:
- Build out your online knowledge base with answers to common FAQs
- Add an AI chatbot to your website or app to walk customers through simple issues
- Expand your IVR capabilities so customers can complete basic functions like checking an account balance or resetting a password through automation
4. Improve First Contact Resolution
Repeat callers are a major driver of high call volume. If an issue isn‘t resolved to the customer‘s satisfaction on the first attempt, they‘ll inevitably call back again (and again). That‘s why first contact resolution (FCR) is such an important call center metric. According to SQM Group, for every 1% improvement in FCR, you get a 1% improvement in customer satisfaction.
How to do it:
- Empower agents with training and resources to be able to handle a wide variety of issues without transferring
- Use skill-based routing to connect callers with the agent best equipped to help them
- Follow up after tough calls to ensure the resolution "stuck" to prevent callbacks
5. Leverage CCaaS Technology
Implementing a cloud-based contact center as a service (CCaaS) platform gives you access to tools that make it easier to manage call volume and reduce peaks in hold time that lead to abandonment. The latest CCaaS solutions have built-in features like:
- Advanced call routing based on agent skill, customer info, time of day, etc.
- Real-time and historical reporting on call volume trends
- Workforce optimization to predict staffing needs to meet demand
- Seamless integration of digital channels to divert volume from phones
Research shows companies that invest in a cloud contact center platform see 35% less call abandonment on average.
Keep Your Call Abandonment Rate in Check
At the end of the day, your call abandonment rate is a key reflection of the customer experience you‘re delivering. A high abandonment rate is a flashing warning sign that your call center has some major inefficiencies to iron out.
But by taking a data-driven approach, implementing proven best practices and keeping a pulse on the latest benchmarks, you‘ll be well on your way to lowering your abandonment rate and recapturing all those opportunities to create satisfied, loyal customers.
The ROI is well worth the effort. An estimated 86% of customers will pay more for great customer service. Don‘t leave them hanging on the other end of the line.
