Call abandonment rate: what it is and how to lower it

Key takeaways

Call abandonment rate is the share of callers who hang up before reaching a person. It rises when waits are long, at peaks and when queue messages give no useful information. Lower it by staffing to peaks, offering a callback, answering common questions in the queue message and adding overflow cover for busy hours.

• Formula: abandoned calls divided by calls offered.
• Long waits at peak hours drive most abandons.
• A callback option keeps callers who would hang up.
• Overflow cover at peaks lowers it without overstaffing.

What is call abandonment rate?

Call abandonment rate is the percentage of inbound calls where the caller hangs up while waiting, before speaking to anyone. Each abandoned call is a customer who wanted something and did not get it, and for a new enquiry it is often a lost sale.

• How outsourcing can improve business efficiency
• Service level in call answering: what 80/20 really means

How do you calculate it?

Divide abandoned calls by calls offered and multiply by 100. Many teams exclude calls abandoned in the first few seconds, which are often misdials. Report it by hour as well as by day, because the daily figure hides when it happens.

• Outsourcing performance report: what a good one shows
• Leading vs lagging indicators in operations

What causes high abandonment?

High abandonment is mainly caused by waiting. Other causes are long recorded messages before the queue, no indication of wait time, and menus that send callers round in circles. It also rises when the same customers ring repeatedly because an earlier issue was not resolved.

• Not enough people at peak times.
• Long recorded messages before the queue.
• No wait-time information or callback option.
• Repeat calls from unresolved issues.

• Failure demand: the customer contacts you pay for twice
• First contact resolution explained

What does lowering it look like in numbers?

In an illustrative business taking 400 calls a week, 12% are abandoned, mostly between 9am and 11am. If one in four of those was a new enquiry worth an average of £300, that is 12 lost enquiries and £3,600 of potential work a week. Adding two people of overflow cover for those two hours cuts abandonment to about 4%. Example figures only.

• Overflow outsourcing: hand off only work above your limit
• Slow response to enquiries: what it costs and the fix

How do you lower abandonment?

Lower it by putting people where the calls are. Staff to hourly peaks, shorten pre-queue messages, tell callers their position or expected wait, offer a callback once the wait passes a minute or two, and add overflow cover for predictable busy hours. Then fix the issues that cause repeat calls.

• How many customer service agents do you need?
• Outsourced call answering for UK businesses

When is some abandonment unavoidable?

Some abandonment is unavoidable: callers change their mind, find the answer elsewhere or get interrupted. Aim for a stable low rate and no busy-hour spikes, not zero. Spending heavily to remove the last few percent rarely pays back.

• Agent occupancy: how busy a support team should be

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see in trades and clinics: the phone is answered well all day except first thing, when the person answering is also doing something else. Overflow cover for the first two hours catches most of the calls that used to ring out.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Abandonment checklist

Check these to lower your rate.

• Measure abandonment by hour.
• Shorten pre-queue messages.
• Offer a callback for longer waits.
• Add cover for the worst two hours.
• Fix the top cause of repeat calls.

• Outsourcing efficiency checklist: 20 checks

Next step

Send us your calls by hour and how many ring out. We will show you where cover would make the most difference.