abandonment rate

[thetuan]

Hi,

If your call center abandonment rate is anywhere near double digits, then you have a lot of other issues to be concerned with - loss of customers for poor customer service is one.

If you can keep your service level within reasonable range, you should see your abandonment rate well within single digits.

Thanks

[JoeB]

I’d like to offer a different perspective, not as generalized as sweeping as proposed here.

There are many instances where service level influences abandonment, which, in turn, influences customer loyalty. If your call center operates in such an environment, then obviously you want to improve these aspects of the operation. In these cases, the red line should not be in the double-digit range, but possibly as low as 3-5%.

However, there are other environments, where callers are willing or have no other option but to wait a long time for service. These callers that abandon will call back during less busy period. Our research and consulting experience show that the return on investment in improving service levels in such environments may be significantly lower than in the previous case. Even customer satisfaction may not improve by much because caller expectations are not that high to begin with.

The purpose of this distinction is *not* to imply that a call center that services a captive audience can ignore service level or that abandoned calls are unimportant. A call center should not use arbitrary goals. Rather, it is critical to set service level targets and operational goals in business context, making business driven decisions that consider both internal efficiencies and customer facing metrics. With this analysis, the decision about what is an “acceptable” abandonment rate is easier, logical and defensible.

More information about the abandoned calls, caller behavior and business considerations in http://www.diagnosticstrategies.com/abandonment.htm. For more information about how to set operational goals see http://www.diagnosticstrategies.com/cc_metrics.htm

[thetuan]

Let me just say that I have been working in the call center business since the 80s and I have managed call centers in a few industries and based on my experience, any abandonment rate that even looked at high single digits will have unacceptable service levels.

In my consulting world in the early 90s, I have seen call center operations in numerous industries and that hold true with the abandonment rate. What Joe said is correct - call center managers need to research and analyze issues properly to identify the right corrective measures to take. The answers are not as easy as one might think.

However, when we talk about abandonment rate, if your call center is making your customers wait and callers are abandoning, you can analyze until the "cows come home" and it won't change the fundamental fact that your operation has poor customer service.

Thanks