definition of abandoned

[richb2]

What is the definition of this term? I was under the impression that it was number of calls dropped on human answerers times 100 divided by the number of dials. After looking at the new TSR, it seems to say that it is number of calls dropped on human answerers times 100 divided by the number of humans who answered.

A= total dials
B=total humans who answered
D=number of calls dropped on humans

Is it:

abandon rate=(D*100)/A

or is it

abandon rate=(D*100)/B

[tcaconsulting]

An excellent question! I am in client situations every day raising this issue and it is one of those areas where no clear consensus exists.

The question applies to both inbound and outbound environments....are calls abandoned taken as a percentage of gross calls or calls answered OR for outbound....as a percentage of dials as opposed to connects?

From our experience...the industry tends to favour taking it as a percentage of dials (or gross calls in an inbound situation).

My opinion on this is that it "waters" down the number and has little value. By definition calls abandoned should be measuring the number of times you were hung up on. Taking it as a percentage of all calls...including those that you never even made a connection does not make sense and produces a meaningless result.

However, since the industry tends to favour the dials approach, I usually provide the client with both numbers along with an explanation.

Please feel free to contact me at: info@tcaconsulting.net if there are any other questions in this regard.

Eric Young
President

[richb2]

Eric, thanks for the answer. The TSR finalized this week says "ensures abandonment of no more than 3 percent of all calls answered by a a person, measured per calling day". First this assumes detection of humans vs machines, which is controversial in itself due to the "delay thing". I know that Sytel had a big part in this, so I wonder what they have up their sleeves in getting this rule passed which is not up to industry standards. I know that guy is really, really competive. He once called me all the way from Europe to berate my algorithms. And now he actually got the US govt behind him! How are you guys in Canada affected? Putting centers in Canada now raises some really good questions.....

[JoeB]

While both formulae you offer seem reasonable, they ignore the timeframe in which calls were abandoned and how they are factored in the overall service level. Service level (as calculated by the ACD unit) is a better metric than plain vanilla percentage of abandoned calls, because it also considers the timing of answering calls and how soon callers abandon calls.

There are essentially 3 approaches to calculating service levels (which is sort of the inverse of abandoned calls). The choice of method depends on the call center’s attitude towards abandoned calls – do they represent a lost opportunity and therefore are of high value, or are they simply a fact of life and can be ignored…. As you can see from the following examples, the “right” choice can have a significant impact on your call center’s statistics…

Calls offered: 100
Answered within service level threshold: 70
Abandoned within service level threshold: 10
Exceeded threshold: 20

Service Level:
Abandoned calls ignored: 70 / (100 - 10) = 77.7%
Abandoned calls have negative impact: 70 / 100 = 70.0%
Abandoned calls have positive impact: (70 + 10) / 100 = 80.0%

IÂ’d be happy to answer further questions you might have.


Joe Barkai

www.DiagnosticStrategies.com