Call Center Management Featured Article
Abandon Rates Provide a Window to Satisfaction and Staff Levels
In your call center there are a number of metrics that need to be accurately managed to obtain peak efficiency. While each metric is important in its own right, there’s perhaps a better indicator of staff levels and overall satisfaction than abandon rate.
Abandon rate tracks the percentage of calls disconnected before agents have a chance to take them. They do not include calls that were met with a busy signal, only ones that have been terminated after being put on hold.
This metric has a direct correlation with staffing levels, as a high abandon rate generally means your agents are preoccupied and unable to take the next call in queue. Obviously when customers are on hold for too long, they’re going to hang up. High abandon rates inflate future call volumes as customer call back for the second and third time, leading to even more line jams, lost calls, and dissatisfied customers.
Workforce management software provider, Monet Software says “abandon rate can be considered a measure of customer satisfaction. If customers hang up a lot, they might not like the speed of service.”
So if your call center is seeing higher than normal abandon rates, what can you do about it? IVR systems can be installed to alert incoming callers on the higher than average weight, and could potentially offer answers to common questions in real-time.
Alternatively, high abandon rates could indicate a need to evaluate staffing to ensure and optimal agent to customer ratio. Workforce management software that can predict the call volume spikes could give managers insight into when they need more people on the phones.
Regardless of how, high abandonment rates mean call center management needs to take direct action to reestablish quality service to their customers.
Chris DiMarco is a Managing Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter (News - Alert) @cpdimarco.
Edited by Juliana Kenny