Call abandon rate
Calls that disconnect before being answered divided by calls offered. The primary measure of missed phone opportunity.
Abandon rate spikes at lunch, shift change and after hours. It is the first metric a BDC fixes, either by staffing for peaks or by putting AI in front so no call waits.
In practice
Abandon rate should be read by hour of day and by day of week. A store with a 6% overall rate may run 20% at noon and 40% in the last hour before close. It is also worth separating abandons in the IVR menu from abandons in the hold queue, because they have different fixes: a simpler front door versus more capacity.
Fixing it
Staffing for peaks helps until the next peak. Putting AI in front of the phone removes the queue, because every call is answered at once and only the calls that need a person wait for one. The residual metric becomes transfer wait time rather than abandon rate.
Also called: abandoned calls, missed calls.
Read the chapter: BDC metrics and KPIs →
Related terms
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