Abandoned calls are the calls that were dropped by customers while waiting for an agent. Clearly, having a high abandonment rate is bad for business and bad for customer satisfaction ratings. Customers that abandon the call leave the interaction feeling unsatisfied and in several situations frustrated.

These abandoned calls are usually measured as a share or ratio of incoming calls:

Abandonment ratio = total calls abandoned / total incoming calls (answered calls which abandon during outbound campaigns are termed unattended calls)

There are a number of solutions to this problem, the simplest is to increase staffing in order to better handle the incoming call volume. Although many contact centers increase staff to solve this problem there are more viable options. This white paper will discuss the many ways that you can reduce call abandonment through people, processes and technology.