Face Your Hang-ups

Abandoned calls occur when customers, for whatever reason, hang up the phone before they reach a call center agent. One operations consultant who surveys roughly 30 call centers annually says abandonment rates for catalogers can range from less than 1 percent to 40 percent of all calls received!

Many experts cite a call-abandonment rate of 2 percent to 5 percent of all calls received as a good benchmark for which to strive. More than 5 percent and you may be having personnel problems; less than 2 percent and you may be overstaffed.