Answers: I need some advice on abandoned call targets. Can you help?

We have recently adjusted our service level targets to 85% in 15 seconds. We would like to extend this and offer up a realistic abandoned calls KPI based on the new service level target.

We are struggling to achieve the current target of 1% at certain times.

I need some advise please on what abandoned call target should be in place. I am thinking 2%.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

20 Oct 2008

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Comments on: Answers: I need some advice on abandoned call targets. Can you help?

The target should be 1.25%

Posted by Mr A Bean — 15 Oct 2008 @ 2:42 pm

I’ve not seen a sliding scale of service level to ACR targets. In theory if you are acheiving a consistant service level, the ACR should follow. Run this new service level for a while and base the target ACR on the results. Alternativly wet your finger and raise to the air like far to many call centre managers do!

Posted by Bill Ding — 15 Oct 2008 @ 2:49 pm

It’s difficult to say what the abandon rate should be without knowing your business but I would offer the following advice. Are you excluding immediate hang-ups within the first 5 seconds? If you are, then 2% would still seem reasonable but this depends on many factors including whether these are service calls or new business calls, what prompts people to call and what if any front-end IVR you have in place. One way to reduce your calls and still have the service level in place is to use a bureau for overflow. If you want some input into this, drop me an email info@call-centres.com

Posted by Rob — 15 Oct 2008 @ 3:00 pm

As Rob says, it is difficult to comment accurately without knowing your business. For example, if you are offering a product or service that is only available from you – for example the local council – then your abandoned call rate might include a high proportion or repeat attempts where people call, hang up and try again later. If you strip out ‘impatient’ callers you may be doing better than you think!

Posted by Ken Reid — 20 Oct 2008 @ 5:25 pm

I agree Rob and Ken-it all depends on what you term a true ‘abandoned call’. In some contact centres,the ACR is calculated after the opening message has been played and the caller is still on the line. Calls terminated prior to the end of the message are eliminated from the calcualtions. So ultimately it depends on whether or not you want your ACR to incorporate all calls offered, or calls that are terminated afer the threshold.

Posted by R — 22 Oct 2008 @ 5:50 pm

I’d take a look at your average abandoned delay as well – if it’s extremely low, you’re going to have a high abandoned rate no matter what, unless you can ignore calls abandoned in less than a threshould (I’d suggest 10-15 seconds based on your service level). If it’s fairly high, you can confidently set your abandoned rate low, knowing that people will wait.

But as others said – what are you? A sales center needs to grab every single call that comes in. A service center can be a little more lax (or a lot more, depending on your customer’s threshold).

Posted by Derek K. — 22 Oct 2008 @ 9:48 pm

We use a target of 1.8% and then also have a GOS target of 92%. We used to target agents on 2.5% or below (using a scale of recording figures if abandodned over 15 seconds) but this was reviewed at the start of this financial year. When we looked through the data captured for the previous year it averaged at 1.9%, so we reset the target to become stretching yet achieveable.

Posted by Robert Spencer — 23 Oct 2008 @ 11:16 am