Quick Tips: How to Reduce Call Abandonment Rates

Reduce-Call-Abandonment-Rates

 It should come as no surprise that call abandonment rates is on the rise, as call centers are being asked to do more with less, while facing increasing call volumes. At one of my free consulting sessions with a contact center manager, he asked me what can be a solution to reduce abandoned calls – a situation where there are multiple calls waiting to be answered by agents in the queue,  the customers gets impatient and drops off. A high call abandonment rate is a sure sign of customer frustration. This can be a serious turn off for your customers and digs holes into the SLA of your contact center.

Without much thought I asked him if their contact center technology offers their customer to opt out of the queue to be called back by the system automatically in a defined time. This would save customers waiting time and reduce call abandonment while improving customer experience. Also, does the technology allow your callers with an option in the IVR asking them if they would like to hang up and request a callback, which will reduce your cost of them waiting in a lengthy queue.

To add a little flavour, give your agents a screen pop of the customers details by the time the system dials the number. The idea here is to increase your customer’s experience by letting them know that the organisation knows them in person and values their interactions.

When it comes to customer service, the bar has never been higher. And contact center managers should ensure that they are equipped with the best technology that satisfies customer expectations, or better, exceed them.