Caller Abandonment: What Is It? What’s The Risk? How To Mitigate It?

What is caller abandonment: Caller abandonment is just that- where a caller hangs up while on hold waiting for an agent. It’s probably safe to say that at some point, you’ve abandoned a call when faced with an excessive hold time, so if you’ve done it, then your customers and prospects are likely doing it too, and this causes you to lose customers, and negatively impacts your bottom! Most businesses rely on telephone calls as its revenue lifeline, and the more calls you get – the more likely you are to face increased hold times and, in turn, increased abandoned rates.

What are the statistics: AT&T reports that 70% of calls are placed on hold, and when faced with waiting in dead-silence or canned music, 55% of callers hang-up in less than 45 seconds. Furthermore, a study conducted by The Beryl Institute found that 75% of people who abandon calls do not call back.

Why is the abandon rate important: To put it bluntly, abandoned calls equal abandoned customers, and each abandoned call represents a missed opportunity not only to provide a customer with excellent service, but to also generate revenue. Even in a situation where direct revenue is not at stake, losing customers due to poor service will have a direct impact on the company’s bottom line.

How can you mitigate caller abandonment: Businesses lose customers every day through the simple act of putting them on hold. This is an entirely preventable source of dissatisfaction. So, what’s the solution to reduce and improve the caller abandonment dilemma? On hold messaging! The only effective solution for improving caller abandon rates. A study by North American Telecom found that callers hearing music on hold and messages will stay on the line for up to 3 minutes or longer, thus giving you the chance to serve them. Additionally, a study by Maxi-Marketing shows that 88% of callers prefer on hold messages vs the alternative.

Does your business rely on telephone calls as its revenue lifeline? Many businesses—such as medical offices, car dealerships, HVAC companies, and other service organizations—communicate with their customers over the telephone every day to provide customer service, book appointments, take orders, etc. As noted above, in the Beryl Institute study showing 75% of people who abandon calls do not call back. Where are they going? Directly to your competition!

Have questions about caller abandonment or how on hold messaging can help? Drop us a line below, we’ll be glad to provide the answers.