Some degree of lost calls is inevitable in any contact centre. Research suggests that over 10% of inbound callers in the IT industry abandon their calls midway. 5.48% in consumer services do the same. But it is advisable to keep the number of lost calls to a bare minimum, ensuring that you do not miss out on too many opportunities.
What Qualifies as a “Lost Call” in a Contact Centre?
Any interaction that doesn’t see itself through to completion could be considered as a lost call, but this definition isn’t sufficiently actionable. For example, if a customer drops off immediately after an agent answers the phone due to a change of heart, there is nothing you can do and this data point shouldn’t skew your contact centre performance calculations.
For this reason, three classifications of lost calls are recommended:
- Abandoned call – The customer ends the call before it is answered
- Missed call – The customer waits for the full ring cycle, but no agent is available
- Dropped call – The customer is unable to connect due to technical reasons
All three categories are important and must be managed in a different way.
If abandoned calls are a persistent problem at your contact centre, you might need to relook at your IVR. customers could be struggling to navigate the IVR menu, and dropping off due to frustration.
Missed calls could be due to insufficient staffing and/or routing misconfigurations. If your routing system isn’t configured correctly, the software won’t be able to identify agent availability and transfer the customer.
Dropped calls are extremely rare – if you do notice calls getting dropped due to technical issues, have an immediate conversation with your carrier or your VoIP provider.
How to Deal With Lost Calls Without Hiring
You may not be able to immediately ramp up agent volumes to address lost calls. In such scenarios, try the following tips:
- Incorporate a self-service menu in your IVR. This will keep customers engaged and solve common queries without agent intervention
- Train your agents on call handling best practices. They could be spending too much time on post-call activities or might even be logging into phones while marking their state as “not ready.” these are common bottlenecks for smaller contact centres
- Get customers into a virtual queue. This tactic adds inbound callers to a queue without having them stay on the line. Once they reach the front of the queue, a call back is initiated automatically
- Offer alternative contact information in your IVR. If you are aware that lost calls are an issue for your contact centre, let customers know about alternative methods of getting in touch like text, or email
- Ask customers during post-call surveys if they have called before. This tactic will detect growing numbers of lost calls early on
- Cross-train your agents in different languages if you operate a multi-lingual contact centre.
Finally, keep in mind that a certain portion of your calls will always fall into the lost bucket, due to individual customer traits. Focus on the interaction at hand, and follow the above tips to have as many interactions as possible!
