Don’t Abandon Customers who Abandoned You; Five Steps to a Better Customer Experience

When customers call your customer contact center, they want their calls answered quickly by a knowledgeable representative.  But too often a customer hangs up before you have answered their call.  Understanding why can help drive improved customer experience and a positive bottom line.

Here are five steps to understanding and dealing with abandoned calls to improve customer experience:

1. Define abandoned calls with the customer in mind.  Remember, hanging up usually indicates that the customer has reached their breaking point of frustration. So make sure your abandoned calls definition includes customers who hang up while in the IVR or VRU, and not just those who hang up while waiting in queue for a representative to answer.

2. Access to data and reporting is key. Without the proper data and reporting, you will not be able to determine how many customers abandon and at what point in the process they abandon.  Having this information allows you to weed out callers who abandoned for reasons for which you have no control; for example, callers who abandoned within 10 seconds may have dialed the wrong number.

3. Record and listen to abandoned calls. This may be the most important step in the process.  Start by recording 100% of your calls, and make sure you record the customers’ choices and words in the automated process.  Utilize your quality department or a special task force to listen to abandon calls, report findings, and make recommendations for improvements.

4. Create a repeatable process. Reducing abandoned calls is not a one and done effort but a process of continuous improvement.  

5. Surprise your customers who abandon with a proactive outbound call. How will a frustrated customer who hung up during processing feel when you call them to help resolve their issue.  “Hello Mr. or Mrs. Customer, we noticed that you called today but you hung up before we could speak to you.  How can I be of assistance to you today?”  Talk about a great customer experience!

In the end the cost related to abandon calls is well worth the effort required to understand the reason why customers abandoned and make appropriate changes to reduce customer frustration.  Abandon customers drive customer churn and poor Net Promoter Scores, two very measurable revenue-killing statistics.  So don’t abandon your customers.