A call where the caller hangs up before reaching a CSR. It is a capacity signal, not a conversion one — and not every abandoned call is lost revenue.
A call abandons when the caller disconnects before reaching a CSR — before a human, not before the call is "handled," which is the broader and less precise definition some phone systems report under the same name. Check which one your system uses before trusting its abandonment figure; the platforms disagree with each other.
Abandonment is a staffing and queueing question, not a skill question: it says a caller was offered and did not receive service. It clusters in the half-hour intervals where offered load exceeded staffing — which is why a monthly average abandonment rate conceals exactly the intervals that produced it. Measuring at interval resolution is the core of how DialWorth computes capacity loss.
Not face value. Some abandoned callers ring back within minutes; some were never a real opportunity. If your call records carry caller ID, you can measure your own recovery rate directly: take every abandoned call and look for a later inbound call from the same number within seventy-two hours. The arithmetic that survives scrutiny is worked through in what a missed call is actually worth.
Related terms: Speed to lead · Call mix · Booking rate · the full glossary
Not every abandoned call is lost revenue. The arithmetic that survives being checked.
Erlang queueing at half-hour resolution, caller patience fitted from your own data.