What is a good abandoned call rate?

Ofcom's abandoned call rate, for each calendar day from midnight to midnight, is abandoned calls divided by (abandoned calls plus live calls). A live call is one a live person answers and that is connected to a live agent. An abandoned call is one made with a view to connecting a live agent, where no agent is connected and a recorded information message is played, or would have been played if the person had not hung up first.

If nothing is played, and nothing would have been played, Ofcom treats the call as silent rather than abandoned. Silent calls are a separate category. The statement says action against silent calls is likely to be Ofcom's highest priority. They are left out of the abandoned-call formula, which means a low abandoned call rate can sit next to a silent-call problem the formula does not show.

Also left out are unconnected calls, and answer-machine calls: a machine disconnected by answer-machine detection, a machine mistaken for a person and connected to an agent, and calls abandoned to answer machines. Where you cannot tell whether an abandoned call reached a person or a machine, the statement describes an assumption that applies the answer-machine share of agent-connected calls to the abandoned calls, and only the estimated live-person abandons enter the formula. The glossary uses the same definition.

Teams still ask for the percentage they are allowed. The current statement does not give one. Ofcom may look at the rate per campaign or per call centre, and it may add those figures together where the same proposition runs across sites. A higher rate makes action more likely when Ofcom is prioritising. A lower rate is not described as a safe harbour.

That changes the management question. The useful comparison is not “are we under a published limit?”. It is “of the live people who answered today, how many reached an agent, and how many got a message because no agent was free?”. Do that for the calendar day, not for a convenient average across a week that hides a bad afternoon.

Predictive dialling places calls ahead of agent availability, using answer rates and how long calls usually last. Agents wait less. The cost is abandoned calls when more people answer than there are agents free. Predictive dialling is on every 626Dialler plan, including Starter. You still set the target. Pacing eases off as the rate approaches it.

Progressive dialling places one number per agent who is already free, so a live answer has someone waiting. Throughput is lower, and this mode does not create abandoned calls by over-dialling. It is on Growth and Enterprise, not on Starter. Preview waits until the agent has read the record and chosen to dial. Abandoned calls from dialling ahead do not arise in the same way. Any mode can still produce a silent or abandoned call if answer-machine detection mistakes a person for a machine, or if the agent is slow to speak and the person hears nothing useful.

The dialling modes guide sets out which mode is on which plan. For a collections list, the companion piece is predictive versus progressive dialling for collections.

Pick the target from the conversation you are running, not from a number you have seen quoted elsewhere. A short, similar script with enough agents for the answer rate can sit on predictive, with a target you are prepared to slow down for. A record that changes the opening, or a queue that is already short of agents, is a reason to move that list to progressive or preview rather than to keep raising the dial ratio and hoping the message covers it.

The information message is part of the same decision. Ofcom expects it to say who the call was for, that they tried to contact the person, and a basic-rate or free number to decline further calls, with no marketing. Ofcom may look at whether the person is connected to that message as quickly as possible, and no longer than two seconds after the phone is picked up, or after they start to speak where the system classifies the call by listening for a voice. Playing the message does not stop the call counting as abandoned.

If you call the same number again within 72 hours with another abandoned or silent call, Ofcom looks at the circumstances and at whether a live agent was available for the repeat. If not, it is likely to treat the repeat as an aggravating factor. A target that looks acceptable at noon is less useful if the afternoon shift keeps dropping the same people into the message.

Answerphone detection can be tuned per campaign on 626Dialler. Sample the recordings. A false classification is one of the ways Ofcom says a silent call is produced. Report the abandoned call rate per campaign, per day, and read it next to the silent calls, which the formula excludes. Alveus hosts 626Dialler for every customer. The pacing setting is still yours.

The statement and the annex that sets out the formula are on Ofcom's site: the review page and the statement PDF. This article is not legal advice. Plan limits are on the pricing page. Book a demo if you want to see the target and the daily report on a campaign.