Calculating Short Abandonment

Here is a quick tip on calculating Short Abandonment telephone calls for your VIP / RES / PBX Call Centers:

Short Abandonment = 50% of your Target Service Level + 1 Second

For example, if your call service target is 80% of all calls to be answered in 20 seconds, then the calculation for Short Abandonment would be (20 Seconds X 50%) + 1 Second, or, 11 Seconds. Any calls abandoned that were less than 11 seconds in wait time would be designated as “Short Abandoned” and this total would be subtracted from the reported number of Abandoned Calls for labor analysis purposes.

Of course all Abandoned Calls should be investigated but why subtract Short Abandonment calls when reviewing staff levels? The answer is that because the Abandoned Calls volume indicator is one of the primary testing statistics for staffing in a call center you will want to use a value that is relevant to the planned service level in place. Your Call Centers did not have a reasonable chance to answer these short abandoned calls as they were staffed to a 20 second service level, and, if your staff were actually answering calls in 10 seconds instead of 20 then you would be over-staffed against your stated service goal.