Abandon rate measures calls that were lost before an agent picked them up. It is tracked in two places, and the two meanings differ.
- Inbound: a caller hangs up while waiting in a queue or IVR, before an agent answers.
- Outbound (predictive dialing): a person answers a call placed by the dialer, but no agent is free to take it within a short time, so the call is dropped or the person hears a recorded message.
For inbound queues, abandon rate = abandoned calls ÷ calls offered × 100. For outbound campaigns, abandon rate = abandoned calls ÷ calls answered by a person × 100. Many teams leave out very short inbound abandons (for example under 5 seconds), because those callers often dialed by mistake. Check which definition a report uses before comparing figures.
On outbound campaigns, the abandon rate is also a compliance figure. In the UK, Ofcom expects it to stay at or below 3% of live calls per campaign in any 24-hour period; in the United States, the Telemarketing Sales Rule sets 3% per campaign over 30 days. OVOKY reports show the abandon rate per predictive campaign and per inbound queue, and supervisors can change the dial ratio of a running campaign from live supervision.