Every unanswered ring in your business is not just an inconvenience; it’s a serious financial leak. The average cost of a lost call can range from $200 to $1,200, depending on the industry that you’re in, and for many small businesses across the country, that is simply unthinkable.
If you think a missed call or two isn’t as bad and simply results in a voicemail, think again: upwards of 85% of callers who hang up won’t call back. Instead, they will call your competitors, taking their business and consumer loyalty from you to them.
What does this look like in your industry?
Unanswered calls affect multiple industries differently. This is what it looks like for several majorly impacted industries:
- Plumbing Emergencies: One missed call could be a $1,200+ service job missed, resulting in a lost long-term customer.
- Legal Intake: Not answering the phone can result in a wasted call from a client, which can cost your firm tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, especially if it is a high-value case.
- Healthcare: An abandoned call is more than just a missed $200 in fees. It’s a damaged reputation and a patient in need forced to seek aid elsewhere.
The issue isn’t whether your team is working hard enough, it’s whether or not your current systems can handle the call volume and demand spikes. The first step you can take to stop this leak is understanding what operational strategies can lower your Call Abandonment Rate (CAR).
What’s a call abandonment rate?
The call abandonment rate is defined as the percentage of inbound calls where the customer hangs up before speaking to a live agent.
Strategy 1: Matching Labor to Demand by Staffing Smarter
The main reason for high call abandonment rates is simple: your demand exceeds your capacity. You cannot be fully staffed 24/7, but you can be smarter about how you staff (without the added costs of onboarding employees).
The key to helping prevent abandonment is by optimizing your team for demand forecasting and shrinkage. For example:
- Know Your Highs: By using historical call data, you can map out patterns that show when your company’s busiest times are (daily, weekly, monthly, annually). If you are expecting an increase in call volume, have more staff scheduled.
- Know Your Lows: Shrinkage is the time when employees are unavailable due to operational scheduling gaps, such as employee breaks and meals, training and meetings, or talking to other customers in person. These alone can account for a 15-25% loss in effectiveness. Scheduling properly to overlap during these shrinkage gaps helps ensure you have more employees available when it matters.
This strategy can help make the best out of what you have available in-house, without driving up the costs of hiring and training more employees. But, what about when the call volume is still too high and you cannot afford more employees?
Strategy 2: Outsourcing to Fill the Gaps
The best way to ensure your business captures 100% of its opportunities and maintains professional standards that customers expect during every holiday or demand peak is through a strategic partnership that fills the gaps left by limited in-house staffing and funds. Westpark Communications is a call center service provider that offers dozens of services to help companies of all sizes through strategic planning and tailored customization.
The Westpark Difference: Professional Overflow & After-Hours Coverage, 24/7:
- Solid Reputation: With over 50 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Westpark Communications has continuously proven itself to be a top choice for companies large and small across the country. Currently, we have over 100 five-star reviews on Google!
- Always Answered: With our platform and call line integrations, we step in immediately when your lines are saturated with calls or when your office is closed, 24/7/365. Every single call is answered by a professional, US-based agent trained to represent your brand, the way you want.
- First Call Focused: Our agents are custom-trained with industry and client-specific scripts to resolve basic needs, route urgent matters, and conduct professional lead intake and scheduling on the first call to eliminate frustrating transfers, hold times, or call backs.
- Scalable Services: Westpark’s scheduling and systems are designed to scale with need, ensuring there is always someone available to answer the phone. Whether it be during an emergency or the holidays, your calls will be caught, no matter how many come through.
Turning Leads Into Loyalty
Stopping the financial leak of abandoned calls is a core strategy to protect your business’s revenue and ensure growth, all while protecting your brand’s reputation and strengthening customer loyalty. While optimization internally certainly helps your business run smoother, the only way to ensure true zero-abandonment is by partnering with a reliable, professional service.
Are you ready to see how much revenue you can recover?
Stop losing valuable opportunities today. Reach out to Westpark Communications today to reduce your call abandonment rate and get a free efficiency consultation!