Calling metrics
Abandoned Call Rate: The Formula, the Regulator Limits and the Zero-Abandon Option
The abandoned call rate measures answered calls that never reached a person. This page gives both formulas, the official limits, and the reason The Auto Dialer scores zero on the outbound side.
Abandoned call rate meaning
Abandoned call rate means two different things, and mixing them up causes most of the confusion around the term. On the outbound side it is the percentage of calls a person answered but no agent was ready to take, typically because a predictive dialer started more calls than it had free agents. On the inbound side it is the percentage of callers who hung up while waiting in a queue. Regulators care about the first kind. Canada's CRTC rules cap the abandonment rate of predictive dialing devices at 5 percent in a calendar month and define an abandoned call as one where no live telemarketer comes on within two seconds; Ofcom's statement of 20 December 2016 says callers should not make silent or abandoned calls at all. The Auto Dialer dials one number per phone only when its caller is free, so on the outbound side there is nothing to abandon.
Abandoned call rate formula
Write down the base before you calculate, because the two directions use different ones:
- Outbound: abandoned calls ÷ calls answered by a live person × 100.
- Inbound: callers who hung up before being answered ÷ calls offered to the queue × 100.
In a spreadsheet, put the abandoned count in one cell and the base in the next, divide them and format the result as a percentage. Some centres leave out very short inbound abandons, such as a caller who hangs up in the first few seconds, which lowers the figure; whichever rule you choose, apply it the same way every month and say so in the report. Regulators set their own definitions, so a legal calculation follows the regulator's wording, not your internal one.
Abandoned call rate terms
| Term | Meaning | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Outbound abandoned call | A person answers and no agent is connected in time. | Predictive dialer reports, regulator rules |
| Inbound abandoned call | A caller gives up while waiting to be answered. | Queue and helpdesk dashboards |
| Silent call | An answered call where the person hears nothing at all. | Ofcom guidance and consumer complaints |
| Calls offered | Every inbound call that reached the queue, answered or not. | The denominator of the inbound formula |
| Short abandon | An inbound caller who hangs up within seconds, often excluded. | Internal reporting rules |
| Missed call | A call that rang out with no answer on either side. | Phone call logs |
Abandoned call rate limits by regulator
The limits below come from official sources read on 4 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice, and United States abandonment rules were not researched for this page.
- Canada. No more than 5 percent abandoned calls per calendar month for a predictive dialing device; detail on the auto dialer in Canada page.
- United Kingdom. Ofcom's 2016 statement: “Calling parties should not make silent or abandoned calls”, backed by penalties of up to £2 million; see auto dialer use in the UK.
Abandoned call rate vs missed calls
For an owner-run business with a few phones, the inbound worry is rarely an abandoned queue call; it is the missed call nobody returned. The Auto Dialer treats that as its own problem. A missed call raises a notification with a one-tap call-back, with SIM choice, and a WhatsApp button; an automatic WhatsApp message can go to every missed caller; and the analytics rings count missed calls by day, week or month, with a monthly trend beside incoming and outgoing. Tap the ring and the call log filters to those calls, and call-log numbers can be dialled in an auto dialing session. Outcomes of the return calls are then recorded as a call disposition on each lead.
Abandoned call rate example
Illustration with simple round figures, not data from a real centre.
A contact centre supervisor in Calgary checks last month's outbound figures: 2,000 calls answered by a person, 80 of them with no agent connected in time. 80 ÷ 2,000 × 100 = 4 percent, under the 5 percent ceiling but with little room. Her smaller renewals team, calling existing customers from their phones one number at a time, shows 0 abandoned calls on 600 answered calls, because none of those calls started without a caller listening.
Abandoned call rate limits of a one-at-a-time dialer
Zero abandons is not free: one call per caller means waiting through every ring and voicemail (there is no voicemail drop), so fewer calls per hour than a predictive dialer can reach with many agents. Centres weighing that trade can read predictive dialer vs progressive dialer, which sets statistical pacing against dialing only for an agent who is free. The Auto Dialer also has no inbound queue, so it cannot produce an inbound abandonment figure; a helpline that needs queue statistics wants a contact centre platform, as discussed under auto dialer for a call centre. Where predictive pacing is in play, the answering machine detection setting is often the other source of silent calls worth checking. For a map of dialing methods, see the outbound dialer overview.
Abandoned call rate FAQ
11 questions, answered
What is a good abandoned call rate?
There is no single published figure that every centre accepts. For outbound calling in Canada the legal ceiling is 5 percent per calendar month for predictive dialing devices; most teams aim well below any legal limit. A dialer that never calls ahead of its caller produces none at all.
How do you calculate abandoned call rate?
Divide the abandoned calls by the calls in the base you are measuring and multiply by 100. Outbound, the base is calls answered by a live person; inbound, it is calls offered to the queue. State which base you used, because the two give different results.
What is the difference between an abandoned call and a missed call?
An abandoned call was answered or queued and then lost before a person spoke: the dialer had no agent free, or the caller gave up waiting. A missed call simply rang out with nobody picking up. Small businesses mostly face missed calls, not abandoned ones.
How do I calculate call abandonment rate in Excel?
Put abandoned calls in column B and the base, such as answered calls, in column C. In column D enter =B2/C2 and format the cell as a percentage. For a monthly figure, add up the daily columns first and divide the totals, rather than averaging the daily percentages.
Does The Auto Dialer create abandoned calls?
No. The Auto Dialer places one call at a time, only when the caller is free and listening, so an answered call always has a person on the line. Its outbound abandoned call rate is zero by construction, whatever the size of the list.
Which dialer keeps the abandoned call rate at zero?
Any dialer that starts a call only for a caller who is already waiting, such as The Auto Dialer, which calls a list one number at a time from the caller’s own SIM. Predictive and parallel dialers trade some abandoned calls for speed.
What is a short abandoned call?
A short abandon is an inbound caller who hangs up within the first few seconds of waiting, often after dialling by mistake. Many centres leave these out of the rate, which lowers it, so a report should say whether short abandons were excluded and what threshold was used.
What is the difference between abandoned call rate and dropped call rate?
A dropped call is a connected call cut off mid-conversation by a network or equipment fault. An abandoned call never became a conversation, because nobody was there on one side. Dropped call rate measures network quality; abandoned call rate measures staffing and dialer pacing.
What causes a high outbound abandoned call rate?
Mostly pacing set too aggressively: a predictive or multi-line dialer launching more calls than agents can take, or answer rates rising faster than the forecast expected. Slow machine detection adds silent seconds that can push answered calls past the allowed time.
How can a call centre reduce its abandoned call rate?
Outbound, lower the dialing ratio or the target ceiling, add agents to the campaign, or move expected-call lists to progressive pacing. Inbound, staff to the queue’s busy hours and offer callbacks. A dialer that rings only for a waiting caller removes outbound abandons altogether.
Is the abandoned call rate measured per day or per month?
Internally, over any period you choose, as long as you add up the counts first and divide afterwards. Regulators fix the period for legal purposes: Canada’s ceiling for predictive dialing devices applies across each calendar month. This is general information, not legal advice.
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