Zendesk
Freshdesk
Gorgias
Front
Shopify
Stripe
Slack
Notion
Google Workspace
Confluence
Abandonment Rate
Definition
Abandonment rate is the percentage of customers who leave a support queue — hanging up a call or closing a chat — before ever reaching an agent.
How to calculate it
The formula is: (abandoned contacts ÷ total contacts offered) × 100. If 2,000 people entered the queue and 200 left before connecting, the abandonment rate is 10%.
Many teams exclude very short abandons (customers who drop within a few seconds, often misdials) to avoid overstating the problem. Abandonment tracks closely with wait time — the longer the queue, the more people give up.
Why it matters
Abandonment is a direct symptom of understaffing or long waits, and every abandoned contact is a customer who didn't get help — and may just contact again later, inflating volume. Reducing wait time through better staffing, callbacks, or deflecting routine contacts to automation is the usual fix.
Frequently asked
What is a good abandonment rate?
Many contact centers aim to keep it under 5–8%, though acceptable levels depend on channel and customer expectations. The trend matters more than the absolute number — a rising rate signals queues are getting too long.
What causes a high abandonment rate?
Usually long wait times from understaffing or volume spikes. Customers leave the queue rather than keep waiting, so it moves in step with average speed of answer and service level.
Related terms
Average Speed of Answer (ASA)
Average speed of answer (ASA) is the average time a customer waits in the queue before their contact is answered by an agent, measured from entering the queue to connection..
Wait Time
Wait time is how long a customer waits before their contact is answered by an agent — the time spent in a queue, on hold, or waiting for a reply after reaching out..
Service Level
Service level is the percentage of contacts answered within a defined target time, most often expressed as an "X/Y" goal — for example, answering 80% of calls or chats within 20 seconds..
Contact Rate
Contact rate is the number of support contacts a business receives relative to its customer base or transaction volume — a measure of how often customers need to reach out for help..
Ticket Deflection
Ticket deflection is the share of customer questions resolved through self-service or automation before they ever become a human-handled support ticket..
Put these ideas to work
Macha is an AI agent layer that sits on top of the help desk you already run — Zendesk, Freshdesk, Front, Intercom, or Gorgias.
Start Trial