Glossary · Customer service
Missed call
In one sentence
A missed call is an inbound call that nobody answered: the caller hung up while it rang or while waiting in a queue, or reached voicemail without speaking to anyone.
Also known as : missed calls · unanswered call · unanswered calls · abandoned call · abandoned calls
What is a missed call?
To a carrier, a missed call is simple: the call arrived and nobody picked up. For a business it covers several situations: the phone rang out, the caller gave up during the greeting or in the call queue, or they reached voicemail and didn’t leave a message.
Each situation has a different cause and a different fix. That is why decent call reporting separates unanswered calls, calls abandoned while waiting, and calls that came in out of hours, instead of showing one headline number.
How it works
The usual causes are well known:
- Peaks: everyone is already on a call at the same time, such as Monday morning or straight after lunch.
- Poor routing: the call rings a single extension belonging to someone who is out, instead of a ring group.
- Wrong hours: bank holidays not set, or no call forwarding over lunch.
- Long greetings: an IVR with three levels of menus that puts people off before anything rings.
The matching fixes: ring a group rather than one handset, forward to mobiles when the office is empty, announce the expected wait, offer a callback and, above all, push every missed call with a caller ID into a shared callback list. For out-of-hours cover, a voicebot can also take the request; that is what our sister brand utio.io does.
Example
A family law firm in Bristol assumed it missed “a few” calls a week. Its call reports showed 22 percent of new-client calls went unanswered, most of them between 5 and 6 pm when the receptionist had left but solicitors were still in. The firm set a ring group for that hour covering two paralegals, added a short message asking callers to leave a number, and sent all missed calls to a list checked first thing next morning. Enquiries converted into consultations rose noticeably over the following quarter.
Missed calls at Universal Telecom
Our virtual PBX shows missed calls by extension, queue and number dialled, and lets you set ring groups, opening hours, forwarding and voicemail so fewer calls slip through. Our blog walks through how to put a cost on missed calls; to look at your own set-up, contact us.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find out how many calls my business misses?
Your phone system's call reports show calls received, answered, abandoned in the queue and sent to voicemail, by day, hour and number dialled. Most businesses underestimate the figure until they look.
What is a good abandonment rate?
It depends on the sector and on how long callers expect to wait. Many service teams aim for under 5 to 10 percent; the trend over time, and when abandonments cluster, matters more than a single benchmark.
Should every missed call be returned?
Every one with a usable number, and quickly: a prospect who gets no answer often rings the next business on the list. A shared callback list stops two people phoning the same customer back.
Related terms
- Call queue
A call queue holds incoming callers when every agent is busy and connects them in order of arrival as soon as someone is free, playing music and announcements while they wait.
- Call forwarding
Call forwarding automatically redirects calls arriving on a number or extension to another destination, such as a mobile, a colleague or voicemail, either always or only when the line is busy or unanswered.
- Ring group
A ring group (or hunt group) rings several extensions for the same number, either all at once or one after another, so the first available colleague can pick up the call.
- Voicemail
Voicemail records a message when a call goes unanswered and makes it available to the recipient on their phone, in an app or by email, often with the caller's number and the time.
- IVR (interactive voice response)
IVR (interactive voice response) is the automated phone menu that greets callers and routes them based on the keys they press, such as “press 1 for sales, press 2 for support”.
- Contact centre
A contact centre is the team, processes and software that handle customer conversations across several channels, such as phone, email, chat and messaging, using shared queues, agents and reporting.
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