Silent Abandonment in Contact Centers: Estimating Customer Patience from Uncertain Data

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2304.11754
• Publication Date: 2023-01-01
• Authors: Antonio Castellanos; Galit B. Yom‐Tov; Yair Goldberg
• Keywords: Patience; Abandonment (legal)

In the quest to improve services, companies offer customers opportunity interact with agents through contact centers, where communication is mainly text-based. This has become one of favorite channels in recent years. However, centers face operational challenges, since measurement common proxies for customer experience, such as knowledge whether have abandoned queue and their willingness wait service (patience), are subject information uncertainty. We focus this research on impact a main source uncertainty: silent abandonment by customers. These leave system while waiting reply inquiry, but give no indication doing so, closing mobile app interaction. As result, unaware that they left waste agent time capacity until fact realized. paper, we show 30%-67% abandoning abandon silently, behavior reduces efficiency 5%-15%. To do develop methodologies identify silent-abandonment two types centers: chat messaging systems. first use text analysis an SVM model estimate actual level. then parametric estimator expectation-maximization algorithm patience accurately, important parameter fitting queueing models data. how accounting improves dramatically estimation accuracy key measures performance. Finally, suggest strategies operationally cope phenomenon abandonment.