Ghost Call

A Ghost Call (or Phantom Call) occurs when a connection appears to be made, but there is no one on the other end.

On the agents' side, the system detects a new interaction incoming, the agent answers, but hears absolute silence. After a few seconds, the line disconnects. On the customer's side, they answer their phone, say "Hello?", hear nothing but silence (dead air), and then the line cuts off.

There are a couple of scenarios in which a Ghost Call might occur:

VoIP Latency (Technical Lag): Modern call centers use the internet (VoIP) for calls, not copper wires. This can lead to a slow or unstable internet connection on either end: the customer or agent. The agent answers and says, "Thank you for calling," but the audio "packets" take 5 seconds to reach the customer. The customer thinks nobody is there and hangs up just as the agent starts speaking.

The customer hangs up: At any given moment, the customer, when starting the interaction by dialing the customer service phone number, decides not to continue with it, or makes a mistake and hangs up to start over again, but not fast enough before the system routes the call to an available agent, who still receives the call, but the caller is long gone.

Both scenarios can also happen in Outbound situations, when the system calls customers and an error occurs in the network routing, or the customer hangs up deliberately (or answers by mistake and hangs up immediately).

Ghost Calls can have some implications in metrics for the company and the agents, but also on the customers' side:

• Abandoned Rates: It artificially inflates the abandonment rate.
• Agent Metrics: It ruins an agent's stats because it looks like a short call with no resolution.
• Customer Trust: Customers think the company is harassing them (calling and hanging up) or not wanting to talk with them.