Sevis Systems Reports Unanswered Calls Cost U.S. Contact Centers $685M per Day

Research reveals impact on customers and businesses requires shift in contact center strategies

PLANO, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sevis Systems today announced its report that examines the economic and operations impact of unanswered outbound calls on businesses and their contact centers. Today, 94% of mobile calls from unrecognized numbers go unanswered, making it difficult for businesses to get in touch with customers about legitimate matters. Sevis’ research reveals that this leads to numerous contact attempts, increased operating costs and poor customer experience, all at a cost of $685 million each day or up to $178 billion each year.

The report, titled “Unanswered Calls Cost U.S. Call Centers Near $685 Million Daily,” cites that consumers’ hesitancy to answer unknown numbers is on the rise, driven by increased fraudulent calling like robocalls, spam and spoofers. Voice calling is the preferred method for contacting customers in the healthcare, finance and insurance industries due to the personal information exchange this type of communication requires. The impact of unanswered calls effects both the customer and the business, and involves missed opportunities for upsell, lengthy call back efforts, time away from other productive tasks, and usually increased frustration.

When looking to put a value on the cost of these unanswered calls, Sevis reports staggering statistics. The research found that 216.2 million calls from U.S. contact centers each day are unanswered. It also estimates that contact center workers that make outbound calls will spend 56 minutes per hour on unanswered calls that cost the business 1.5 cents per second. That equates to $403.20 of wasted time per worker each eight-hour day, or $685 million per day for all contact centers in the U.S.

Call blocking apps have tried to solve the robocall, spam and spoof issues but fall short and have been known to harvest customer information, potentially resulting in identity theft and account takeovers. Telecom carriers have also tried to stop bad calls by implementing network call analytics or blocking suspect calls. Any of these solutions have the unintended consequence of impacting good calls, which affects contact centers as they cannot guarantee if their call actually rang the customer’s phone. Sevis’ eCallMe!® customer engagement platform offers the only call verification platform that is carrier and device agnostic and does not harvest, share or transmit any personal information with third party firms.

“Many businesses are leveraging chatbots and other digital communications to engage with customers, but the voice call is here to stay. It holds tremendous value in terms of building trusted customer relationships,” said Fletcher Hamilton, CEO at Sevis. “Sevis is committed to helping businesses ensure their calls are trusted and answered. Our eCallMe! platform has always supported this cause, and this report breaks down the true impact it can have on business and customer experience.”

To download the full report or for more information about eCallMe!, please visit sevis.com or call 866.668.8316.

About Sevis Systems

Since 1999, Sevis has helped identify and eliminate fraudulent, malicious, and nefarious activity on telecom networks worldwide. Our knowledge and security expertise have been extended into robocall, spoofing, and identity protection for businesses and their customers. Our patent pending call verification and customer engagement solutions allow our clients to establish trust with their customers and stay ahead of the evolving threats of fraudsters and hackers. Follow us on Twitter at @SevisSystems.