What is Call Avoidance?
Call avoidance is a pattern of behaviour where agents attempt to minimise the number of calls they handle by prolonging after-call work, placing customers on unnecessarily long holds, transferring calls without valid reason, or appearing unavailable when calls are routed to them. While not always deliberate, call avoidance often results from low morale, inadequate training, or poor performance management.
In a contact centre environment, call avoidance disrupts workflows and increases the burden on other agents. It leads to longer wait times, higher call abandonment, and decreased service quality. Supervisors and quality assurance teams monitor metrics such as Average Handle Time (AHT), schedule adherence, occupancy, and call transfer rates to identify potential avoidance patterns.
Effective management includes providing coaching, clarifying expectations, improving training, and offering support to address underlying issues. Modern analytics tools also help detect unusual agent behaviour that may indicate avoidance, allowing supervisors to intervene early.
Why Call Avoidance Matters
Call avoidance harms productivity and customer experience by reducing agent availability and pushing more work onto other team members. Addressing it improves fairness, strengthens service levels, and helps maintain consistent and reliable customer support.