A synonym for the term abandoned call when it is used in the context of an outbound call center.

Though some may attribute this moniker to any call from a telemarketer, the term nuisance call is actually used to describe a situation where the outbound call center's predictive dialer has dialed an outgoing call that no agent was available to take.

This happens because predictive dialers base their dialing decision on the statistical probability that an agent will become available to answer the call the instant the recipient picks up the phone (any wonder why call centers have such high turn-over rates).

When the predictive dialer gets it wrong, the called party gets hung up on the instant he or she answers the phone. Hence, the term nuisance. For this reason, many local authorities have mandated maximum rates for outgoing abandoned calls. Typically these mandated rates are around 5 percent.