When callers are waiting on hold they’ll typically hear a range of messages from the contact center’s IVR. Some centers tell callers an estimated wait time, others will announce how many people are in line in front of the caller, but most call centers tell callers nothing other than, “your call is important to us”. (A phrase callers have learned to loathe.) To get a sense of how much anger consumers feel towards hold time, just check out OnHoldwith.com for a real-time feed of “tweet venting”.
Given how much frustration is caused by leaving callers on hold, you would think companies would do anything they can to minimize the pain. People often say the worst part about waiting is not knowing how long it will be. So why don’t call centers offer that info?
NOTE: This post originally appeared as an answer on Quora to this question.
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