Americans waste a commonage 900 1000000 hours waiting on hold every yr. And, the average person will spend 43 days on hold over the course of their life.

You lot take a month and a one-half sabbatical in the time you're waiting on hold in your lifetime. Or, y'all could race the Tour De France (twice!).

Hold times plague contact centers (and your customers' lives).

And customers continue to grow increasingly impatient. So, how long is besides long on hold? And, why does hold fourth dimension matter to customer feel?

How long will your customers wait on hold?

According to information culled from customer surveys, two-thirds of people said they're merely willing to await on agree for two minutes or less. And thirteen% said that there's no amount of time they'd be okay with waiting on hold.

>> Download At present: Apply your data to build the feel your customers want.

What'southward more than, new digital channels in the contact heart drive customers to want responses fifty-fifty faster.

The 2019 State of Conversational Marketing Report showed how many people think responses to customer service outreach should be instant – as in five minutes or less. (Hint: A lot. And across many channels).

Customers want answers, and they want them fast.

What's the only aqueduct fit for a response that takes more than 24 hours?

You guessed it: snail postal service.

After all, there'due south a reason traditional mail has its nickname.

Respond to customers in less than 24hrs or they'll stew in frustration

How to measure hold fourth dimension and why information technology matters.

Most companies mark hold time as a primal metric. But how do you really measure it and what do you practice with the info you detect? Plus, how practice you make sure you view concur times through the lens of your entire customer experience, measuring its touch on on other metrics, too?

According to Techopedia, boilerplate hold time is the average time information technology takes for an operator to answer a call. It's the amount of time a customer waits in the queue earlier getting a response from an agent. Some organizations phone call information technology average speed of answer.

Several factors determine the ASA for a particular call middle. But as a general dominion, the time a client spends navigating an IVR isn't included in the ASA calculation. The metric but measures from the 2nd your organization dumps a customer into a queue to the moment an agent picks up the phone, answers a chat, or sends a reply e-mail. (Or, until a caller hangs up – hello, fasten in call abandonment charge per unit).

How to calculate your company's ASA:

Add up the wait fourth dimension of all entering client calls. And so, divide the sum by the number of total inbound customer calls that were either answered by agents or resolved with the assist of automation.

Here's how to calculate hold time in your contact center

In one case yous have your benchmark hold time, compare it to the two-minute standard set by customers. Are you beating that two-minute mark or falling short? And, how does your concur time stack upwards this month to concluding? Analyze your data from multiple viewpoints to gain deeper insight into your CX.

What happens in your client experience when customers expect on concur for likewise long:

ane. Customers spread negativity about your company.

Putting customers on hold creates a community of brand detractors. They're the people who are non only unhappy with your company but who share negative experiences with friends and family. And a lot of the time, they even blast negative experiences on social media. In fact, there'due south an unabridged website, called onholdwith.com, dedicated to scanning Twitter for people who've tweeted about being on concur with a company.

After scanning for a slew of angry customer tweets, the website aggregates all the negative tweets into ane piece of cake-to-view dashboard. And, it refreshes in real-time, and so yous tin see a abiding influx of upset customers shouting at visitor Twitter handles when they've been on hold for x minutes or more.

Customers on hold too long take to Twitter
Frustrated customers will even complain about your hold music
complaints are endless when you make customers wait on hold too long

The listing goes on.

Leaving your customers hanging without a response opens your visitor up to the potential for public scrutiny. Take a quick peek, and you'll immediately see dozens of companies bashed for stealing time from their customers. Yikes.

ii. Customers carelessness calls.

I popped my spaghetti in the microwave for 120 seconds, and now I await. Before the "I'm finished" beep rings, agents have to respond all the interactions in their queue.

Fix… go.

If they don't, you lot run the gamble of a serious spike in abandonment rates. Since 2-thirds of customers are just willing to await on hold for ii minutes, keeping customers on concord any longer puts other metrics at take chances. And, Voice Response, Inc. said 34% of people who hang up before reaching an amanuensis will never phone call back.

>> Read Next: Simplify omnichannel interaction routing with Sharpen's Logic & Deportment.

That means the next time the same customer has an issue, one of two situations volition play out. Ane, the customer will quietly sneak away to a competitor who promises stellar service. Or, two, they'll remain a client, but they'll silently stew in frustration with no resolution. (Merely to eventually eddy over and skip out to your competition anyhow.)

When one important metric slips, it'south easy to topple others. As you lot measure out concord fourth dimension, view it side-by-side with quality metrics similar satisfaction and loyalty, as well.

How to reduce agree times to proceed customers happy:

With the help of engineering science and improved coaching techniques, y'all tin go on hold times down and customers happy. Here's how.

ane. Improve interaction routing and integrate all your channels.

Gone are the days of only routing telephone interactions to the right agents. Customers expect answers on any (and every) channel. To make sure yous're non losing rails of customer requests and spiking your hold times, utilize omnichannel routing. Simplify your interaction flows and get customers to the right queues. And, connect all your channels so agents work from a single interface to manage interactions more efficiently.

2. Train your agents to reduce handle times and ASA.

Give your agents the tools and training they need to handle calls apart. When efficiency metrics are high, review a handful of interactions and requite your agents feedback in-line to coach them to improve. Did they spend forever searching for a file on one call and exit other customers hanging in a queue? Guide them to the resources they need and offering encouragement rather than reprimand.

>> Learn More: Simplify the agent experience then they can ameliorate serve customers

3. Brand sure your contact heart solutions prioritize your agents.

Clunky tools that don't integrate with your CRM or ticketing organisation prolong resolutions for customers. When your agents have to bound between windows and databases, their efficiency tanks. And when agents know they're missing metrics and under pressure, they tin't be effective, either. Build systems that put agents first, so they tin can better assist customers.

4. Invest in truthful omnichannel tools for your contact center.

Omnichannel tools package your routing, information, training, and channels into a single interface. Existent omnichannel means your agents tin switch between interactions and channels seamlessly, without interrupting or ending customer convos. Investing in omnichannel tools cuts down on piece of work for your agents and wait time for your customers, leading to faster (and better) resolutions.

We originally published this mail service on March 2, 2016 and nosotros updated it on February 13, 2020.