A Consumer Reports study of more than 1,000 adults found that 66% of those asked are “highly annoyed” by long hold times.
What do they consider long?
On average, two-thirds of callers are willing to wait on hold for just two minutes or less, according to a survey conducted by Arise. The older the callers are, the less likely they’ll hold beyond two minutes.
Why is that important?
A poor customer experience at any touchpoint can cause long-term brand damage. In fact, of all callers who hang up out of frustration, 33% will never call back again. So, reducing caller abandonment is important for developing potential revenue.
There are two ways to encourage callers to stay on the line: 1) shorten your average hold time and/or 2) provide a valuable on hold experience.
Getting back to callers on hold quicker could require hiring more CSRs or improving the efficiency of your existing CSRs. Or it might mean giving callers the option to hang up and receive a call back from your next available representative. (Our CXSelect service does that.)
The quickest route to keeping your callers engaged, though, is improving the quality of your On Hold Marketing content. Replace silence or self-serving messages with caller-focused information that delivers real value and helps your callers make more informed and confident buying decisions.
Or you could choose our custom Humor On Hold to entertain your callers, while still sharing subtle marketing messages with them. A bonus: we’ve been told several times that listening to a four-minute Humor On Hold production feels much shorter than four minutes.
Here are just a few of the comments we’ve received about Humor On Hold:
“We have people call us back and ask us to be put on hold because they want to share it with their friends. We love the humorous approach.” – Susan Penman / Town and Country Hotel San Diego
“I wish I had more time to forward to you all the great feedback we get.” – Chris Hamann / Lakeland Auto & Marine
“Superbly written copy and extremely dry humor that was a perfect match for what could’ve been a dull subject. I laughed out loud at points, and when a caller starts with that reaction, it’s a great way to start a conversation.” – Jim Hausfeld / MARCE Awards Judge
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