You’re Losing Thousands Of Customers And Don’t Even Know It! Think On Hold Time Is Harmless? Think Again!

If you think that hold times are harmless, think again! According to a benchmarking analysis conducted by ifbyphone  30% of callers on-hold tend to hang up, and they do so right around 40 seconds into the call. The percentage of callers hanging up before ever speaking with a representative is significant!

If 30% of your callers are never reaching an agent, this could have some serious implications for your business. If the call was a sales call, then you just missed a potential sale. If it was a support call, you just created a bad experience for your customer. 

The scenario is all too familiar! You place a caller on hold, you get busy, or while speaking with a caller, another line rings and you ask your current caller to hold. And, when you finally get back to the line, they’ve hung up! You may not pay much attention to it, but you should and here’s why! Suppose that happens even just 6 times per day. Most businesses operate 5 days a week (22 days per month). That’s 30 lost  callers per week, 132 lost  callers per month and nearly 1,600 lost callers per year!

This customer touchpoint holds a lot of sway over the impression your clients have of your business. So, the best decision you can make about how to handle your on hold callers is by implementing an on hold message.  Studies across all sizes of businesses and industry show that when listening to an on hold message, callers are willing to wait up to 3 times longer versus canned music or dead-silence.

When most callers abandon a call after only 40 seconds, the ability to keep them on the line up to 3 times longer is nothing to sneeze at.  An on hold message has positive effects of on-hold stimuli on waiting time for callers. Exposing callers to on-hold message, effects the callers time perception and internal timing mechanisms, so callers are willing to wait longer.

Your company’s call-handling style can make a big impact on your clients and potential new customers. It’s estimated that by 2016 the number of inbound sales calls in the U.S. will reach 70 Billion. Lost callers also mean lost sales. In today’s business landscape, customers  are ready to jump to another provider at a moment’s notice.  Don’t give them a reason to hang-up and jump ship. Helping to  reduce caller abandonment with an on-hold message can be the difference between keeping a customer on the line so you can serve them, or losing them to the competition.