How many times have you experienced being placed on hold when contacting customer service, only to hear repeatedly that an agent will soon be available? Or worse, receiving an automated message saying that the wait will take another five minutes, and then five minutes more, and that a high call volume is resulting in longer-than-usual wait times?People don’t have time for this, yet many companies are still frustrating their customers and risking customer churn by making them wait.A Research Now study found that 58% of customers get tired waiting, while 48% claimed calling a business was not worthwhile due to slow response and inadequate support. Even more eye-opening is the fact that over 80% claimed to be put on hold every single time they contact a business by phone, and over 50% claimed to wait between 10-20 minutes per week. The startling takeaway? Such a customer spends 13 hours per year on hold, or 43 days over an average lifespan. Customers certainly have better things to do with their time, and brands need to do something about it.In the modern era of customer service, savvy brands know that time is of the essence and that customers want quick and efficient service. Keeping customers on hold leads to high abandonment rates, low customer satisfaction scores, a poor customer experience, and eventually churn as customers seek a more satisfying competitor brand. On the voice channel, agents may not always be available to respond to an inbound call immediately, but contact centers can easily implement a solution that pleases their customers, maximizes efficiency, and keeps their customers loyal to the brand while saving everyone’s valuable time.Vocalcom’s customer service software solution offers virtual hold and prioritizes callbacks to eliminate hold time. As 75% of customers prefer the option of a callback over being placed on hold, virtual hold satisfies customers by removing hold time and giving them the option to receive a callback from an agent when the customer’s position arrives at the front of the queue. Vocalcom virtual hold can also let customers choose to receive a call when an agent is free, eliminating hold time, reducing abandonment, smoothing out call spikes, and saving customers’ valuable time. In addition, callbacks have been proven to lower abandonment rates by 32%. Virtual queuing also omits the need for toll-free numbers and confusing voice menus, providing customers with excellent service through a unified, comprehensive solution.Contact centers perform at their best and deliver excellent customer service with the right technology that simplifies the lives of agents and customers alike. With the Vocalcom customer service solution, customers are given the power of choice and the gift of time—two critical factors in a great customer experience. Learn more about Vocalcom’s customer service software solution with virtual hold, prioritized callbacks, and numerous other features for an optimized customer experience.
