While research suggests that wait times are shrinking, call queues remain an inevitable reality at most contact centres. Particularly for industries that face a massive number of inbound calls every day (banks, insurance providers, global e-commerce merchants, etc.), queues can have an adverse effect on the customer experience. For example, one study found that queue times can stretch up to 8 or 9 minutes among leading banks in the US.
Increasing your headcount might be the only permanent solution to reducing call queues – but in the meantime, how do you keep customers engaged, prevent abandonment, and maintain CX levels? Here are our recommendations.
- Maximise the potential of hold music
Music can have a soothing impact, as the caller faces mounting levels of urgency as they wait to get their issue resolved. According to research, classical music is the no.1 choice due to its universal preference, followed by country music. Without music, a 30 second wait time can feel like it’s lasting for 90 seconds, which makes this an essential step for customer engagement in call queues.
- Clarify the reason behind delays
Uncertainty is worse than facing delays, which is why it is a good idea, to be honest, and upfront with your callers. In case you are facing higher than usual traffic, greet customers with an automated recording that explains the reasons for it. Due to the holiday season, you might be understaffed, local lockdowns might be impacting resource availability, or there might be a temporary system outage – convey this information to your customer.
- Use the wait time to share key announcements
This is particularly useful for large brands that enjoy long-term customer loyalty. The queue is an excellent time to update callers on any recent announcement they might have missed, new product launches, and personalised promos/offers. Not only will your customer stay engaged throughout the whole time, but might also be interested in cross-selling/up-selling opportunities during the call.
- Offer virtual queueing and call-backs
A virtual queuing system allows customers to go about their daily tasks without constantly checking in with their smartphone or desktop, to see if their turn has arrived. Once the customer has moved up the queue, your contact centre automatically initiates a callback. This eliminates the need to wait altogether and minimises customer frustration.
- Provide alternatives to staying in the queue
One of the biggest reasons why queues cause so much frustration is that they force customers to wait for a service they need, but may not necessarily want. An alternative makes the customer feel empowered – for example, after a 1-minute wait threshold, you could auto trigger an IVR that redirects the customer to your self-service website.
- Share the expected wait time even before the customer connects
If customers are dialling through a web-based UI, you can display the expected wait time right on the portal so customers can gauge if they are actually willing to wait. This will also filter out customers too busy to stay on hold for the entire queue period, thereby avoiding abandonment later on.
