“The golden rule for every business man is this: Put yourself in your customer’s place.” – Orison Swett Marden

Companies and their representatives that don’t apply this golden rule are the ones that fail at customer service. One of the major lapses in customer satisfaction is the inability of managing hold times in customer calls. Fewer lines, not updated technology, inefficient and inadequate staff are all reasons for customers being stuck in what seem like black holes. Customers who get put on hold without knowing the reason or for how long they will be on hold, soon enough become impatient. Most customers get irritated, others get highly annoyed and yet others would just disconnect and make the next call to the competitor. Inability in managing hold times in customer calls is one of the major causes of customer dissatisfaction and cause problems that soon become cyclical and unsolvable. If companies are not monitoring their customer calls, they would never know that hold times are a problem and they are probably losing customers due to this. At least 60% customers are of the opinion that if their call is on hold for even a minute it is insufferable.

A high percentage of customers – around 65% would rather not hold but prefer to receive a call back from the company and around 43% of them expect this return call to happen within half an hour. Yet others would simply hang up rather than spend more than a few seconds on hold. These figures ought to shake companies from their reverie and start finding solutions of better managing hold times for customer calls. Customers do not like being on hold but if companies can take a few measures to manage the holding times, it could help to reduce some of the ire.

– It’s not difficult to let the customers know for how long they might need to hold. Investing in technology that assists in this are hugely helpful.

– Since most customers prefer being called back, this option must be provided to all. The person making that promise must actually call back within the time limit set for the call back.

– Alternatively the customer could provide a time for when they would be available to receive the return call. The representative must ensure that this timeline is strictly adhered to.

Using these simple techniques can reduce customer effort and hassle to a large extent and also reduce the problems your company could face due to lack of proper customer service arising from improperly managing hold times in calls. Customers are much happier too. For the company too, shorter hold times translate to more calls being answered, shorter handling times, reduced burden of calls on the system and happier customer service agents.

Companies must invest in technology that monitors and reports every call – incoming, outgoing, internal – providing accurate data on the calls which would include hold times. Managing hold times and reducing the length of time for holding would be seen as an improvement in customer service. It is vital that the persons handling the phone calls are adequately equipped to handle them. Companies must ensure that their front-ending customer service agents and the systems are equipped with whatever is necessary for managing hold times and increasing customer satisfaction.

– Customer service agents must be empowered, have the requisite product knowledge and be courteous so that hold times are reduced and less irritating.

– They must have the necessary discretion to make spot decisions and be able to provide the requisite solution. It is frustrating for customers to hold on while a ‘more knowledgeable or better empowered person’ is being looked for to make what is probably a straightforward and simple decision.

– There must be a well-written and orderly online document that can be used by the customer service agents as a reference. This document or documents should ideally be designed by the service agents themselves for more clarity and ease of use.

– This document must be regularly updated with current information. There is not much use of a reference material if the agents cannot use it due to inaccuracy of the information. The job to update must also be that of a team of agents and knowing and updating this document thoroughly must be a basic requirement in every front-ending customer service agent’s job description. Performance would be determined by how well this document is understood and used.

– Regular monitoring and coaching on using call management techniques must be provided. This will help not only in managing hold times but also raise the effectiveness of each customer interaction.

– Make inefficiently handled calls or customer calls being put on hold for no apparent reason a complete zero tolerance zone. Badly handled calls and or inability in managing hold times must have serious consequences.

– Avoid using the ‘newbies’ to attend to customer calls especially during peak hours. Customers should not have to wait or be on hold while your new staff member ‘learns the ropes’ while on the job. Customers can easily perceive the lack of expertise when they are speaking with such a person and is enough to make them feel unimportant.

– The managerial staff must ensure that they set an example of urgency in managing hold times and customer calls. An escalated call must be handled with requisite urgency and with the intention to resolve the issue.

– Regularly train the front-ending staff to handle customer calls with the highest level of professionalism. They must remember to provide customers with a choice to hold or receive a call back from the company. Giving the choice to customers makes them happier and also be more in control.

– Reducing and managing hold times must be a prominent feature of every customer service agent’s key performance indicators.
– Ensure that all departments are working in cohesion since there are many times that information from other departments becomes vital to provide information to customers. Managing hold times becomes difficult if there is no help forthcoming from the other departments.

– Constantly monitor trends in customer satisfaction. If slow responses and inefficient managing of hold times are causing low scores on customer satisfaction, it must be addressed immediately before it turns into a full-fledged complaint and result in customer attrition.

– Ensure that everyone understands the peak call hours. The busiest times would be highly stressful for the customer service agents and the possibility of missed calls and inability in managing hold times could increase. If companies are aware of these particular times in the day, they could make prudent changes to the schedules of the customer service agents such that calls flow smoothly, are distributed evenly and the call wait times for customers are kept to the minimum. Better prepared agents can handle even a high volume of calls more efficiently and remain calm while handling customer queries. Customers too would be more relaxed and feel more confident while speaking to such agents.

– Despite these efforts, it is possible that there could be a large number of abandoned calls. These are the customers that hung up because they on hold for too long. It is absolutely urgent to understand the reason for these abandoned calls and the length of time the customer held on before disconnecting. Understanding during which parts of the day and or week there are maximum number of abandoned calls, will help companies to rearrange the schedules of their customer service agents. If there is no attention paid to abandoned calls, no one will call the customers back resulting in lost customers and more business to competition.

– Energize the customer service teams by providing incentive based team competitions. The desire to win and trump the next team will encourage the agents to do their jobs better. Such friendly competition builds team spirit and promotes a culture of performing to the best of one’s capability. Rewards and spot recognition will goad everyone to get better ensuring that service to customers, managing hold times, efficient handling of customer calls keeps increasing with every interaction. This would make your customer service agents happier and more enthused which will reflect onto the customers who in turn would be delighted with these better service standards.

– Ensure there is collaboration and interdependence amongst all the customer service teams and other departments. Put in place call reporting databases and alarm systems that let the agents know if calls are queuing up or a customer is on hold help to take action sooner and facilitate managing hold times better.

Customers through their feedback and opinions are constantly looking for companies that will keep them happy and those that are worthy of their time and the money they are investing. Enhancing customer satisfaction and making each experience memorable translates to happiness for customers. Something as simple as managing hold times can change a customer’s perception in your favor and let your company can reap rich dividends.