You are now 5th in line

[susandennis]

I called an 800 number and got the usual telephone tree, then annoying music and then the notice about imminent recording and then a delightful surprise... 

Every little bit, a nice lady came on and told me how many calls were ahead of me!  I started at 9th, skipped to 7th, then 5th, then 4th.... now I'm 1st in line.  I've actually been on hold for 8 minutes but it sure has not seemed that long.  What a very cool trick. 

Comments

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

Those things are great. I first encountered them ages ago – late 1980s or so. Ever since, any time I end up on hold for long enough that I start to wonder when I'll get through the queue, I mention that some phone hold systems have them, and suggest that they get one too.

There are two ways to report queue position: by number and by estimated delay. If you have two people in your call center, and calls range from one minute to one hour, position is probably more useful, since there's no way to realistically predict hold time. A customer can pretty well guess that if he or she is stuck at number three in the queue for ten minutes, that it's going to be a while. But if it's a call center with 200 people, and calls fall in a fairly tight bell curve, it makes more sense to report estimated hold time. "Please wait. There are 329 people ahead of you" might scare someone off, unless they know that the place processes an average of 100 callers per minute.

It's really great to know that, if you have a half hour that you can spend waiting on hold before you have to give up and do something else, that your spot in line means you should be done with the call in ten minutes. It's equally great to know that, if you have ten minutes, and the hold queue is likely to be a half hour, that you might as well hang up and try again when you have more time.

No business that has enough incoming calls to justify an automated hold system has an excuse to not include a queue-position feature – except stupidity.

I actually applied for a job at a company that made automated hold system software, I think around 1992 or so. They never acknowledged my reply to their ad. Their loss. :)