Article • 2 min read
On hold no more: top 5 benefits of a callback service
By Emily Vince
Last updated May 23, 2021
No one likes calling a company only to be put on hold. In fact, according to a survey from Google, 60% of customers think that 1 minute is too long to wait on hold. But the good news is that a callback service ensures that your customers don’t have to be put on hold if they don’t want to.
There are many benefits to introducing this service into your phone support operations, including:
1. A callback service can help improve the experience
75% of customers prefer a callback option to waiting on hold. When you provide the option to simply request a return call instead of waiting on hold to speak with a live agent, you send the message that you value their time, a courtesy that boosts customers’ impression of your service and results in higher satisfaction with the customer experience.
2. Reduce call abandonment rate
When facing long average hold times, people often give up and call a company back later, resulting in a high call abandonment rate – a clear sign of frustration – and repeat calls, which can strain already-busy queues at later times. Studies show that a callback service can reduce abandoned calls at least 32%, so your customers can connect with live agents without increasing call volumes.
3. Manage high volumes
Because people don’t mind waiting a bit longer for a return call if it means less time on the phone, you and your team can use callback from the queue to smooth out spikes in the number of calls without hiring more agents, regardless of whether those call spikes are hourly, weekly or seasonal.
4. Decrease costs
When a client is waiting in the telephone queue, you’re paying per minute for that hold time. If your customers can skip the hold time, it’s less expensive for them and for you. For example: even if the charge for wait time is $0.01 (as is the case for Zendesk Talk in the US), if your average hold time is 10 minutes, and the number of calls you receive about 100 calls a day, you could save over $200 a month just by eliminating average hold time using a callback option.
5. Boost employee morale
When callers haven’t had to wait on hold a long time to reach an agent, they are more likely to be in a better mood when speaking with your staff. That reduces stress on your agents and helps them improve another important metric: average handle time. But that’s for another day…
