It’s the automated voice call message everyone dreads: ‘You are number 20 in the queue…the waiting time is approximately 10 minutes.’
Thankfully, there can be a different ending: ‘Alternatively, hang up now and one of our team will call you back.’
For smart organisations, providing those with whom they interact with an opportunity to avoid lengthy phone delays whilst simultaneously maintaining their place in a queue is an effective way of enhancing the communication experience.
After all, no-one wants to sit at the end of a line listening to music for what feels like an age. Everyone is busy with things to do. A wasted 10 minutes can be a huge frustration and, when that waiting time is, say, half an hour or more, many attempts at getting in touch are actually abandoned.
For organisations running Cisco Broadsoft, solving the issue simply requires the seamless integration of a third-party application.
“In today’s modern world, people are often time-poor and don’t want to be on hold – it’s a feature organisations have just got to have,” says Steve Tutt, Commercial Director at leading Broadsoft application innovator Kakapo, whose ‘Keep My Place in Queue’ add-on is the perfect example.
“It’s such a great service because obviously everyone gets sick of the frustration of trying to get through to an organisation that is either engaged or has a long wait time to connection. Getting a call back when they reach the front of the queue means they can get on with other things. Having to wait just a few minutes is frustrating enough; when the wait is half an hour or more, it is virtually intolerable.
“The perception people have of organisations is often based on the quality of the communication experience. Keeping folks hanging is just not an option.”
It’s no surprise that, in the UK, Kakapo and its service provider partners are deploying the solution at pace into NHS GP surgeries, where the issue of long voice call waits is perhaps most acute.
In a constant bid to meet patient experience targets, surgeries are being incentivised by central government to invest in enhanced call handling technology capable of improving interactions for employees and the public alike.
