Survey Results
USA Business Telephone Today conducted a survey to determine the effects of putting callers
"on-hold." The callers surveyed were routine callers seeking information from the USA Business
Telephone Today Center in Washington, D.C.
Methodology
A total of 30,000 callers were placed "on-hold" for one minute under various conditions; each call
was then answered with the same message,"Thank you for waiting. Would you mind telling me how long you had to wait "on-hold"?
"Dead Air", ie. silence (10,000 callers)
52% of callers dropped off the line
27% estimated the "on-hold" time exceeded 5 minutes.
18% estimated the "on-hold" time exceeded 3 minutes.
3% estimated the "on-hold" time exceeded 1 minute.
Music only (10,000 callers)
13% of callers dropped off the line
56% estimated the "on-hold" time was less than 1 minute.
28% estimated the "on-hold" time exceeded 1 minute.
3% estimated the "on-hold" time exceeded 2 minutes.
Customized On Hold Message Program, ie. interesting information interspersed with tasteful
music segments (10,000 callers)
2% of the callers had dropped off the line.
81% estimated the "on-hold" time was less than 1 minute.
16% estimated the "on-hold" time exceeded 1 minute.
1% estimated the "on-hold" time exceeded 2 minutes.
Extracted from "USA Business Telephone Today.”
Caller abandonment (caller hang-ups/lost calls) costs businesses millions of dollars annually! The above study concluded that when using on hold messages vs silence or just music, callers perceived their hold-time to be less, the largest number of callers remained "waiting on the line", and felt as if they had a better overall on hold experience.
On Hold Inc is a leader in the music on hold and on hold messaging industry offering a full range of custom on hold programming options and message on hold equipment. You can even have a risk free on hold demo customized for your company in just 3 days or less.