"Your call is important to us. Please hold." Few sentences in business are less believed. Everyone knows that the longer the hold music plays, the less important the call seems to be.
For a lot of businesses, hold time isn't a choice. Calls bunch up at busy times and there are only so many people to answer them. But from the customer's side, every minute on hold is a minute of your brand saying "not now".
How long will people wait?
Not as long as you might hope. In research by Nextiva, a business phone provider, 54% of callers said they hang up after being on hold for up to eight minutes, and 76% said they expect a response within five minutes or less.[1]
Hold is also where consistency quietly breaks. The same customer might get through in thirty seconds on a Tuesday and wait ten minutes on a Monday morning. They don't see your staffing rota. They just see a business that's easy to reach one day and hard the next.
54%
of callers hang up after up to eight minutes on hold[1]
76%
expect a response within five minutes or less[1]
75%
would rather get a callback than wait on hold[1]
What customers would rather have
The same research found that 75% of US adults would rather get a callback than wait on hold.[1] That makes sense. A callback gives people their time back and turns waiting from something they suffer into something you take care of.
Customers don't mind waiting nearly as much as they mind waiting without knowing why, or for how long.
Three ways to shorten the wait
First, be honest. If the wait will be long, say so and give an estimate. Second, offer a callback, and then actually call back when you said you would. Third, take the routine calls off the queue altogether. Many of the people waiting on hold only want to book, check or change something simple.
That third one is where an AI voice agent helps most. When the agent picks up every call immediately and handles the simple requests on the spot, the queue for your team gets shorter, and the customers who do need a person get through faster.