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. A total of 30,000 callers were placed ‘on-hold’ for one (1) 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 ‘on-hold’?”
Group 1
10,000 callers were put on-hold listening to dead air for one minute.
- 52% of callers dropped off the line
- 27% estimated their hold time exceeded 5 minutes
- 18% estimated their hold time exceeded 3 minutes
- 3% estimated their hold time exceeded 1 minute
Group 2
10,000 callers were put on-hold listening to just music for one minute.
- 13% of callers dropped off the line
- 56% estimated their hold time was less than 1 minute
- 28% estimated their hold time exceeded 1 minute
- 3% estimated their hold time exceeded 2 minutes
Group 3
10,000 callers were put on-hold listening to a Message and Music On-Hold recording for one minute.
- 2% of callers dropped off the line
- 81% estimated their “hold time” was less than 1 minute
- 16% estimated their “hold time” exceeded 1 minute
- 3% estimated their “hold time” exceeded 2 minutes