Don’t keep your prospects and customers on hold for long, because some will hang up. That’s according to a benchmark analysis released by Ifbyphone. Measuring call activity and response times among its clients during the first quarter, Ifbyphone found that about 60% of calls were answered, typically in slightly over one minute. But a significant 15% hung up right at about the 40-second mark, per the researchers.
Another 22% were sent to voicemail, most commonly because agents were in “inactive mode,” meaning that they were on break, busy, or because the business was closed (13% of all calls).
The average time a call waited on hold was 56 seconds, per separate results from the study, proving that if customers want a quick response, they should choose the phone over a social media post.
Average wait time differed fairly significantly according to call volume. Companies with a small amount of calls handled during the first quarter (less than 500) averaged the longest wait time, of 1 minutes and 47 seconds, with the researchers theorizing that this could be due to resource constraints on behalf of the business and more patience from a cognizant caller.
Average hold time dropped to a low of 39 seconds among “Medium” companies (that handled 500-1,500 calls during Q1), increasing to 45 seconds among “Large” companies (1,500-10,000 calls) and 52 seconds among “Extra-Large” companies (more than 10,000 calls).
Across all sizes, the average time an agent talked with a customer or prospect was 4 minutes and 29 seconds.
