"Please hold for the next available agent": The effect of hold queue content on apparent hold duration

Knott, Benjamin A.; Pasquale, Theodore; Miller, James H.; Mills, Scott H.; Joseph, Kurt M.

doi:10.1037/e576992012-001

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Estimate Error was significantly greater than zero when the Short announcement was used, t(191) = 2.37, p = .02. This finding is consistent with Knott et al (2003) in which participants overestimated wait time, on average. The difference was not significant for the Long announcement condition, demonstrating that participants did not overestimate the wait time for this condition.…”

Section: Wait Time Estimationssupporting

confidence: 89%

“…A recent study of hold queue content demonstrated the positive impact of implementing an Interactive Voice Portal (IVP) within a call center hold queue (Knott, Pasquale, Miller, Mills & Joseph, 2003). Specifically, the authors found that when callers used an IVP while waiting on hold, their satisfaction with the wait time was relatively high and their estimates of the wait time were relatively short compared to several other content conditions (i.e., Silence, Music, and Advertisements).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The primary purpose of the current experiment was to evaluate the affect of locus of control on time estimates and customer satisfaction by allowing callers to select the music type they listen to while on hold. This method is easier to implement in a call center hold queue than the IVP described by Knott et al (2003) and requires less involvement from the user. The secondary goal was to examine the impact of the hold queue announcement duration on time estimates and customer satisfaction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Effect of Music Choice and Announcement Duration on Subjective Wait Time for Call Center Hold Queues

Knott¹,

Kortum²,

Bushey³

et al. 2004

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

Self Cite

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An experiment explored the effect of Music Choice and Announcement Duration on the subjective wait time for a call center hold queue. Participants placed calls to a simulated call center and were placed “on hold.” When participants were allowed to choose the type of music they listened to while on hold, they reported higher satisfaction with the wait time compared to a condition in which the callers had no control over the music type. There was also a significant effect for the hold queue announcement duration. The hold queue announcement is a brief message that informs caller that they are being placed on hold. The ‘long‘ announcement resulted in more accurate estimations of on-hold wait time compared to the ‘short’ announcement which resulted in significant overestimation. These findings demonstrate potentially useful design methods for call centers to manage customer dissatisfaction due to hold queue delays.

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Section: Wait Time Estimationssupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Effect of Music Choice and Announcement Duration on Subjective Wait Time for Call Center Hold Queues

Knott¹,

Kortum²,

Bushey³

et al. 2004

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Second, on-hold stimuli could be designed in such a way as to provide some compelling entertainment value to the caller so that secondary activities would not be necessary or desired by the caller. Knott, Pasquale, Joseph, Miller, & Mills (2003) investigated a telephone-based web browser that proved to be very effective in engaging a caller during the hold interval.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Survey of Secondary Activities of Telephone Callers Who Are Put on Hold

Kortum

Peres

2007

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

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This paper examines the results of a study conducted to determine what types of secondary activities callers engage in when they are placed on hold in a telephone call setting. One hundred and one participants were surveyed in order to determine if they performed secondary tasks while on hold, and if so, the types of activities engaged in and the relative amount of time they spent on those activities. Results showed that 79% of callers engaged in some form of secondary activity while on hold. These activities were diverse, with the majority of participants reporting 8 different types of secondary activities. The data from this study will help researchers and IVR designers understand the types of secondary tasks in which callers engage and allow them to design on-hold stimuli that support multi-tasking and enable them to more accurately construct experiments to reflect real world conditions.

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“…These kinds of APBs are constructed with inherent temporal cues such as duration and pitch that can retrospectively inform the listener of hold time. The use of temporally cued APBs may cause a customer to underestimate how long they have been on hold, making the on-hold experience somewhat more satisfying, and thereby increasing customer satisfaction (Knott, Pasquale, Miller, Mills & Joseph, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental Workload Measures of Auditory Stimuli Heard during Periods of Waiting

Kortum

Peres

Stallmann

2010

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

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A study of 105 university students examined whether the length or type of Auditory Progress Bar (APB) used in a telephone on-hold situation had an impact on users' subjective mental workload. Auditory cues can be designed into APBs to provide information to the caller regarding the approximate duration of the hold time. Previous research has found that the majority of callers tend to multi-task during on-hold situations. Thus the design of any stimuli presented while the caller is on hold should take this into account. To do this, it is important for designers to understand how APB design might impact callers' mental workloads. In the current study, participants experienced one of three APB design types (cello, sine, electronic) in four different lengths (30, 60, 120 and 240 seconds). An on-hold call center experience was simulated using a computer-generated interactive voice response system and workload data was collected using the NASA-TLX. The results of this study indicate that the type of APB does not appear to have a significant impact on callers' assessment of mental workload, but that the duration of the stimuli does.

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"Please hold for the next available agent": The effect of hold queue content on apparent hold duration

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

The Effect of Music Choice and Announcement Duration on Subjective Wait Time for Call Center Hold Queues

The Effect of Music Choice and Announcement Duration on Subjective Wait Time for Call Center Hold Queues

A Survey of Secondary Activities of Telephone Callers Who Are Put on Hold

Mental Workload Measures of Auditory Stimuli Heard during Periods of Waiting

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