Callers hate waiting. As a number owner, you probably already knew that, but American research revealed exactly how long callers are willing to wait.

According to this study, conducted among over 2,500 consumers, nearly 60% of callers are unwilling to wait longer than one minute, while another third of callers are not willing to wait at all.

How do you, as a number owner, handle these high expectations? The easiest solution would, of course, be to make more staff available to answer calls. But it’s clear that this would quickly lead to scheduling issues and unnecessarily high costs.

A better solution is to use the so-called automatic callback feature. Below, we explain what this functionality is, how it works, and how you, as a Belfabriek customer, can use it. But first, let’s take a closer look at the findings of another study to see why a callback feature is such an excellent solution.

Waiting or Being Called Back

In a survey conducted following the study mentioned above, participants were asked about their preference during high call volumes: staying on hold or being called back later. It turned out that a significant majority preferred to be called back.

When asked how long they were willing to wait before being offered the option to be called back, more than half of the participants said they were willing to wait up to 5 minutes. Another quarter of the participants preferred to have the callback option available immediately after being placed on hold.

We see that a majority of callers prefer to be called back rather than wait, and they want this option as soon as possible after being placed on hold.

This presents a golden opportunity to further improve your customer satisfaction.

How Does an Automatic Callback Feature Work?

An automatic callback feature is an extension of our queue function. When you choose to use a queue for your number, you can specify what should happen when callers have been on hold for a certain amount of time or when the number of waiting callers exceeds a maximum threshold.

One of the most commonly used options is the digital answering machine. We have previously written about how to best use this functionality here.

You can also choose to ask callers if they would like to be called back. At that moment, our IVR collects all the necessary information and adds the caller to a callback list. As soon as one of your employees becomes available, our platform automatically calls the first caller on this list and connects them with your employee.

Create the Perfect Queue

Our advice for a perfect queue is as follows:

  • Never keep callers on hold for more than 3 minutes.
  • After that, offer them the choice between leaving a message or being called back.
  • Ensure timely follow-up of your voicemails and make careful use of callback moments so that callers are called back promptly.

Want to Know More?

Are you interested or do you have questions about our automatic callback feature? Feel free to contact our customer service via our free number 0800-BELFABRIEK.