Hold or hang up? Study examines consumers’ patience for call centres

TORONTO – Imagine a world where calling your bank or credit card’s call centre for customer service didn’t result in a fit of fury as you wait – and wait – on hold for an agent.

What a world that would be.

Two professors in the U.S. hope that world is within reach.

Co-authors Baris Ata and Che-Lin Su, from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, released a study examining caller patience, noting when a caller decides to stay strong, or hang up in frustration.

“Knowing when a person decides to hang up or hang on is vital to streamlining call center operations, minimizing caller frustration and maximizing each customer service encounter,” said Su.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Knowing when a person decides to hang up or hang on is vital to streamlining call center operations, minimizing caller frustration and maximizing each customer service encounter," said Su.

The study, published in the journal Management Science, aims to predict caller behaviour more precisely, which can help call centres fine tune their systems and build better ones in the future.

With improved wait-times and call centre service, customers would hopefully feel calmer and less agitated when an agent does pick up the phone – so business is more pleasant and efficient overall.

The study drew on data from 1.3 million calls to a bank’s customer service centre.

The authors built a model of the caller patience and decision process, which they then tested against the research assumption that the patience of a caller doesn’t change, even if the company improves their services.

According to the study authors, when a company makes changes to its call centre system – perhaps by adding additional agents, making changes to call routing and prioritization, and increasing speed – the caller’s patience is affected.

“Our model shows that such improvements do indeed make a difference in whether people decide to hang up or hang on,” said Su.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Our model shows that such improvements do indeed make a difference in whether people decide to hang up or hang on," said Su.

The researchers said that not only will shorter wait-times improve the customer experience, it could help businesses too, especially ones that take in large volumes of calls or are promoting a special event or product.

“It’s no use spending millions on advertising a new product, service or event if your call center can’t cope with the customer response,” said Ata.