Strategies & Customer Relations Frank Ross on 14 Mar 2008 07:06 pm
Longer than Normal Hold Times?
Have you heard that when calling certain companies? Does it seem like you hear it every time you call? Such is the case with Monster Commerce. I have called them many times over the past few years and each and every time I hear the message (aka excuse) “We are experiencing longer than normal hold times”.
Today I called. It said that message as usual and my call was answered in less than 2 minutes. So Monster Commerce, do you really mean it? I guess not. I think they just have the message there to cover themselves when there are long hold times.
Later I had to call GoDaddy.Com for a related reason. There was no announcement to the effect of ‘longer than usual hold times’ and it took over 10 minutes to get the call answered. That by the way was not a toll free number. GoDaddy, since you are making the customer pay for the call don’t you think you should warn them of longer than usual hold times or give them an estimate of how long they’ll be on hold?
F minus on Business practices for both!
on 15 Mar 2008 at 6:15 am 1.ArcoJedi said …
Hey Frank, good job calling us to task on this one. You are right and the last week has certainly been busy. Our goal for average hold times for the NetSol e-commerce team is probably not something that I should reveal publically, but it’s supposed to be measured in seconds and not minutes. Any time that calls are trending longer than the set goal might trigger the warning you mention above, although I’m not familiar with the specifics.
From what you’re stating here, it might be more useful if we gave an actual number in minutes that the hold time is estimated to be. I don’t know if that’s easily possible with our current phone software, but I like the idea and will pass it along.
Thanks!
on 16 Mar 2008 at 10:22 pm 2.eddie said …
maybe monster commerce has very high standards and godaddy has very low standards?