What is Call Centre Hold Time and why do agents really use it?

Hold Time is the total length of time a call centre agent places a customer on hold.

This can be to check for further information, refer to a colleague, seek approvals etc. or sometimes it’s just to finish off the last few cards in a game of Solitaire 😉

Is Hold Time a good metric?

Like most call centre metrics, it should not be looked at in isolation but rather as one part of the equation.

If you have a call centre agent who has a considerably higher hold time than other similar agents, is that good or bad?

It could be a sign that they don’t have great product knowledge and need to continue to check details to ensure they are giving the right information to the customer.

I’d rather they do that than have zero or low hold time and just make up the information…

However, if they are still doing that a year into the job then there might be some other issues.

Hold Time versus Penalty Hold

Recently, a new term is emerging known as Penalty Hold.

OK we made it up, but hey, whatever.

Penalty Hold is when you place the annoying customer on hold as punishment for being an asshole.

Of course, we don’t condone that behaviour at all…

Why Hold Time is actually used by call centre agents

You can count on us for some in-depth industry analysis and on this occasion, we extensively surveyed frontline call centre agents to determine how hold time is used within Australian call centres…