Placing Callers on Hold Best Practices

Ask

There are two very important things to ask:

Question A: “May I please place you on hold for two minutes?” before you subject them to your upbeat super awesome hold music. If they say no, help them understand why you’ll be placing them on hold. Or, if they don’t want to be put on hold, don’t put them on hold at all and allow them to hear what is going on in the background. ALSO – if you tell the customer you’re placing them on hold for a specific time, such as two minutes in the example above, set a timer to make sure you follow through.

Question B: “If we’re disconnected, what’s the best number I can call you back on?” Things happen. Calls drop. It bites. But, having a number to reach them as soon as the call slips away is the absolute best thing you could do.

Check In

So, the issue is pretty advanced and you’re not sure how to handle it. Or, the one person that can handle it just stepped out to the restroom. The hold time is ticking, and your customer is waiting on the other end for your return. The two-minute rule always seems to be a decent amount of time to check in with your customer. Ideally, it’s less than two minutes, but if it will be longer, set a timer to check in with your customer every two minutes they are on hold.

Thanks

There are better things to do than wait on hold, so make sure you are showing how thankful you are for your customer to wait as you find the answer for their problem. A simple, yet genuine “Thanks for waiting!” shows you are appreciative of the time they spent listening to your hold music.

Even placing a customer on hold briefly makes or breaks the customer experience. There’s nothing wrong with a little hold time but when you place your customer on hold, make sure you are doing it right!