The Effect of Choice and Announcement Duration on the Estimation of Telephone Hold Time

Phillip Kortum, Randolph G. Bias, Benjamin A. Knott and Robert G. Bushey
Additional contact information
Phillip Kortum: Rice University, USA
Randolph G. Bias: The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Benjamin A. Knott: U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, USA
Robert G. Bushey: AT&T Laboratories, USA

International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction (IJTHI), 2008, vol. 4, issue 4, 29-53

Abstract: If a caller is placed on hold when they call a business, about half will hang up before the call is answered. Of those that hang up, only half of those will call back (Staino, 1994). Optimizing the on-hold experience has the potential to reduce hang-ups and make being put on hold more palatable to the caller. The current study assessed the influence of the opportunity to make a music choice and the length of pre-music announcement duration on perceived on-hold durations and customer satisfaction. Subjective assessments of on-hold times were significantly shorter with longer announcements, but satisfaction did not change. The chance to choose music improved satisfaction, but did not significantly reduce subjective time estimates. To test if multiple within-subject trials might have led to prospective time judgments, a between-subjects design replication was conducted, with each participant estimating only one time interval. A similar pattern of results was obtained.

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve. ... 4018/jthi.2008100102 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:igg:jthi00:v:4:y:2008:i:4:p:29-53

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction (IJTHI) is currently edited by Anabela Mesquita

More articles in International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction (IJTHI) from IGI Global
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journal Editor ().