{"id":2904,"date":"2016-09-29T11:53:21","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T18:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=2904"},"modified":"2016-09-29T11:53:21","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T18:53:21","slug":"dont-make-small-business-customers-wait-hold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/dont-make-small-business-customers-wait-hold\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t make small business customers wait on hold"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EncoreProAre you losing small business customers by putting them on hold? According to Accenture Strategy \u201cDigital Disconnect in Customer Engagement\u201d<\/a> 2016, 52% of consumers have reported switching providers because of poor customer service.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, Google conducted a study<\/a> to determine how long customers are willing to wait. It found that while 57.8% of callers were willing to be put on hold for up to 5 minutes. However, 32.3% were not willing to wait at all to speak to a customer service rep. Google concluded if a business keeps callers waiting longer than 5 minutes, it will lose 90% of those calls.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, waiting on hold is \u201cholding up\u201d a lot of time for customers. Conversational Receptionists, a provider of virtual receptionist and virtual assistant technology, compiled stats f<\/a>rom a number of studies and found:<\/p>\n