Robert R. Bushey

The Effect of Music Choice and Announcement Duration on Subjective Wait Time for Call Center Hold Queues

An experiment explored the effect of Music Choice and Announcement Duration on the subjective wait time for a call center hold queue. Participants placed calls to a simulated call center and were placed “on hold.” When participants were allowed to choose the type of music they listened to while on hold, they reported higher satisfaction with the wait time compared to a condition in which the callers had no control over the music type. There was also a significant effect for the hold queue announcement duration. The hold queue announcement is a brief message that informs caller that they are being placed on hold. The ‘long‘ announcement resulted in more accurate estimations of on-hold wait time compared to the ‘short’ announcement which resulted in significant overestimation. These findings demonstrate potentially useful design methods for call centers to manage customer dissatisfaction due to hold queue delays.

Design Approach Does Affect Customer Behavior: “Action-Objects” Increase “Cut-Throughs”

This paper investigates the impact of touch-tone IVR design styles on user behavior. The design of the touch-tone IVR systems is a critical component of delivering customer service. A well-designed system allows the customers to accomplish their goals and sets a positive tone to their interaction with the organization. Four design styles were considered: Action-Specific Object, Action-General Object, Specific Object, and General Object. Three user behaviors were considered: Cut-Through, Full Menu, and Beyond Full Menu. A usability study was conducted to quantify the impact of design styles on user behavior. Results indicate that design style does impact user behavior. The Action-Specific Object style produced the most Cut-Through behaviors and the fewest Beyond Full Menu behaviors compared to the other design styles. The results from this paper suggest that the interface design style should match the customers mental model.