We predict that within 24 months there will be no more waiting on hold. No more phone queues. No more music or annoying ads. No more lectures about why we should have tried self-help via the Web (If I could have done it myself, I would have! That’s why I’m calling you!)

What a relief that will be!

We predict that by 2016 customers will only do business with organizations (even government bureaucracies) that provide convenient options for dealing with them. The most convenient one for me is for you to call me back right away, armed with all my information. I hate waiting on hold. We all hate waiting on hold. Another convenient option is real-time chat. Another is for you to call me at a pre-arranged time.

Not only have Amazon and Apple raised the bar for real-time convenient customer service (Amazon’s Mayday and Apple’s “Talk to Apple Support Now”), but there are now mobile and web apps that customers can use that will sit on the phone queue for you and then patch the customer support rep through to you. I used LucyPhone recently when my husband was frustrated by long wait times with Fidelity (which surprised me!). So I used LucyPhone to get him into a priority Fidelity phone queue, and the app called him on his cellphone when the agent was ready to speak with him (within 3 minutes).

We’ll Get Back to You
Callback Technology Can Give Customers Back the Time They Spend Waiting to Talk to You
By Ronni T. Marshak, EVP and Senior Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group, July 3, 2014

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