What incentive would they have to develop a callback system
Well they don't develop it, it's a feature of whatever PBX/VoIP system they went with.
and use it, but delay the callbacks?
It wouldn't be the first nonsensical business decision that businesses latch onto for reasons. You could ask 10 different call center employees and get 10 different reasons why. I've personally heard a few different reasons from inept managers, call center staff being paid min wage so they don't care to people on the call back list get placed in a lower priority queue
Just watch out, some phone providers will disconnect you after a few hours on a call. During the pandemic when there were a lot of people unemployed and there were long waits for unemployment insurance offices, there were stories of people waiting on hold for 6 hours or more, and then getting disconnected, losing their place in line.
I’ve worked in two different inbound government call centre-type environments and can confirm that callbacks are always queued as per their place in the queue. This is using Genesys, which is a very commonly used virtual contact centre software, and using different iterations of the software at both jobs.
If you don’t get a call back at all that could be due to call screening/blocking (most call centres call out from a ‘no caller ID’ number) and if you have to wait longer than the expected time, that’s likely due to the existing calls taking far longer than the average or median call length or a number of people needing to be off-phones for a period (due to breaks, emergency, a planned/unplanned meeting, or to catch up on overdue admin tasks).
Many times my inbound work has been a callback and the person who requested the callback either doesn’t pick up or it goes straight to voicemail. Depending on the service, the worker may be trained not to leave a message, as is the case for many banking/financial institutions or crisis support services such as domestic violence or child protection hotlines, as voicemails can cause a security or personal safety threat.
I worked at a support call center and those call backs were legit because we didn't want to have our on-hold rate above a few minutes but only had about 20 bodies to handle about 600 calls a day. The only way we could meet our internal KPIs was to offer call backs. The bonus of this was that our CSAT went up almost 15 percent with this. Win win for us and the customer.
Let's assume it doesn't hold your spot in the line. I see absolutely no reason why it wouldn't, but whatever. I'd rather have to wait for a call for 3 hours, while doing literally anything else than sit and listen to their godawful elevator music, that stops every 20-ish seconds, just long enough to make you believe you've been put through.
This installs a backdoor on your phone that lets an operator view your camera feed so they know exactly when it will be most inconvenient for them to call back.
They are often also recording/transcribing the conversation when they put you on hold as well, and summarizing the call for the agent based on the transcript. When my ISP raises internet prices, I always have to call them to get the increase reversed. When I'm waiting on hold, i pretend to talk to my partner saying what my desired price is and that i'll call a competitor afterwards if they can't match so that gets summarized for the agent.
I guess not every place does this, because I swear the last few times I've been on hold I got transferred 2 or 3 times and had to re-explain my entire issue all over again to each person.
I know I've gone insane at this point because I've stopped caring and just listen to the on-hold garbage now. I just disassociate faster when it starts and drift into nothing.
Works about 95 % reliably in Finland, though! And usually if it doesn't, there's been a warning saying "we have an exceptionally long queue; calling back might take over a day". When you hear that, you know there's a 50% chance that they will never call back. Once the queue gets three days long, they just delete it because so many of the calls would be useless at that point.
Yupp I've had my phone in my hand before and they call back and it rings for a nanosecond like not even enough to make the full ring sound once on the phone.
Then they hangup immediately and you have to start over.
Do you have other instances of calls or texts not going through? I ask because I had that problem, and it turned out the TMobile towers often take longer to find my phone number (the number itself - this issue persisted through multiple physical phones) than the default 15 second timeout to voicemail. I found instructions on the TMobile forums of how to increase the timeout period, bumped it up to 25 seconds, and haven't had an issue since.
I work at a place with call backs. You’re in the same queue regardless of if you wait on the phone or as a call back. Only difference is when we pick it up it rings you.
I've already come this far, I'm not hanging up now. I will not procrastinate this any longer, or delegate this task to an unpredictable robot. I will hold out until my call is taken.
43 replies
I always get called back. Idk what company you are talking about 🤷♂️
Same, I pray for that option every time I enter that void.
My phone has a "hold for me" option 🤷🏻
Pixel? That and the call screening have been huge since I moved over this year.
Yep. No one killer feature. Just a flood of tiny things that make my life better.
90% of the time I get called back immediately. Makes me feel like maybe there was actually someone available. They just made me jump through hoops
Pretty much. Paid by the hour, I've sat on hold on purpose just to catch a break. I know how their shit works
You're lucky then, every time I've tried I either don't get a call back or it's hours later when just waiting would have only been 20 minutes
But there's no way to know that
I base it off the estimated hold time it tells you, IME it's not the most accurate thing in the world, but probably won't be off by whole hours
It just doesn't really add up. What incentive would they have to develop a callback system, and use it, but delay the callbacks?
Well they don't develop it, it's a feature of whatever PBX/VoIP system they went with.
It wouldn't be the first nonsensical business decision that businesses latch onto for reasons. You could ask 10 different call center employees and get 10 different reasons why. I've personally heard a few different reasons from inept managers, call center staff being paid min wage so they don't care to people on the call back list get placed in a lower priority queue
Inept in what way? It's an automated queue.
Don't care about what? They aren't manually calling people back. Their phone system lights up and they answer the call that connects.
For what reason?
Just watch out, some phone providers will disconnect you after a few hours on a call. During the pandemic when there were a lot of people unemployed and there were long waits for unemployment insurance offices, there were stories of people waiting on hold for 6 hours or more, and then getting disconnected, losing their place in line.
I’ve worked in two different inbound government call centre-type environments and can confirm that callbacks are always queued as per their place in the queue. This is using Genesys, which is a very commonly used virtual contact centre software, and using different iterations of the software at both jobs.
If you don’t get a call back at all that could be due to call screening/blocking (most call centres call out from a ‘no caller ID’ number) and if you have to wait longer than the expected time, that’s likely due to the existing calls taking far longer than the average or median call length or a number of people needing to be off-phones for a period (due to breaks, emergency, a planned/unplanned meeting, or to catch up on overdue admin tasks).
Many times my inbound work has been a callback and the person who requested the callback either doesn’t pick up or it goes straight to voicemail. Depending on the service, the worker may be trained not to leave a message, as is the case for many banking/financial institutions or crisis support services such as domestic violence or child protection hotlines, as voicemails can cause a security or personal safety threat.
How do you know it would have only been twenty minutes?
The estimated hold time, IME it's not the most accurate thing in the world, but probably won't be off by whole hours
Same for me, but it’s usually Burnt Turd INC or whatever internet service provider’s number.
Yeah they call back, the annoying part is that they call you back, put you on hold, then connect you to the rep.
Which is all fine but usually the rep sounds like they have been saying hello for like 10 seconds and about to hang up.
So it’s good but can be a little smoother.
I worked at a support call center and those call backs were legit because we didn't want to have our on-hold rate above a few minutes but only had about 20 bodies to handle about 600 calls a day. The only way we could meet our internal KPIs was to offer call backs. The bonus of this was that our CSAT went up almost 15 percent with this. Win win for us and the customer.
Let's assume it doesn't hold your spot in the line. I see absolutely no reason why it wouldn't, but whatever. I'd rather have to wait for a call for 3 hours, while doing literally anything else than sit and listen to their godawful elevator music, that stops every 20-ish seconds, just long enough to make you believe you've been put through.
Do both, get in line and then call back and wait. See which comes first.
This installs a backdoor on your phone that lets an operator view your camera feed so they know exactly when it will be most inconvenient for them to call back.
Did you know that for most systems where the bot asks you to describe your issue, if you start swearing it'll connect you directly to a human?
They are often also recording/transcribing the conversation when they put you on hold as well, and summarizing the call for the agent based on the transcript. When my ISP raises internet prices, I always have to call them to get the increase reversed. When I'm waiting on hold, i pretend to talk to my partner saying what my desired price is and that i'll call a competitor afterwards if they can't match so that gets summarized for the agent.
It's a boring dystopia we live in.
I guess not every place does this, because I swear the last few times I've been on hold I got transferred 2 or 3 times and had to re-explain my entire issue all over again to each person.
Bot: "In a sentence or two, please describe your issue"
Samuel L Jackson: exists
Bot: "We are connecting you to the CEO directly! Please stop cursing."
CEO: Yes, Mr. Jackson, I am the CEO! Please stop cursing.
I never stopped.
Fair enough to be skeptical, but I can attest that I've done it before and it does seem to work correctly.
I know I've gone insane at this point because I've stopped caring and just listen to the on-hold garbage now. I just disassociate faster when it starts and drift into nothing.
iPhones at least can now detect hold music and offer to simulate a callback so you don’t have to sit and listen.
"Every time" is two words.
Works about 95 % reliably in Finland, though! And usually if it doesn't, there's been a warning saying "we have an exceptionally long queue; calling back might take over a day". When you hear that, you know there's a 50% chance that they will never call back. Once the queue gets three days long, they just delete it because so many of the calls would be useless at that point.
Yupp I've had my phone in my hand before and they call back and it rings for a nanosecond like not even enough to make the full ring sound once on the phone.
Then they hangup immediately and you have to start over.
Do you have other instances of calls or texts not going through? I ask because I had that problem, and it turned out the TMobile towers often take longer to find my phone number (the number itself - this issue persisted through multiple physical phones) than the default 15 second timeout to voicemail. I found instructions on the TMobile forums of how to increase the timeout period, bumped it up to 25 seconds, and haven't had an issue since.
I'll have to check that out I use a cheap unlimited data plan but I think they use T Mobile towers that might be it!
If they have people available to be doing call backs, why are those people not just answering phones?
I work at a place with call backs. You’re in the same queue regardless of if you wait on the phone or as a call back. Only difference is when we pick it up it rings you.
In place you work when phone picks up it rings you!
It's supposed to be a queue system. The people are handling a call, and when it's handled, they look at the next in the queue and call them back.
I've already come this far, I'm not hanging up now. I will not procrastinate this any longer, or delegate this task to an unpredictable robot. I will hold out until my call is taken.