Business Communication 
Consumers know the feeling of calling customer service for help, only to be greeted by generic hold music. For most, this is associated with frustration and a time-consuming process. With an increasing desire for instant gratification in our culture, customer service patience for waiting on hold is low, and customers will seek out companies that value their time.
So we went out to find out how people really feel about hold music in our recent Customer Patience Benchmark survey. The results are in.
The vast majority (75%) of U.S. adults would rather receive a callback from customer service representatives than stay on the line listening to hold music. Americans’ patience is wearing thin. Companies that ignore this risk risk losing hard-fought customer loyalty and gaining negative reviews.
Learn more about how customers feel when on hold, the popularity of a callback service, and how to improve your company’s customer service processes to boost satisfaction.
Key Takeaways
- 75% prefer callbacks over listening to hold music, especially if the wait is longer than five minutes.
- 76% of American adults expect a response in five minutes or less.
- 28% of Americans leaving companies over long hold times.
- 61% of customers to switch providers or request refunds.
The Shrinking Patience Window
Patience in customer service is quickly giving way to speed and convenience.
Companies must follow the five-minute rule to help customers feel valued. Our survey clearly shows this, with over three-quarters (76%) of consumers expecting a response in five minutes or less.
When this expectation isn’t met, customer service patience quickly evaporates. Companies have up to 11 minutes for 76% of callers to wait on hold before they lose patience and hang up. However, a staggering 54% of callers hang up after being on hold for only up to eight minutes.
Rapid response isn’t exclusive to phone-based customer service. Depending on the channel used to contact support teams, your customers have varying expectations for response time. Using different channels helps boost customer service efficiency, and having the “speed ladder” as a guide can help your team meet expectations.
Why Callbacks Win Out
With three in four U.S. adults preferring a callback, the importance of integrating them into your customer service strategy cannot be overstated.
A customer waiting and listening to a seemingly endless loop of generic music fails to improve the experience, and can make wait times feel even longer. Customers don’t just dislike hold music; they actively associate it with poor service and wasted time, which increases the likelihood of hang-ups or churn.
Callbacks, on the other hand, empower customers to own their time while streamlining service for businesses and delivering a better customer experience.
Some of the benefits of callbacks include:
- Control: Customers can choose when to be contacted, reducing the feeling of helplessness and allowing them to manage their time effectively.
- Efficiency: Callbacks allow contact centers to schedule workloads more effectively, preventing agent overload during peak times and ensuring inquiries are handled by the right person.
- Reduced frustration: Customer experience best practices include eliminating long wait times and repetitive hold music. Callers are more satisfied and likely to stay loyal.
- Insight: Scheduled callbacks give agents time to review customer history and preferences, leading to more personalized interactions that strengthen relationships.
- Increased resolution: When agents prepare for a scheduled callback, they can gather the necessary information in advance, increasing the likelihood of resolving the issue on the first contact.
- Brand differentiation: Offering callbacks demonstrates a modern, customer-centric approach, differentiating your company from competitors who rely on traditional hold queues.
- Improved loyalty: By respecting a customer’s time and offering proactive solutions, callbacks reinforce trust and brand loyalty. Customers return more often after interactions where they feel respected and valued.
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The Cost of Slow Service
When your customers wait on hold, you’re not just testing their patience — you’re impacting your bottom line. Just over one in four Americans have stopped doing business with a company because of spending too much time on hold with customer service. This loss will be evident in your customer satisfaction metrics, churn rate, and lost revenue.
Additionally, you have limited chances to retain customer loyalty. Just two bad customer service experiences will cause 61% of Americans to switch providers or request a refund. This is a revenue leak that often goes unnoticed. Each lost customer, due to poor experiences, unresolved issues, or long waits, represents lost revenue and, even worse, a declining reputation when these customers leave negative reviews.
The solution lies in reclaiming lost time from slow service and hold times. By offering callbacks and other channel options, businesses can transform idle hold time into an opportunity to show customers they are valued. Ultimately, callbacks transform frustration with wasted time into an opportunity for customer control and loyalty.
Jessica from Nextiva covers five ways CX leaders are leveling up their customer experience in this video:
How to Implement Callbacks for Better Customer Service
Despite customers preferring callbacks, they can only be truly effective for your company when thoughtfully implemented.
The customer callback experience should be easy for both the consumer and agent, while also reducing hold time and improving customer satisfaction. A well-executed callback system strikes a balance between automation, empathy, and results, providing customers with flexibility and solutions while maintaining efficient operations.
Here are some tips to effectively implement callbacks in your customer service process:
- Provide both scheduled and automatic callback options: Some customers want an immediate response as soon as an agent becomes available, while others prefer to choose a time that fits their schedule. Offering both callback options ensures flexibility and accommodates different customer preferences.
- Communicate estimated wait times clearly: Transparency builds trust. When customers know how long they’ll wait, frustration decreases. Clearly communicating the estimated wait time helps customers feel confident that their request is prioritized.
- Leverage AI for smarter routing and seamless transitions: Our State of CX shared that 98% of CX leaders recognize the need for seamless AI-to-human transitions, but only 10% have implemented them. AI can help predict peak call times, automate routine requests, schedule callbacks, and connect customers to the right agents faster.
- Integrate callbacks across all channels: Don’t limit callbacks to phone support. Offer them from live chat, SMS, and social channels. This omnichannel approach ensures customers can choose the most convenient way to reconnect, regardless of where they start their journey.
- Keep customers informed throughout the process: Send proactive updates via text or email confirming callback times and allow rescheduling if needed. Regular communication reduces no-shows and keeps customers engaged.
- Provide agents with context before callbacks: Give your support team access to caller history, prior messages, and issue details before they return the call. This reduces handling time and prevents customers from repeating themselves.
- Track success metrics and continuously optimize: Monitor callback completion rates, response times, and customer satisfaction metrics to evaluate performance. Use insights to refine call routing, agent availability, and callback scheduling for continual improvement.
Shorten Hold Times & Improve Service With Nextiva
Prevent lost customers and revenue from frustrating long hold times by implementing callbacks in your company’s customer service strategy. Today’s customers value control, speed, and respect for their time, and the brands that deliver on those expectations differentiate themselves.
With an AI-powered contact center like Nextiva, you can take that experience even further. Nextiva’s intelligent routing, automated callbacks, and seamless AI-to-human transitions help you resolve issues faster without leaving customers waiting on hold.
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