
Virtual queue - damian2000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_queue
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rolfvandekrol
The article is quite opinionated towards this system, while I think the main
beneficiary of this, is the call center. And not because they actually operate
more efficiently, but because the can fake more efficiency. When I pick up the
phone, to call a company, it is usually because they already did something
wrong, and I need help with that immediately. In all other cases I wouldn't
contact them or would have send an e-mail. The article claims that "the best
bet for improving both customer satisfaction and contact center operations" is
some queue management stuff and so on, but I think the "best bet" would be
getting someone on the phone asap. And asap is not after 20 minutes of waiting
time (whether on the phone, or off the phone).

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callahad
> asap is not after 20 minutes of waiting time (whether on the phone, or off
> the phone).

Sure, but if the prevailing queue conditions mean I'm forced to wait 20
minutes regardless, I'd much rather do that without a phone to my ear. I'd
even prefer a 40 minute virtual queue to a 20 minute physical queue, so it
seems appropriate for there to be _some_ discounting of virtual queue times
when compared to physical ones.

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sanotehu
Yes. Being in a queue means you have to constantly keep an ear out for being
transferred to an actual human being. Which can be quite hard when the hold
music is regularly interrupted with voice announcements. Yes I realise my call
is important to you, but if you didn't tell me that every 10 seconds I could
stop listening so hard and (maybe?) enjoy the music.

As an aside, their comparison of voluntary queuing with and without virtual
queues is suspect as they seem to inform the customer about the length of the
queue only when they also have the callback system. These are two separate
things and should be measured separately.

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jib
The stats piece is close to nonsense as well, if you measure ASA from your
phone system's call duration when you have a virtual queue you are lying to
yourself at best.

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jv22222
When we took our kid to get a picture with Santa this year they used a virtual
Queue. It allowed them to backup a queue of customers up to 8 hours! Customers
registered at the top of the line and then were sent away. They texted 30 mins
before and then 5 mins before. It was quite effective. When we finally arrived
we were in front of Santa in 5 mins.

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beejiu
Another nice system is for you to 'queue jump' when you call back after a
certain time. E.g. if you call before 10am at a busy time, you have the option
to call back after 12pm and you will be guaranteed a direct connection to an
operator.

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pervycreeper
Nice for the caller, yes.

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odonnellryan
I got started working in an IT call center: I can guarantee you, it's nice for
everyone!

First: we were ABSOLUTELY required to keep the calls flowing. Did not matter
how many we got: if a call went above 5 minutes in queue...which did happen
with our volume to tech ratio...we all were berated: I'd go as far as saying
verbally abused at times (think: directors literally stomping their feet on
the floor and screaming at you.)

Second: no one likes to wait on the phone. It's annoying. They want their
problem fixed. If they have to wait on the phone they'll just be more angry by
the time they speak to a tech.

Third: you're still handling the same number of calls, most likely. Sometimes
even less! We'd have people call and abandon constantly, so that'd drive up
our numbers and make us look really bad (they didn't want users abandoning.)

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fest
The wikipedia article is about incoming call queueing which I find good even
from end-user (caller) perspective.

What I found more interesting is that at least some telemarketing call centers
actually use outgoing call queues. The reason for this is:

1) They anticipate some percentage of unreachable numbers; 2) To maximize
efficiency- operators don't spend time waiting on somebody picking up the
phone, they are only engaged when there is someone on the line.

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hammock
Yes- if you ever picked up the phone and there is 3-5 second delay before you
hear someone, that is the queue/robodialer realizing someone picked up and
sending you to the telemarketer

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damian2000
So the fake virus scammers who call from 'Microsoft' are also using the same
system then ...

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Yhippa
It's like lazy-loading people's attention.

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oasisbob
I tried to use this feature while on hold ... once.

They returned my call using a poorly tuned predictive dialer, I listened to
20-30 seconds of silence before the call dropped.

There was no second attempt.

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eclipxe
I use this all the time. Never had an issue.

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nathan_f77
We used this callback system when I worked at a call center selling products
from TV infomercials, although it wasn't anywhere near as advanced as the
example in this article. The dialing was automated but we had to manually
initiate each call, and make sure we were speaking to the right person.

I don't even know how many times I've said the phrase "We are currently
experiencing a high volume of calls". Hopefully never again.

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codezero
Does anyone provide this as a third party service? It'd be pretty cool to be
able to drop a number I know I am going to need to call, and wait over to
someone else who will do a ringback for me.

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lojack
I've used FastCustomer in the past successfully. It's a mobile app that calls
customer service numbers and connects you after waiting in a queue.

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the_mitsuhiko
There are systems in at least the UK that will queue for you on a callcenter.
You call them first, they queue for you and when the call picks up you get the
call joined by them calling back to you. Never used it though.

