Call Queuing: What It Is & How It Works [+ Best Practices]

The quality over quantity principle highlights the importance of concentrating on quality сustomer experiences instead of transactions. This is particularly true for customer-facing businesses and dedicated call centres.

“Customers remember the service a lot longer than they remember the price.” – Lauren Freedman

Despite introducing other contact methods for handling multiple customer inquiries, like chatbots, most customers would rather dial up a call. The Userlike survey indicated that approximately 60% of customers needed help from a human versus a chatbot.

AI call agents, in particular, are changing the face of customer service. When customers reach the call centre or interact with an IVR system enhanced with AI, businesses now strive to offer immediate support and foster emotionally intelligent interactions.

Not all customers choose to be placed on hold and wait for the agent to pick up, and the call queuing dynamics introduce a level of complexity to the math. Added to this is the peak time when the number of customer calls exceeds the number of agents available.

So, how fast can businesses handle the calls without compromising the quality of service? How does call queuing minimise wait times? The conflict between efficiency and customer satisfaction takes centre stage in such situations. Call centers must manage the phone queues effectively, and every client must be provided with the required time.

Let’s explore the call queues, which call for a mix of tech and employee performance, and ways to enhance call queue management to deliver high-quality service.

What Is a Call Queue?

Call queues are virtual waiting areas where several callers wait for assistance in line. The core purpose is to fix every client’s issue by collecting and routing incoming calls, making sure no stone is left unturned in the quest for customer satisfaction.

How do call queues work? Modern call queuing systems have features that can be customised, like hold music, announcements, and estimated waiting times. These systems aim to keep the customer entertained during their wait.

If you’re a business owner requiring call flow optimisation, efficient call tracking and distribution software is the key to a seamless process. Properly managed phone queues ensure efficient call handling, reduce caller frustration, and increase agent productivity.

“One thing I’ve noticed in the last few years is companies wanting more calls. Gone are the days when companies get a bunch of lead forms in, they have to call the people back, and then they can’t get a hold of them: the contact rate is pathetic, and the lead quality isn’t always great. But when you’re driving calls, you’re getting towards the business objectives a lot quicker. You’re connecting the consumer directly with the call centre they can do business with.” – Evan Weber, an expert in B2C and B2B digital marketing and online advertising

Call tracking and distribution software is essential for companies processing a high volume of calls. Call Logic, Phonexa’s call tracking and distribution software, can help you make the most of your call-based campaigns.

 

With the help of such features as intelligent call routing, AI Call Agents, and an IVR system, businesses can qualify leads and elevate support while delivering personalised, seamless experiences to callers at scale.

Build your plan now, or take a product tour to see Phonexa’s performance marketing software suite in action.

While a call queue system is a great tool, it doesn’t exactly allow the real-time visibility of wait times and queue sizes to make effective resource allocation possible. However, having the right performance marketing software in place can help you manage call queues, automate advanced functions, prevent missed calls, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately, streamline business processes.

How a Call Queue Works

Simply put, the main function of a call queue is to put incoming calls on hold until an operator is available. With call queuing, there are two options: it can frustrate the customers, or it can shorten queue times while providing a smooth experience.

A phone queue is like a virtual waiting room — a crucial aspect of effective customer service management, as it:

• Minimises wait times
• Optimises agent productivity
• Decreases abandonment rates
• Enhances overall customer satisfaction

As an addition to your martech stack, call queuing can help you efficiently manage high volumes of calls by organising them into virtual queues. In times of high call volume compared to the number of agents available, calls are put on hold to prevent so-called “call drops.”

In a call queue system, business calls are queued as they come in, fostering equity and efficiency in processing. Such a system can also help you distribute the workload evenly among call centre agents.

More sophisticated systems include features like priority routing and automatic caller information collection. Administrators can configure parameters like queue size and timeout values to manage call traffic effectively.

The call queuing process progresses through four stages:

1. Call arrival: Clients listen to a recorded message or an automated menu when they call, and they select options or leave information about the nature of their inquiries. After going through the menu, they wait in a virtual line until someone’s turn to help them.
2. Queue management: Managers of call centres can make a range of decisions about who they serve first and who answers the call. They can prioritise critical calls first or ensure that the call gets to the right agent with the appropriate skills, thereby decreasing the difficulty of resolving issues for the first time.
3. Hold time: Customers are on hold until the agent can help them. During hold time, they might hear music or announcements. Some call centre software also allows customers to ask to be called back while on hold so they don’t lose their position and get called back when there is an available agent.
4. Agent allocation: Routing incoming calls to available agents best suited to respond to them. This distribution depends on various parameters such as the agents’ competencies, availability, etc. Advanced call queueing and routing features can adjust agent assignment with varying rates of calls.

Why Is Queue Management in Call Centres Important?

Callers prefer speedy responses from customer service, as 90% consider immediate assistance crucial for their inquiries. Furthermore, around 40% of callers indicated frustration after waiting on hold for merely five minutes. Long waiting times or unsatisfactory responses after getting connected to an agent are the reasons for a negative customer service experience.

via GIPHY

Phone queues are also critical in managing incoming calls and improving customer experience. The most critical benefits of call queuing for companies and contact centres are:

Reduced customer wait time	Efficient call queue management is a win-win for customers and call centres alike, decreasing wait times and providing timely service. Research indicates that over 70% of customers become most annoyed when they feel companies waste their time.  Two-thirds of customers are only willing to wait for a maximum of two minutes, so it’s crucial to minimise waiting times. The shorter the waiting time, the greater the customer satisfaction.
Improved First Call Resolution (FCR) rates	By escalating FCR rates, your agents can resolve customer issues in the first contact. The quicker you get clients to experienced agents, the higher your FCR.Why is First Call Resolution significant?It significantly builds customer loyalty, as nearly 70% of losing customers would’ve stayed if their issues were solved on the first try.An increase of 1% FCR equals 1% more customer satisfaction and 1% lower operating cost.Increased FCR can increase spending by up to 11% and increase cross-selling revenues by up to 20%.
Optimised resource allocation	An effective call queue management system will assist you in utilising your company’s human resources to their fullest potential. Distribute incoming calls and assign them to agents.Better queuing of calls not only saves call centre costs by efficiently managing incoming calls but also reduces landline utilisation during waiting time. All this translates to more streamlined operations in the call centre, with the call centre operating like clockwork.
Lowered call abandonment rates	The call abandonment rate calculates the number of callers who hang up while waiting for an agent or during a call before resolving their issue. The primary reasons for this include lengthy IVR menus and long holds. Don’t anticipate customers to call back once they hang up — about 70% don’t.Optimised routing in a virtual call queue provides quicker connections to the appropriate agent, cutting hand-ups and increasing deal closure and customer satisfaction.
Improved brand reputation	A well-managed telephone queue system assists in customer trust-building and company reputation enhancement. Positive experiences with friendly and knowledgeable agents go a long way in customer loyalty generation.
Data-driven process improvement	Modern call queuing software provides you with valuable information on customer interactions. When you analyse call data for your company, you will discover trends, notice the areas of improvement, and discover opportunities for service quality improvement.
Competitive differentiation	Effective customer service is a necessity in a highly competitive market. Implementing innovative call queue management techniques can give you the edge you require to stay ahead of the competition.
Enhanced agent productivity	Efficient phone queues keep agents on task and minimise turnover by providing an even distribution of calls. Queue optimisation enables you to minimise average call handling time (AHT) and deliver a fair distribution of calls in queues.In addition, call queue reports help determine peak times, allowing staffing adjustments, and maintaining agents’ motivation and confidence.

Moreover, call queues enable SMBs and enterprises to optimise available resources, such as agents, without undertaking major recruitments when calls are heavy.

The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) feature can boost the efficiency of call queues by placing callers into the most appropriate queues based on their questions, language preferences, or issues. It helps callers reach the representatives quickly, ensuring efficient interactions and enhanced customer satisfaction.

 

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Types of Call Queuing Systems

Let’s explore the four kinds of call centre queuing systems:

Linear Call Queuing

Linear call queuing establishes connections based on arrival order to ensure equality and fairness in dealing with customers. The scheme is easy to blend with basic service models. It is very simple to manage and has minimal requirements for setting up, especially for organisations with uncomplicated customer services and no VIP customer level.

Circular Call Queuing

Circular call queues allow for fair agent workloads, where all team members are engaged in calls equally. They are best used by teams trying to balance call assignments among agents or teams with similar skill levels.

Circular call routing provides agents with a wrap-up process and note-taking time following each call to ensure equity between representatives.

Priority Call Queuing

Priority call queues differentiate between certain calls based on predefined criteria, granting priority service to priority clients or high-priority matters, working with diverse customers with multiple customer needs, and needing quick support.

Priority call queues allow enterprises to deliver exclusive service to influential customers and get their problems fixed immediately. So, they need an expert team to handle critical cases and instant focus, overcoming the standard telephone queue.

Skills-Based Call Queuing

Skill-based call queuing routes them to agents with specific skill sets, optimising first-call resolution and eliminating knowledge gaps. Call queues are vital for intricate service environments requiring specialised support.

Ring All, Least Recent, and Fewest Calls are other queue routing techniques. 

• Ring All: It alerts every available agent simultaneously, connecting the caller to the first one who answers.
• Least Recent: This technique assigns higher priority to an agent who has been least recently in a call.
• Fewest Calls: It forwards calls to the agent with the fewest completed calls.

What are The Reasons Behind Call Queues?

For companies to be able to offer the best services to their customers, they must know the causes of long call queues:

1. Insufficient team: With fewer agents, customers have a longer waiting time, which negatively impacts service quality. Even the best employees get bogged down with all the calls when the office is not adequately staffed. Hire enough agents to handle customer needs. Some businesses outsource, while others modify their schedules.
2. High call volumes: Excessive incoming calls, especially during peak times or some marketing campaigns, can be more than call centres can manage. Peak hours could also fall within specific days, weeks, or months based on working hours, meal times, or public holidays. Your agents must be prepared for such peak call periods. The collection and analysis of data enhances the ability to balance out such issues.
3. Inefficient processes: Burdensome systems make calls longer, pushing patience to its limits, and inefficiency. Streamline processes by embracing contemporary technology, such as chatbots or artificial intelligence (AI).
4. Poor agent training: Lack of proper training can lead to time waste and delays. Online and onsite training resources that are accessible make call centre training more convenient and continuous, allowing teams to keep pace with changing customer service requirements.
5. Lack of administration: Despite highly qualified staff, inefficient administration systems can lead to too many or too few agents to handle calls. Admin may not be the most exciting part of business, but it is important for guaranteeing business efficiency and equipment availability.
6. Confused call routing: Inefficiently developed systems produce unbalanced call distribution and unsatisfactory customer-representative matches. Streamlining and balancing call distribution through optimised call routing systems yields efficient call routing.
7. Dated technology: Budgets are different for different companies, affecting the capacity to replace call queue systems. Older systems that require more callback features or are likely to lose calls lead to frustrations and longer waiting times. Once more, you must switch to newer technology to increase reliability and customer satisfaction.
8. Insufficiency of self-help: Fewer self-service choices make the customers rely on call support; hence, the waiting time for calls increases. 40% of customers prefer using it over live agent conversations. Integrating self-help options like FAQs, chatbots, or web portals allows them to answer questions themselves, thus reducing the load in call centres.

 

Call Queue Best Practices: Short Guide to Successful Call Queuing

Having a separate call centre platform simplifies setting up a call queue. Once the decision is made, follow the steps below to set up your call queue without hassle.

Here are a few ways of effective call queue management:

Install an Automated Phone Greeting for Call Queues

A unique, not generic, automated greeting is required to greet the calls in call queues. Instead of regular phone rings, businesses prefer pre-recorded messages with pre-recorded greetings. This displays a company’s personality and provides customers with personalised options.

These messages should contain:

• Business name and business hours
• IVR systems to capture information
• Availability of agents at present
• Language preference
• Play messages such as “Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line.”

Use Interactive Voice Response

IVR is particularly suitable for the simplification of call routing. An automated menu enables clients to input pertinent information and enables guided connections. IVR features encompass capturing customer account data, ID verification, and providing basic assistance.

IVR is an automated system designed to shorten the length of your caller conversations so you can handle more calls overall and convert more callers each hour. 

The interactive voice response system welcomes them with a voice message and provides menu choices to route their call, such as “press 1 for sales” or “press 2 for financing”, etc. IVR can steer the callers through multilevel menus to extract more information and connect them to the appropriate department.

What are the advantages that you can derive from IVR systems? It automates call routing and improves customer satisfaction. IVR is used along with call distribution and ACD solutions, depending on information gathered from callers. The process reduces wait times and maximises call handling efficiency.

IVR has transcended basic call routing; most IVR features now offer plenty of self-service functionality.

Determine Call Center Hours

One must define the working hours to manage a call queue. For instance, if 9-5 is when live agents are working, configure the system to take calls within these times. Further, the customer queue system must have distinctions before or during working hours, weekdays and weekends, and break times.

Structure the Team of Agents

Another important step is to group the agents by their specialised skill sets and department affiliations, such as billing or fault finding, so the customer questions process can proceed and minimise the requirement for frequent transfer.

Optimise your team members with Workforce Management (WFM) solutions that streamline workflows, boost productivity, and prevent bottlenecks with improved organisation.

WFM platforms are most valuable for call queue management because they ensure an appropriate number of agents with different skill levels can work during the day. This simplifies scheduling and keeps high-quality service at your business at all times. These applications eliminate several issues, including too-long call queues because of understaffing and the inability to forecast peak call times.

Provide a Callback Option for Phone Queues

Having a callback can genuinely enhance your customer satisfaction in your call centre. Instead of leaving them waiting, have a callback function in your call queue system, like delivering a silver lining in a tempestuous sky. Why?

If you provide a callback option for your customers, you can eliminate on-hold frustration. Studies have proved that callbacks can reduce abandonment rates by up to 32%, thereby maximising customer retention.

Use Automated Call Distribution (ACD)

This solution efficiently directs incoming calls to the proper customer service representative according to the First In, First Out (FIFO) basis. Unlike IVR systems, which collect caller data for call routing, ACD deals with routing calls based on this data, such as sorting mail into different slots.

Manage Effective Call Routing

The ACD system employs call routing techniques to determine which agent receives each call. It does this because it determines with whom the caller will speak.

The ACD system efficiently directs the calls to suitable agents for effective customer-agent interaction. There are five most popular and efficient call routing techniques:

1. Sequential (list-based) routing: The incoming calls are routed in a list, and the calls start again from the first agent each time. It proves useful in the scenario of minor teams or where there exists an interval between the availability of agents.
2. Skills-based routing: Calls are directed to agents based on their skills, training, and experience. For instance, billing inquiries are routed to the billing department, and technical support questions are routed to the customer service queue.
3. Time-based routing: The incoming calls are routed to available agents in their time zone. It is also useful for geographically dispersed teams at different locations and for small teams.
4. Round-robin routing: Calls rotate among agents and company reps, each getting their turn. This method works well for sales teams.
5. Least occupied routing: Routing to the least busy agent means calls are routed to the expert who has been the longest without customer engagement. It helps in keeping the workers productive.

 

Delivering quick, personalised service over the phone is priority number one when customers reach out to businesses. 

Just as efficiency is necessary in customer inquiry management, it’s also required in lead generation. Phonexa’s LMS Sync offers accurate attribution, streamlined lead identification and tracking, and an optimised ping tree, automating your process so that you can build a more efficient workflow and reduce customer wait times.

 

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Future Trends in Call Centres and Call Queuing

Because of quick technological developments, call centres are changing fast and dramatically from manual calling to sophisticated telephony systems. The UK call centre market is anticipated to reach a market value of US$ 36.90 billion by 2031, maintaining a CAGR of 7.6% during 2023-2031. As the centres continue expanding, what is the future?

Source: Astute Analytica

The following are some trends to watch out for:

1. AI and automation: AI makes processes easier in different departments by enhancing call tracking and distribution solutions with features like AI Call Agents, personalised recommendations, etc.
2. Omnichannel communication: They eliminate redundant explanations of conversations while transforming call centres. They allow customers to interact through several channels — phone, chat, email, or social media— and never lose context.
3. Personalised services: Call centres can win customers by delivering personalised experiences from past data. By offering customised deals and being accessible at all times, any company can increase loyalty and gain valuable insights.
4. Remote work: Convenience and flexibility of working from home benefit employees and redefine the working process in call centres. Remote work brings in global talent and increases cost savings for companies.
5. Video chats: Video conferencing is gaining popularity. Such chats enhance customer satisfaction by resolving complicated issues and reducing repeat calls. This improves overall service quality and loyalty, too.

 

Maximising Customer Satisfaction With Innovative Call Tracking Solutions

Customer satisfaction can make or break a business, and call queuing is critical in ensuring seamless client experiences. The journey from dial tone to a real-time human connection is more than just a wait — it’s a fusion of technology, strategy, and human touch.

Discover how Phonexa can take your call tracking and lead management to the next level. 

 

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is contact centre queuing?

Call queue or call queuing is like a virtual waiting room for phone calls, where customers are left on hold till a suitable support agent is found. Call queuing systems are applied to manage the volume of incoming calls by grouping them based on arrival time or customer priority.

How to effectively manage call queues

Phone call queue management for businesses involves the following:

• Installing automatic greetings and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems to handle call routing and provide callers with the right information.
• Categorising agents based on their experience and expertise to efficiently handle customer inquiries.
• Including a callback feature in the system of calling queues to reduce waiting times.
• Ensuring efficient call routing using sequential distribution, skill-based routing, etc., to achieve efficient agent-customer connections.

How does the call queuing system assist different departments?

The different departments can use the call queuing systems in many different ways.

1. Customer service achieves improved efficiency and customer satisfaction through reduced wait times.
2. Sales teams can handle potential leads more effectively, leading to better conversions.
3. Technical support may give priority to critical problems, upholding customer confidence.
4. Administration derives useful insights from call information for making effective decisions.

 

How does the call queuing system work with other components of business phone systems?

The call queue system is combined with other elements of business telephony systems through coordination and integration. How? It provides seamless interaction between modules like IVR or ACD and call routing strategies. Such integration makes it possible to manage calls, ensure intelligent call routing and handling, and increase customer satisfaction.