An invisible queue in a call center is a call waiting queue where the waiting callers are not aware about the progression of the call or their waiting time until an agent is available to answer. In most call centers, the callers who are waiting for their calls to be answered are waiting in an invisible queue and as they continue to wait, their patience starts giving up and they become unhappier by the second. Invisible queues are and should be a matter of concern for every call center as when people enter an invisible queue they are happy but their happiness starts fading as they continue to wait without any idea about when their call will go through.
A call center deploying an invisible queue depends on the Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system to connect the longest waiting caller with the first available agent. If it doesn’t use ACD, then the best way to handle the impatient callers in an invisible queue is to tell them their position in the queue or the waiting time for their call to be answered via messages being played during the waiting period. Without such measures, callers waiting in the queue will end up dropping the call and increase the call center’s call abandonment rate.
Cloud call center software can enhance this process by providing real-time queue information to both callers and agents, ensuring a more efficient and customer-friendly experience.