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Customer Service vocabulary · Service Metrics & Quality

Wait time

Meaning in customer service, with examples

nounCore term

In customer service, wait time means: How long a customer has to wait before an agent answers their call or chat.

In Turkish: bekleme süresi, tahmini bekleme süresi

How it is used

Companies track average wait time and sometimes tell callers their estimated wait time: "Your estimated wait time is five minutes." Long wait times lead to abandoned calls. Hold time is different: it is the waiting during a call, after an agent has answered.

Example sentences

  1. Wait times are longer on Monday mornings, so customers often call back in the afternoon.

  2. The new IVR cut our average wait time by two minutes.

Common collocations

  • average wait time
  • estimated wait time
  • long wait times
  • reduce wait time
  • queueA line of calls, chats or tickets waiting to be answered, usually handled in the order they arrived.
  • abandoned callA call in which the customer hangs up before reaching an agent, usually because the wait is too long.
  • response timeThe time between a customer contacting a company and receiving a reply, often measured in minutes for chat and in hours for email.
  • put on holdTo make a caller wait on the line, usually with music playing, while you check something or speak to someone else.

More terms: Service Metrics & Quality

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