What is the Best Time to Contact a Call Center?

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In this blog post our data team provides some hints on what is the best time to contact a call center along with some statistics on inbound calls and waiting time of finished calls.
 
We consider all inbound calls placed within October 2017 to March 2018, excluding short abandoned ones. (Note that in Talkdesk, customers can set a threshold where abandoned calls under the value specified will be considered short abandoned, so these calls will be removed from abandoned related KPIs.) Timestamps of calls were converted to the call center&#8217;s local time zones so that we can do a fair global overview.
 
Given that not all call centers operate 24/7, this report includes only the calls placed within business hours of their corresponding call centers.

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What is the relationship between time of the day, number of inbound calls and average waiting time?
 
The majority of inbound calls happen within the 7am &#8211; 7pm local time range, with peaks at around 11 am. In contrast, inbound callers are likely to experience peaks of waiting time at 5 am to 7 am Talkdesk accounts, in general, manage to keep waiting time short when under heavy load of incoming calls, but in the early morning their availability is low.
 
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6815" src="https://www.talkdesk.com/app/uploads/2018/07/Datatalk1.png" alt="relationship between time of the day, number of inbound calls and average waiting time" width="720" height="400" srcset="https://infra-cloudfront-talkdeskcom.svc.talkdeskapp.com/talkdesk_com/2018/07/23211249/Datatalk1.png 720w, https://infra-cloudfront-talkdeskcom.svc.talkdeskapp.com/talkdesk_com/2018/07/23211249/Datatalk1-360x200.png 360w" sizes="(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px" />
 
Customer Example #1: Major E-Commerce Brand
 
Below is an analysis of one of the largest e-commerce brands for home, outdoor, toys and fitness. In general, this company keeps callers&#8217; waiting time below 16 minutes. The best time to call this e-commerce customer service department is in the morning, before 7 am, or between 10 am and 4 pm. Waiting time is also likely to be shorter on Saturday or Sunday
 
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6816" src="https://www.talkdesk.com/app/uploads/2018/07/Datatalk2.png" alt="customer-data-e-commerce" width="720" height="400" srcset="https://infra-cloudfront-talkdeskcom.svc.talkdeskapp.com/talkdesk_com/2018/07/23212119/Datatalk2.png 720w, https://infra-cloudfront-talkdeskcom.svc.talkdeskapp.com/talkdesk_com/2018/07/23212119/Datatalk2-360x200.png 360w" sizes="(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px" />
 
Note: Their customer service hours are:
<ul>
<li>Mon-Fri: 6am &#8211; 6pm PST</li>
<li>Sat-Sun: 7am &#8211; 12pm PST</li>
</ul>
 
Customer Example #2: Leading Financial Services Company
 
The data team uncovered the following results after running the analysis of the leading financial services company’s call times (illustrated in the chart below):
 
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6817" src="https://www.talkdesk.com/app/uploads/2018/07/Datatalk3.png" alt="talkdesk-bitcoin-customer-data" width="720" height="400" srcset="https://infra-cloudfront-talkdeskcom.svc.talkdeskapp.com/talkdesk_com/2018/07/23212159/Datatalk3.png 720w, https://infra-cloudfront-talkdeskcom.svc.talkdeskapp.com/talkdesk_com/2018/07/23212159/Datatalk3-360x200.png 360w" sizes="(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px" />
 
Takeaways
 
<ul>
<li>On working days, this company&#8217;s support team keeps waiting time below 41 minutes</li>
<li>The best time to call their support line is at night or in the morning, before 8 am</li>
</ul>
 
Note: Due to the global nature of their market, this customers’ support service hours are 24/7.

Talkdesk Data Team

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In this blog post we provide some hints on what is the best time to contact a call center along with some statistics on inbound calls and waiting time of finished calls.

What is the Best Time to Contact a Call Center?

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Talkdesk Data Team

Other blog posts.

Bringing generative AI to healthcare through the contact center

5 benefits of an AI-powered insurance contact center solution