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Welcome 👋 new subscribers from my latest post at Content Marketing Institute.

When I call customer service, I hate waiting on hold.

A few years ago I experienced my first “we’ll call you back” feature. The prompt goes something like this:

“Your estimated wait time is 46 minutes. Instead of staying on hold, we’ll call you back when it’s your turn. Press 1 to proceed.”

After pressing “1,” I’m asked to record my name. Then, I’m told that I’ll be called back in approximately 46 minutes and the call ends.

I love this feature because:

• Every minute I sit listening to “hold music,” the more stressed I become
• I can return to work (or whatever else I need to be doing) and forget about the call

When I’m on hold, it’s hard NOT to think about the fact that I’m on hold 😤

I sit waiting for the customer service rep to pick up.

Worse, I hear the wait times tick down (but SLOWLY!) and that reinforces the frustration of being on hold.

Returning to what I was doing and forgetting about the call is bliss.

46 minutes later (right on schedule!), my phone rings and it makes me happy.

My minor complaint with this solution:

When I answer my phone and confirm that I requested the call-back, the system places me back into a queue and I wait there for a few more minutes.

Ideally, I confirm the callback and there’s a customer service rep in my ear right away.

But heck, the world isn’t perfect.

This got me thinking about the experiences we create as marketers.

How can we create convenience for our audience?

A few ideas 👇