Average wait time message using current queue activity?

Our abandoned rate is too high, but looking at the queue times on abandoned calls, we find that most people are dropping in under 5:00. We're wondering if we could keep most of those callers on the phone if they had a reasonable idea of how long they were going to have to wait.

It would be useful if:

1. The wait time message would tell each caller the expected wait time based on the queue length at the current time (or, if not possible, the average length over the last 30 minutes - we generally have two peak periods per day). 
2. The wait time message would play back to the user on a configurable time interval - 90 seconds, 2 minutes, etc. 
3. Each time the wait time message plays, it reminds the user of the options to:

• dial 1 to leave a message 
• dial "n" to keep your place in queue and get a call when your place in line comes up

Any update on the status of adding/updating this feature? It's disappointing that this functionality isn't available yet. We are forced to either offer a problematic (miscommunicating the wait time) user experience for our customers or one without wait times at all. We are definitely feeling the absence in our customer experience. 

I look forward to hearing that you've resolved this problem. We had to turn off the average wait time message because of it.

Hello,

Is there an update on this feature request? We have been getting numerous customers of ours rightfully complaining that the "current queues expected wait time" is not correct and is misleading. The messaging in the recording states the "current average wait time," which makes it very misleading because it's not the current queue wait time, it encompasses today's wait time. 

To continue to echo everyone's feedback, this is a useless feature that misleads customer expectations rather than sets them. 

Personally, I think wait time is also subject to much greater fluctuations than queue #. It would be great if instead of telling customers the wait time, it actually just told them their queue position, which is a more finite expectation than a nebulous and changing wait time expectation. 

It would be amazing if the Multibrand feature also made it possible to give this message by brand rather than individual number. A customer could call on a low-volume number for a high-volume brand and repeatedly hear a low wait time message when in actuality we have very high wait times for that brand to be services. One commenter also mentioned group which would be great, but since Multibrand is a paid feature it would be ideal if this was one of the benefits of that to set wait time by brand. 

Sadly Lateesha this will probably never get fixed. They have the similar things with chat where people have been requesting things for over 3 years and they never push to get them looked into. Zendesk likes to push out new features but they don't really spend time fixing/correcting/improving what is already out on the front end. They do a lot of back end stuff but they don't really focus on front end customer experience. They have over like 150k customers so the 10 - 20 up votes these get they don't really tend to focus/care.

I would like to echo Richard's feedback.  Currently, due to Coronavirus, we are experiencing an uptick in volume. During this VERY sensitive time, it is practically infuriating for a client to hear "your average wait time is 2 minutes" and then they are on hold for 10 minutes.  Now, as a default, I've had to remove the message altogether and our clients are just left there wondering when anyone will pick up.

I do not agree with how this "average" is determined. For our company, we operate 8 am-5 pm PST Monday-Friday but the average wait time calculation is taking into account all the hours we are not open when the wait time is "0".  So even though we have been consistently in the 10 minute wait time during business hours, this average is being brought down but wait times that do not even exist in our business. 

I'm very hopeful that this will get product eyes on it soon. It is detrimental to client experience and is not transparent enough to help clients make a better decision (i.e. leave a voicemail, get a callback, go to our Help Center, etc).

I would love to have any recommend workarounds in the time being.  Thanks!

This should seriously be something that Zendesk should be actively fixing. We had to turn it off because this feature lowered our satisfaction by 4% due to constantly lying and misleading the customer. This is also a known feedback issue that appears to have been around for a while (over a year) but is actively ignored and it seems they don't want to fix despite it being relatively easy considering it is already built. What I guess would be the new question is why does Zendesk actively want to have our satisfaction lowered instead of building something that would assist with customer satisfaction?