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Telephone wait times
Re this news story:
http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/welfare-rights/news/item/telephone-calls-to-the-dwp-in-respect-of-working-age-benefits-should-be-ans
The minister says 2 minutes.
He should simply call 03456088545 to check this:
1. I called that number.
2. I wait exactly 54 seconds to go through the options. I could possibly shorten this if I already know the 5 options it gives me and what to hit before that.
3. By the time it starts ringing I am on the line for 1 minute 20.
4. Phone then rings before I get the “Please hold” and some info about money advice. I am then on to the hold music: 2 minutes and 10 seconds to get to this stage.
5. On this occasion the phone was answered by an agent. I get through at 3:15
I don’t think it is possible to get to the hold music without spending at least 2 minutes on the phone. So either Lord Freud is wrong or he measures the length of the phone call differently to me.
I would be amused if this thread collected evidence of people waiting longer than 2 minutes to get through. And Lord Freud might even be told about it.
[ Edited: 16 Sep 2015 at 03:08 pm by Martin Williams ]Here’s a link to Lord Freud’s written answer -
i recently contacted a member of dwp staff i know personally whilst on hold to the inquiry line and asked him if pcs were on strike and i didnt know about it.
think i was up to about 9 minutes at that point.
Martin - it’s not possible to short circuit the options at the beginning of the recorded message - if the required option is selected at an earlier stage nothing happens and one still has to listen to the intro. info. So much for smart technology! Oh, and a nice additional profit to the telecoms service provider?
Martin - it’s not possible to short circuit the options at the beginning of the recorded message - if the required option is selected at an earlier stage nothing happens and one still has to listen to the intro. info. So much for smart technology! Oh, and a nice additional profit to the telecoms service provider?
You can short circuit at the point you get to “You now have 5 options”. If you then hit, for example, “3”, for ESA before they have started reading the options it goes to the next bit of pre-recorded time wasting about not contacting them for 9 days if you have sent a medical certificate (which is appalling advice to be giving to someone who’s payments are suspended whilst waiting for the med cert to be logged as they might be better to take a copy down the JCP etc).
Just been on hold from 17.25 through to the lines closing at 18.00. Admittedly that is after 5 but if you advertise as the lines being open to 6 you should at least try and get near to the daytime standard.
During normal hours it is very variable - some calls picked up immediately, sometimes I’m on hold for 5 minutes, occasionally on hold for 10+ mins. On average I would estimate that they don’t hit the 2 minute target but in fairness I don’t think they are too far off it either.
Martin - it’s not possible to short circuit the options at the beginning of the recorded message - if the required option is selected at an earlier stage nothing happens and one still has to listen to the intro. info. So much for smart technology! Oh, and a nice additional profit to the telecoms service provider?
You can short circuit at the point you get to “You now have 5 options”. If you then hit, for example, “3”, for ESA before they have started reading the options it goes to the next bit of pre-recorded time wasting about not contacting them for 9 days if you have sent a medical certificate (which is appalling advice to be giving to someone who’s payments are suspended whilst waiting for the med cert to be logged as they might be better to take a copy down the JCP etc).
Sorry for lack of clarity - my point being that one has to wait until that point in the pre-record. DWP should make it possible to select the required option at the very start of the call. Advisers (& many claimant) will know the preamble off by heart!
Can they change the hold music periodically? I am thoroughly sick of Vivaldi! Wouldn’t Blondie’s “hanging on the telephone” be more appropriate?
Is a target time an average? If so, is it the mean, mode or median? If it’s a mean, it could mean 50% of people get through instantly and 50% get through after four minutes. If a median, it’s fairly meaningless. If a mode, this may mean quite a lot of people are waiting much longer.
I second the proposal to vary the hold music. HMRC’s hold music I find to be quite funky and at least doesn’t send me catatonic and make me forget why I called in the first place.
It’s operational stakeholders next Tuesday - I will take all these examples and any more that are posted up to the end of Monday and raise it there - we have a session on customer communications - so the more examples the better. We could also, as Martin suggests, send a copy to Lord Freud - I would be happy to do that.
Can they change the hold music periodically? I am thoroughly sick of Vivaldi! Wouldn’t Blondie’s “hanging on the telephone” be more appropriate?
Or Astrud Gilberto’s Telephone Song - check out the lyrics: http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/t/telephonesongthe.shtml
Once spent the best part of a morning at my local GPs waiting to be seen. 35 consecutive songs about death played through the speakers on the reception counter. Did point this out to my GP. He didn’t believe me and walked into reception just as The End by The Doors gloomed in!
Tried that number and my lowest time so far is 3:56.
Martin - it’s not possible to short circuit the options at the beginning of the recorded message - if the required option is selected at an earlier stage nothing happens and one still has to listen to the intro. info. So much for smart technology! Oh, and a nice additional profit to the telecoms service provider?
You can short circuit at the point you get to “You now have 5 options”. If you then hit, for example, “3”, for ESA before they have started reading the options it goes to the next bit of pre-recorded time wasting about not contacting them for 9 days if you have sent a medical certificate (which is appalling advice to be giving to someone who’s payments are suspended whilst waiting for the med cert to be logged as they might be better to take a copy down the JCP etc).
Sorry for lack of clarity - my point being that one has to wait until that point in the pre-record. DWP should make it possible to select the required option at the very start of the call. Advisers (& many claimant) will know the preamble off by heart!
Peter, that certainly used to be the case but I tried it today and you can now press 3 to get ESA when the computer is still telling you to press 1 for Income support, on the 0345 number. You still have to listen to (and pay for) all of the guff at the beginning though.
Response times have certainly improved in recent times. It wasn’t too long ago that I would regularly have to wait 20 mins plus to get through to ESA but rarely more than a few minutes these days. The telephony team are also a lot more polite and helpful than they were a year or 2 ago.
Waited around 20 minutes this morning. Kept getting suggestion to phone between 8and 9am which is quiet time! I phoned at 8.10am. That said when answered the operator was polite and immediately said she would take me through implicit consent procedure.
I give up after 11 minutes as I heard a rumour that, like the Tribunals Service used to, they had a system where after 10 mimutes the call becomes a priority.
I often give up after 11 minutes; at least once a week. 2 minutes is a fantasy although I agree with Martin that it has improved over the last few months. They’ve been trained on implicit consent across the board now as well so it’s a rare day that I have to get into an argument with an adviser.
One handy tip where implicit consent is concerned; I’ve learned to tell the adviser what I need at the outset, before I give them the NINo; as they’re less likely to be wondering whether the info I am about to request will be available through IC. It has made a big difference.
I’ve given up trying to ring between 8-9. There may be less people calling but there seem to be only a couple of people covering the phones so it takes even longer to get through.
The thing that drives me mad is the recorded announcement about debt advice you have to sit through when you press the JSA option. I want to punch the stupid woman (whoever she is).