How long can callers be on hold?

The Interactive Voice Response system (IVR) on which your Belfabriek phone number runs can handle an unlimited number of callers. This means you can grow indefinitely with Belfabriek.

Of course, the number of employees answering your calls is, however, finite. That is why it is a good idea to activate the Queue function. This puts callers on hold in order of arrival, and transfers them as soon as employees become available.

When your callers are in the queue, this function plays soothing music, interspersed with the message that all employees are busy.

Waiting time: maximum 2 minutes

In order not to test callers' patience too much, we have set the default maximum waiting time to 2 minutes. Experience shows that a longer waiting time damages the mood of callers (and therefore your image).

Should the caller not get to speak to someone within that time, the connection is disconnected. As this is perceived as unfriendly by most callers, we recommend activating the Digital Answering Machine.

Instead of ending the call without knowing who called, this allows callers to leave a message; for example, with their question and their phone number. You will receive the audio recording at the e-mail address of your choice.

You activate this function via Belfabriek.app.

Shortening the waiting time

A logical way to shorten waiting time is to hire additional staff. This need not necessarily be on-site, as external call centres can also assist. With the Overflow function, you send callers from the queue to an external phone number.

Remember that you will find extensive statistics of your phone number in Belfabriek.app. This allows you to see what, over a longer period of time, are the busiest days and times. This helps you plan your days and schedule (extra) staff to minimise the number of callers on hold.