Customer service calls on hold resulted in 15 bn hours loss for Indians in 2023: Report
New Delhi: Customer service calls on hold resulted in a massive loss of 15 billion hours for Indians last year, resulting in likely $55 billion in economic loss output, a report revealed on Wednesday.

An average person spends more than one day each year on hold to address an issue or complaint (30.7 hours), according to new research from the AI platform ServiceNow.

Slow service solutions mean the average employee is spending 3.9 days to resolve each customer issue, the report noted.

“Indian businesses are at risk of losing two-thirds of their customer base in 2024 due to slow service solutions,” said Sumeet Mathur, SVP and Managing Director, ServiceNow India Technology and Business Centre.

Structural problems are pushing wait times further with 48 percent of Indians identifying inefficient internal communication as a major issue for customer service delays, while 47 percent say customer service staff lack decision-making power.

About 66 percent of respondents said they would consider switching to another company if their issue is not resolved within three working days.