Intentional waiting times on the phone: HP retracts support strategy

Making the support caller wait an extra long time so that they finally decide to use another contact option: The US technology company Hewlett Packard (HP) has deliberately pursued this strategy. The anger was all the greater when an internal paper came to light explaining the procedure to support staff. Now HP is rowing back.

The news portal The Register has access to internal documents for HP employees that reveal this. According to this, private customers from the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy should generally be kept on hold for at least 15 minutes. However, The Register clarifies that the list is not exhaustive. The products affected were PCs and printers.

HP wanted to make callers hang up

With this approach, HP probably wanted to encourage more customers to opt for the manufacturer's digital service offerings. Long waiting times should lead to the realization that there are faster ways to answer a support request. To this end, callers were to be repeatedly informed that there may be delays in connecting with a support employee and that digital service solutions are offered as an alternative. Customers were explicitly referred to the HP support website and a chatbot. At the beginning, every customer was explicitly told that it would take at least another 15 minutes, writes The Register.

The goal behind this, which HP is said to have told its employees: To minimize costs for cases in which HP is liable under warranty. HP is said to have explicitly described the procedure as "nudging". The term refers to the strategy of subtly persuading people to do a certain thing without using pressure, coercion or economic incentives.

Weekly statistics on how many customers gave up

HP is also said to have evaluated the behavior of support callers on a weekly basis, writes The Register. The focus was not only on the usual metrics such as satisfaction with the service or the progress of the support request, but also on how many callers in the targeted waiting loop finally gave up and chose another contact option.

Following media reports about HP's approach, the company has now changed course. An HP spokeswoman announced on Friday that telephone support will now take place again without the delays. She also emphasized what she sees as very good digital service offerings and the fact that customers are often unaware of these. However, customer feedback has shown that telephone support is sometimes indispensable.

This should not only please HP customers, but also the people at the other end of the phone line. Because as an anonymous HP employee who spoke to The Register pointed out: "Those who imposed the deliberate hold times have no idea what it's like to speak to a customer who has just had to wait 15 minutes to speak to support."

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