Play Estimated Hold Time to waiting callers

Some callers will happily wait if they know it is two minutes, but will hang up after thirty seconds of silence. VICIdial's Play Estimated Hold Time gives them that information: before they connect to an agent, they hear a spoken guess at how long the wait will be. It pairs nicely with showing position in line, and like that feature it lives in the in-group settings. Here is how to switch it on and tune when it speaks.

What the caller hears

When a call lands in an Ingroup with no free Agent, it waits in the Call queue. With Play Estimated Hold Time set to Y, VICIdial calculates a predicted wait and reads it to the caller before they are transferred. This is the Estimated hold time feature, and it answers the question "how long is this going to take" rather than "where am I in line," which is what Place in line covers.

You can run both features at once. Many centers announce position first, then the estimated wait, so callers get a full picture and decide for themselves whether to keep holding. Neither feature changes how fast you answer; they simply set expectations, which is often what keeps a caller on the line rather than hanging up and trying again later.

Controlling when the estimate plays

The key dial is Calculate Estimated Hold Seconds. This is how many seconds a caller sits in the queue before VICIdial works out the estimate and announces it. The default is 0, but the minimum that actually takes effect is 3 seconds. Letting the call settle for a few seconds means the system has enough information to make a sensible guess rather than reacting to the very first moment of a busy spike.

If you want to understand how VICIdial arrives at that number in the first place, that math is worth its own read so you can set realistic expectations with your team.

Handling very short waits

Announcing "your estimated wait is eight seconds" feels odd, and by the time it finishes playing the caller could already be talking to someone. For that, fill in the Estimated Hold Time Minimum Filename field. When the calculated wait is at or below 15 seconds, VICIdial plays that friendlier short-wait prompt instead of reading a tiny number. Two related fields let you tune it:

• Minimum Prompt Seconds: set this to the actual length of your short-wait file so the timing lines up.
• Minimum Prompt No Block: set to Y to let a caller behind this one reach an agent while the prompt is still playing.

Turning it on and testing

Open the in-group, set Play Estimated Hold Time to Y, pick your Calculate Estimated Hold Seconds, and optionally fill in the short-wait prompt. Save, then make a few test calls during a quiet period and again during a busier one so you can hear how the estimate shifts. For the wider context on queues, prompts, and routing, the inbound call handling guide ties it all together, and our piece on callers stuck on hold covers what to do when the estimate gets uncomfortably long.

Want a VICIdial server where these queue prompts are already in place and ready to tune? Have a look at our plans and pricing.