Might this visibility increase the attention this bank gives to reducing wait times?

By Jason Sherrill
Posted on May 18, 2009

If you've ever called your utility company, credit card company or any large corporation, you've likely experienced the frustration of sitting on hold for painfully long periods of time. Some companies have helpful phone systems that will tell you that you're caller number X in the queue, or that your expected wait time is Xteen minutes. That's cool, and helpful, but today I saw something on one of my banking websites that I think raises the bar for companies providing telephone customer service.

Ally Bank, formerly GMAC Bank, released a new website on Friday. On their website they're touting that they are a "better kind of bank." My initial response was that this is just another trite tagline cooked up by a sans-creativity marketing team, and it may very well be; however, I did notice something unusual at the top of their website.

Telephone wait time in upper right corner

Wow, they're telling me how long my wait time will be before I even call. Now that is helpful! I also wonder if perhaps that level of visibility doesn't convey to the employees a greater importance of helping customers quickly.

This reminded me of my idea on how to improve the speed of checkout lines at the grocery store. I have yet to see this implemented anywhere though.