Smartflows Widgets - The Waiting Experience Widget

The Waiting Experience widget allows you to customize what callers experience while waiting, including:

• Waiting Music: The music played during the caller's wait time
• Estimated Waiting Time (EWT): An optional feature to inform callers of their expected wait time in the queue

Waiting Music

This is the music callers hear while waiting in the queue.

• If this widget is not added to your flow, a default waiting music track will play
• You can set different waiting music for each branch of your call flow
• The waiting music will only play for the ring time set in the call flow

You have two options for waiting music:

• Audio Library:
  • Use a music file from Aircall’s audio library
  • After selecting a track, you can preview it by clicking the “play” icon below the "Select audio" field
• Custom File: Upload your own music file for a personalized waiting experience

Estimated Waiting Time (EWT)

The EWT feature provides callers with an approximate wait time before they are connected to an agent.

• Toggle on the Let callers know their estimated waiting time option to activate this feature
• Once enabled, callers will hear their estimated wait time while waiting in the queue
• You can specify how often the EWT message plays while callers wait
• By default, the first EWT message will always play after 30 seconds of waiting music or ringtone
• EWT is based on the average time it takes for calls to be answered in a specific branch of the flow. The calculation uses data from the last 10 minutes of accepted calls, giving more weight to recent calls. Each time the EWT is announced, it is recalculated to provide up-to-date information
• EWT messages will not play in the following cases:
  1. During Ring to Internal or Ring to External scenarios
  2. After dialing an extension

In some situations, generic fallback messages are played instead of EWT:

• “Thank you for your patience. We’ll be with you as soon as possible”
  - Played if no calls for the specific number have been answered in the last 7 hours.
• “We are currently experiencing a high volume of calls. We will be with you as soon as possible”
  - Played if the EWT exceeds 1 hour, the caller has waited longer than the initial EWT or more than 20 minutes and if no new calls have been answered in the last 10 minutes

Additional Information:

1. How Estimated Waiting Time is Calculated: The Estimated Waiting Time (EWT) is calculated using data from calls received in the past 10 minutes for each flow branch. We use a logarithmic weighting system, meaning that more recent calls have a greater impact on the average waiting time, while calls from earlier in the 10-minute period have less influence.

2. Language of the Message Heard by Callers: The language of the EWT message is based on the language set for the phone number. Each number has a predefined language. Currently, supported languages include English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Norwegian.

By combining Waiting Music and Estimated Waiting Time, the Waiting Experience Widget ensures a more engaging and transparent waiting process for callers.