Effect of Notifying Expected Waiting Time on Telephone System Performance

In a telephone system, the notification of expected waiting time brings valuable information to the callers so that they can make timely decision on whether to keep waiting or call back later. In this study, we investigate how the realization of this scheme affects the performance of a VA (Veteran Affairs) telephone system. In the proposed scheme, the callers are notified before joining the queue regarding the expected waiting time for the telephone service. A formula based on the number of callers currently in the system is used for providing the approximate expected waiting time. Four scenarios are formed based on different levels of exogenous patience time before abandoning the call and presence of advanced notification scheme. The investigation is carried out using discrete event simulation analysis. The results indicate that the effect of such notification scheme is scenario dependent, in which the patience level of callers plays a significant role on determining the potential benefits of providing callers the expected waiting time.