Onholdwith.com has released its annual report, The Top 10 Worst Hold Time Offenders of 2022. Powered by Fonolo, the industry leader in cloud-based call-back solutions, this online database records Twitter complaints about long hold times to showcase the negative impact of poor customer experience.

This year, airlines took the top three spots, and accounted for seven out of the 10 worst hold time offenders, as measured by the volume of customer complaints on Twitter.

Delta Airlines topped the list and was designated the worst hold time offender for the second year in a row – they also took the number one spot in 2017. Southwest Airlines and American Airlines placed second and third respectively. In total, airlines accounted for 35% of all tweets where hold time is mentioned.

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Given the state of the travel industry and staff shortages across the contact center space, Fonolo CEO Shai Berger says these numbers are staggering but not surprising. “It just goes to show how important it is for contact centers to have a crisis plan in place,” says Berger. “But businesses need to take action before an emergency strikes — and from what we can see, most airlines missed their opportunity to do so.”

Fonolo launched #OnHoldWith in 2011 to highlight the importance of customer experience and promote the use of call-back technology in contact centers. Today, call-backs are much more prevalent across the industry. Still, Berger says there is a lot more contact centers can do with this technology to benefit their callers.

“Contact centers shouldn’t think of call-backs as a simple add-on. Instead, they should consider how this tool fits into their customer experience strategy,” says Berger. “Eliminating the need for hold time is the first step. But if you don’t have the tools and infrastructure to serve your customers effectively, you put your business’ credibility at risk.”

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