Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 2) | Page 108

Practice Issues
The anxiety is more intense when someone calls a hotline for social problems
as it is likely to be stressful and emotionally painful because of the reason
for the call. Waiting on the line in silence may trigger fearful thoughts and
stress while waiting. This is certainly true of hotlines for protection and the
SOS hotline.
When there is no explanation about why they are waiting, the waiting can
seem longer than when waiting with an explanation for the delay. The
unexplained nature of the wait increases the stress of waiting, making
callers more likely to hang up. The emotional associations with anxiety may
influence judgments and cause them to behave in a way that is contrary
to self-interest. In addition, when thinking about other experiences, callers
are more likely to remember calls when they waited on hold for a long
time rather than calls when the hold time was short and reasonable. This
is because highly emotional memories are generally more salient than
unemotional memories.
Implications for Designing Intervention
So what can we do to prevent negative emotional associations when calling
the hotline? Some have tried the following. To be more responsive, a hotline
will now provide an outgoing message that lets the caller know how many
minutes when someone will answer that call and also when the caller can be
connected with a person who can help the caller with the specific need or
connect the caller to resources. To avoid a caller hanging up, it is advisable
that the outgoing message be made early in the call. While callers may
understand that they are waiting because other callers are ahead of them, it
helps to make this more explicit.
The experience of waiting becomes tolerable, and the stress of waiting is
decreased when waiting times are explained in a way that is seen as fair
and justifiable. In addition, the explanation of the wait time provides an
opportunity to reinforce that callers are not alone. After all, the existence of
a queue means that other people are facing similar problems which means
that it is worthwhile to stay on the line. The experiences of callers of hotlines
are not unique to hotlines and these similar improvements should also be
considered if we want clients to call for help more readily when they have
difficulties.

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