NICE INCONTACT

You cannot always shorten the queue. You can change what plays in it.

Australian call centre wait times went backwards this year — the industry average rose from 1:49 to 2:26, and every measured sector got slower. Nobody understaffs a contact centre on purpose. But the audio callers hear while they wait is the one part you control completely, and most CXone deployments are still running the message recorded at go-live.

Wait times: ACXPA mystery shopping research, January to April 2026.

What that means in practice

Written by the people who own the message

Not by whoever has console access this week.

Changed the day it needs changing

An outage, a delay, a campaign — the same day, not the same quarter.

Every queue, separately

Different words for sales, service, accounts and after-hours.

Reporting on what actually played

Which message, which queue, how often.

How a change gets made

  1. 1

    Write the announcement

    In the Kiosk, by whoever owns that particular queue.

  2. 2

    Choose the voice

    Pick the read and the bed, and hear them together before you commit.

  3. 3

    Approve

    A manager releases it.

  4. 4

    Pushed into CXone

    The Kiosk uploads it for you. The whole run takes about two minutes, and nobody handles a WAV file by hand.

Also worth knowing

  • Optional content items — historical facts, riddles, quizzes — refresh on their own between promotions
  • Outage and event announcements carry their own start and end dates, so a Christmas message cannot still be playing in February
  • Audio uploads to each queue separately, so a sales promotion never plays to somebody waiting on support

Hear what your CXone callers could be hearing

Tell us how your queues are split and we will produce a sample for the busiest one.