What is Acceptable Latency for VoIP? Plus How to Stay Below It

VoIP latency can significantly impact the quality of customer interactions, especially in call centers, where even minor delays can lead to awkward pauses, overlap in conversation, and customer dissatisfaction. Understanding and managing latency, which is the delay between when someone speaks and when the other person hears it, is crucial since it becomes perceptible at 150 milliseconds or more. This delay is compounded in AI-driven call centers due to the additional processing steps involved in transcribing, analyzing, and responding to speech, making it imperative to target latency well below 100 milliseconds. Various factors contribute to latency, including geographic distance, codec selection, and network infrastructure, with solutions like edge processing and quality of service configurations helping to mitigate its effects. High latency not only disrupts conversational flow but also impacts customer perception and brand credibility, as customers often attribute technical failures to systemic issues rather than isolated incidents. By strategically addressing latency through network optimization, codec preferences, and real-time monitoring, companies can improve customer experience and operational efficiency, ultimately reducing the cognitive load on agents and enhancing the overall effectiveness of AI call systems.

No tracked trend matches for this post yet.