On-hold call monitoring systems and methods

A method of monitoring a telephone call using a user electronic device, the method comprising:

• monitoring the telephone call using a background process while the telephone call is placed on hold process;
• enabling a second process to occur concurrently with the background process;
• detecting an indicator signaling the presence of a live operator on the telephone call;
• in response to the detecting, prompting the user to take control of the telephone call;
• receiving a user input responsive to the prompting;
• and
• giving control of the telephone call to the user.

A method of detecting the presence of a live operator on a telephone call, the method comprising:

• monitoring incoming telephone data from the telephone call for hold status information using a first set of keywords;
• determining whether the hold status information is detectable from the incoming telephone data based on the monitoring;
• and
• processing the incoming telephone data using an expanded set of keywords when the hold status information based on the determining, wherein the expanded set of keywords comprises indicators indicating the live operator is present on the telephone call.

A system for handling telephone calls, the system comprising:

• a database for storing call center information about a plurality of call centers;
• and
• a user telephone device configured to:
• receive a user indication to make a telephone call to one of the call centers;
• obtain the call center information for the one of the call centers;
• and
• enable on-hold monitoring based on the obtained call center information for the one of the call centers.

A server comprising a call center database, wherein the server is configured to:

• receive statistical information about a plurality of telephone calls, wherein the telephone calls are associated with a plurality of call centers;
• process the statistical information to generate call center information, wherein the call center information comprises at least one average on-hold wait-time for each of the call centers;
• and
• store the call center information in the call center database.