Abstract: A method, which may be carried through a computer and its modem or through voice contact, is used to minimize the telephone time necessary to establish direct voice contact with the computer technician or other service provider and to provide information to the technician about the computer system and program. When contact is made with the information provider, the caller indicates whether this is a reconnect or a new contact by supplying or not supplying a priority code. The caller is placed on a queue based on its priority code or if no priority code at the end of the appropriate queue. An indication of the current wait time for the particular product or problem taking into account not only the open lines currently in the queue, but other callers who will be calling back at an appropriate time is supplied the caller.

Abstract: A method, which may be carried through a computer and its modem, is used to minimize the telephone time necessary to establish direct voice contact with the computer technician or other service provider and to provide information to the technician about the computer system and program. When contact is made through the modem with the information provider's PBX, the caller's computer would send a signal, indicating whether this is a reconnect or a new contact. If the customer support telephone line is for a number of programs or if there are different queues for different problems, a dialog box can be used to supply the necessary information to select the appropriate queue. The telephone system would provide an indication of the current wait time for the particular product or problem taking into account not only the open lines currently in the queue, but other callers who will be calling back at an appropriate time.