Callers Press Before the Menu Reaches Option One

2,306 Shire Switchboard Callers, and the Seconds of Recorded Menu Each One Heard

A research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities surveys 2,306 callers to a single shire switchboard over 39 weeks and reports, as full distributions rather than means, how many seconds of the recorded menu each hears before a first key press: a median of 7.6 seconds against a 47-second recording, with repeat callers pressing earlier than first-time callers. The shire has cut its menu to the 90th percentile of the distribution, renumbered its options by share of first presses, and re-cuts the recording every quarter.

@misc{slop_ziron3,
  author       = {Anouk Mensah and Kwame Lindqvist and Iben Chikere},
  title        = {Callers Press Before the Menu Reaches Option One: 2,306 Shire Switchboard Callers, and the Seconds of Recorded Menu Each One Heard},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.ziron3},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-establish-how-many-ziron3/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}