Patent ID: 8548157

Claim:
A method comprising: providing wireline telephone service to a residence for a customer to place telephone calls; receiving a telephone call at a customer service center; prompting a caller of the telephone call to input a monetary value to reduce a wait time to receive customer service, wherein an amount of time reduced from the wait time corresponds to the monetary value according to a fixed monetary value per minute rate; prompting the caller with a senior agent help option to connect the telephone call to a next available senior customer service agent for a fee, wherein the next available senior customer service agent has a higher customer service skill ranking than a junior customer service agent; connecting the caller to a first on-hold queue associated with junior customer service agents when the senior agent help option is declined; and in response to selection of the senior agent help option: determining whether the caller has an account associated with the customer service center; when the caller has an account associated with the customer service center, charging the fee to the account and connecting the caller to a second on-hold queue associated with senior customer service agents; when the caller does not have an account associated with the customer service center, prompting the caller for payment information; and upon receipt of the payment information from the caller, placing the caller in the second on-hold queue associated with senior customer service agents.