How long will they actually wait?
Shorter than almost any phone system is configured for. Most businesses inherited a ring-time setting from whoever installed their system and have never examined it, and it is one of the few things you can change in a minute that changes how many calls you get.
The setting nobody looks at
Somewhere in your phone system is a number of seconds before a call diverts to voicemail or anywhere else. It is usually twenty or thirty, because that is a sensible-sounding default. Thirty seconds is roughly six rings — long enough for a caller in a hurry to decide nobody is there and open the next search result, having never reached anything at all.
Patience depends on why they rang
A leak or a breakdown gets a few rings before they move on, because something is actively going wrong.
They have three tabs open and no attachment to any of you yet.
They will wait, ring back, and try again, because they specifically want you.
One-handed, distracted, often walking. The threshold drops for everybody in that state.
Where you lose them invisibly
A caller who hangs up during the ringing leaves no trace at all: no voicemail, sometimes not even a missed-call entry your handset shows you. So the calls lost to a too-long ring time are exactly the ones you can never learn about from your own records, which is why this setting survives unexamined for years in businesses that would fix it in a minute if they could see the cost.
Change it this week
Shorten the divert to around fifteen seconds — three rings — so that something answers while the caller is still committed. If your phones are genuinely staffed, that is long enough for somebody to pick up; if they are not, the caller reaches something useful instead of deciding nobody is home. Either way it is a one-minute change in your provider’s settings with a measurable effect, and it is worth doing before you change anything larger.
Frequently asked
Less time than most phone systems assume — often only a few rings, and least of all for urgent problems or people comparing options. Existing customers wait considerably longer.
Around fifteen seconds, about three rings. Thirty seconds is roughly six, which is long enough for a caller in a hurry to decide nobody is there.
Because a caller who hangs up while it is ringing leaves no voicemail and often no missed-call entry. These are the losses your own records can never show you.
Fifteen seconds is still long enough for someone to pick up. If nobody does, the caller reaches something useful instead of concluding nobody is home.