Does your on hold message help to market your business? Many phone systems have the ability to use on hold marketing messages.
As long as your customer or potential customer may be on hold, wouldn’t you prefer to have them listen to information that could lead to a sale rather than the local radio station or some beeping noise?
Take Advantage of These On-hold Marketing Message Benefits:
- Reduces caller hang-ups
- Enhances your company’s image
- Answers frequently asked question
- Communicates information about your products & services
- Communicates important history of your company
- Promotes and directs callers to your company’s website
Use On Hold Messages to Inspire Callers to Take Action:
- Cross-sell your products & services
- Communicate your hours of operation
- Identify key selling points for using your business
- Announce new products and special offers
- Relay news about upcoming events
- Reinforce your marketing positioning
My company has helped our clients create on hold marketing messages as part of their marketing programs. The idea is that after a caller has been on hold, invariably a caller will mention something like, “I didn’t know your company offered that service. Tell me more!”
In this day and age where social media marketing seems to be the latest hot shiny object, sometimes the use of the tried & true marketing tactics are left behind. Sometimes something as basic as a recorded voice explaining the benefits of one of your company’s services is enough to start a conversation that will lead to a sale.
So, if your company use on hold marketing messages, please share with me:
How often do you update them? Do you use a female or male voice? Does it annoy people or do they find it helpful? How many different messages do you use? How is it working for you?
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
The most fun hold messages are at Milwaukee’s best local pizza place, Pizza Shuttle. Folks love their on hold messages so much, they put the old ones up on their website: http://pizzashuttle.com/old.html
Call 414-298-9993 sometime and listen in. They do a GREAT job of this. I think they update them once a month or so, but I’m not sure anymore. Still, good stuff!
That’s a neat application of an onhold message Phil! thanks!
That is a neat article and indeed well thought out. IN fact it is a great way of using the time toward making new clients. Looking forward for some more on the same lines.
Hi Chris,
I agree it’s an opportunity missed by many companies. Tell me, do you recommend different messages for different types of callers ie. ones for existing customers and a different one for new clients where the primary difference may be in the depth of relationship?
Adrian
Adrian:
That would be great if your phone system can recognize an existing customer by phone number and play a separate message by type of customer. Many phone systems aren’t that sophisticated, so you have to settle for one-message-for-all. That said, you can record 5 or 6 messages and have them rotate thru the order. Cross selling new products and services to existing customers is usually an easier sale than convincing a new customer to make that first purchase.
Chris
Hi Chris,
What I meant was …wouldn’t it be great if when you called into a central switchboard they asked or identified you as a new or existing customer and, then, while they searched for the right person for you to speak they let you listen to the most appropriate message.
Make more sense? I’m sure that wouldn’t be too hard in tech terms or would it?
Adrian
Hi Chris:
I wanted to say thank you for your article, so many businesses think it’s just about sound.
I find that often times the IT department is put in charge of making these types of decisions and they can’t market their way out of a paperbag. They have never been schooled in that area. At Phone On Hold Marketing we refer to the service as your “On Hold Communication Network” as we believe it is much more than just messages and it separates from the rest of the competition.
I have been Chairman of the “On Hold Messaging Association” this past year, and it’s great to hear from someone who gets it. http://www.omha.org
Regards,
Pete Turpel
President/CEO
Phone On-Hold® Marketing Systems, Inc.
Pete:
Thank you so much! It’s a pleasure getting comments like this!
I’ll have to check out your association.
Chris
Adrian:
Oh yeah, that would be cool. I wonder if there is a way to do it with the incoming phone number? I mean so a human wouldn’t have to try to zip thru a database to see if you were a customer or not… wasting valuable on hold time. If there isn’t a way, perhaps this could be a new product idea??
Chris
Adrian:
That technology is available and is used in many take out locations. It is a function of the phone system. Search FIDELITY phone systems. They have software that accomplishes exactly what you were thinking.
Pete