The phone remains the most commonly used channel for contacting customer services. It is likely, if not inevitable, you will be put on hold at least once during a conversation. This is where telephone on-hold services come into play.
Make your customers happy over the phone
They say silence is golden. But when it comes to being kept on hold at the end of a phone line, not so much. In actuality, in the world of branding and messaging, silence is the sound of a missed opportunity.
From conference calls to customer support lines, it’s estimated that the average consumer will spend 43 days of their life on hold. More than 80 per cent of people are put on hold every time they contact a business. And silence is painful. If your caller is listening to dead noise, they are much more likely to hang up. So rather than subjecting your customers to silence, setting up telephone on-hold marketing can make the world of difference.
The benefits of telephone on-hold marketing
Hold music and messaging can provide more than just something for your caller to listen to.
- At the very basics, it increases customer retention on the call.
- Music and easily digestible messages can change a customer’s perception of time.
- This type of marketing enhances the customer’s first impression of your brand.
- Telephone on-hold messaging and music can boost sales.
- Your brand has the opportunity to inform and educate your callers.
Let’s dive deeper into these benefits
1. Increases customer retention
It’s entertaining.
The general purpose of telephone on-hold messaging and music is to keep people from doubting their connection and to stop them from hanging up. The dead silence, while on hold can actually cause confusion. This could build up their frustration.
Hold music is great at filling the silence in a way that nothing else can. Generally, music serves to keep people calm and somewhat entertained while waiting for service representatives to return to their call. It assures a customer that they’re in the queue.
2. Changes customers’ perception of time
On-hold music, as well as conveying valuable services through messaging reduces frustration and increases caller retention by making the hold time seem shorter.
No caller wants to wait in a queue, but sometimes that is unavoidable. Long wait times can lead to customer dissatisfaction as they begin to feel undervalued. A customer dissatisfied at an early stage in the purchasing process is less likely to buy from you.
Telephone on-hold marketing is the simplest way to counterbalance long wait times and customer dissatisfaction. Even during your busiest hours, if callers are entertained by some music and learning new information about your business, then they may not feel so irritated.
Companies can even provide estimated wait times for long customer service queues, and what number caller you are in the line.
3. First impressions
Telephone on-hold messaging makes a good first impression and shows your business’s unique personality.
Having this service set up is an easy way to improve any caller’s perception and experience with your company – making your business appear more professional and polished.
It makes you look more professional. When potential customers call you, they expect a certain level of professionalism. If you place someone on hold using a regular phone, they have no choice but to sit in silence. Your business telephone line, however, should immediately be recognised as a pathway to professional service. When you place your callers on hold and they hear messaging and soothing music, this is the impression you give.
Music on hold can also represent your brand. By aligning the music played to callers on hold with the music used in the company’s ongoing television or radio advertising spots, promotional messages can be reinforced and the brand image strengthened.
Most of all, telephone on-hold marketing personalises the caller’s experience. This type of marketing can make time on hold feel more personal and increase a caller’s overall satisfaction.
4. It’s an opportunity to boost your sales
Music on hold can be cleverly customised to sell further products when entangled with messages or promotions. Customers not only hear pleasant music but also the latest updates on the services (or products) you provide. Promotional or informative messages can be incorporated into music-on-hold selections to maximise their impact. S.O.H group provides free music with all our messaging on-hold services.
A customer may call you about one service, and be unaware of your other offerings. A business can, therefore, make the most of these customers’ hold time. They can cross-promote products and services to clients in an unintrusive way.
Such music provides a tremendous opportunity to freely advertise to your target audience, giving you access to inquisitive customers who are already in touch with you. These leads are likely to be warm and receptive. A simple way to maintain customers and elevate your sales at the same time.
5. Inform and educate callers
Another benefit of on-hold music is that it allows users to keep a log of audio files which may convey different messages.
For example, whilst customers are being transferred you may want to inform them of upcoming holiday hours and extra information such as sales. Conveying your valuable services and information in this way also saves your business time and reduces support inquiries.
Uploading any frequently asked questions that don’t necessarily need to be answered by an actual staff member is a great way to utilise on-hold messaging to its potential.
Layer your music with announcements from the voice of an artist you choose to create a full-on auditory experience.
S.O.H Group’s top tips
Be sure to avoid having your announcement loop too quickly. Also, keep your announcements short. This will not only annoy your callers but drown out important details with excessive information. Short phrases will register with callers more easily.
Overall, telephone on-hold marketing can be used as a smart and cost-effective branding tool to keep customers engaged. This can be the perfect solution for businesses that receive a high volume of calls and worry about losing potential clients due to long waiting times.
Why not make use of this tool to enhance your customer experience from the first point of contact? S.O.H Group offers tailored on-hold marketing services, alongside after-hours answering services and IVR prompts, to enhance your customer’s caller experience.
With S.O.H Group’s telephone on-hold services transform your telephone message communication into something positive, memorable and meaningful.
Contact our experts to help guide you step-by-step through our sound solutions. Follow us on Facebook or like our page on LinkedIn to get to know more about us.
