As a small business owner how you spend your marketing and advertising budget is tantamount to your success.  Investing in advertising such as radio, newspaper and social media to get noticed by your potential customers and motivate them to spend money with your business means paying attention to the details.  When you have hit the jackpot and the phones are ringing off the hook someone gets put on hold.  What do they hear?  If it’s nothing but silence maybe they will think you hung up on them.  If it’s a beep maybe they think something broke and they are in a dark hole.  

That simple detail left unattended is extremely important.  After all it is the first impression they get of you and your business.  I suggest you call your own company and wait on hold, do you think it’s a great first impression?   Are you presenting a company that can fulfill your customers wants and needs?  Think of it as a waiting room without chairs, no People or Time magazine to while away a few seconds, a cold frigid room.  That greeting can bring to a sudden stop all the momentum you had with your well thought out marketing campaign.  

One of the worst examples I’ve heard is a county in my state that just spent tens of thousands of dollars to re-brand themselves with TV Ads and a video on how great the community is to live in.  They paid a consulting company precious tax dollars and even have a cute little jingle to go along with the video. And guess what? When you call any city agency in that county and get put on hold what do you think you hear? A generic recording every 4-6 seconds apologizing that you are on hold. No message about how great the county is to live in or any of the great services they offer, just a cold waiting room without the Time or People magazine, no welcoming message reaffirming the great choice they made in contacting that county.  No message to warm things up, just apologies, and more apologies after 15 seconds of dead air.

Create a “theater of the mind”.  Warm up the waiting room so to speak.  Place some posters on the wall, friendly background music, comfortable chairs and a couple or your version of a Time or People magazine on the table, pamphlets of your business.  This will bring to mind a sense of a larger more professional company or medical practice to do business with and trust. Other aspects of On Hold Messaging are to direct your customer to your web Site. Where you have web only specials or maybe it’s to download an application ahead of time to save time checking in.  

Use your message on hold to “up-sell” your customers.   This should be the time to let them know that the widget or service they are interested in is available in a much better version and will benefit them more than there first choice.  Why this is so important is because many customers won’t let YOU talk them into a more profitable version, let your message shine through to them in a non-threatening way, a simple suggestion while they are on the phone.

What ever your business category is we have many ways to help you think through an effective on hold message.  For example our pharmaceutical companies tell us they use their on hold messages to upgrade customers when they fill their prescriptions.

For example, a pleasant taste can be added to their pediatric patients liquid medications that make it go down easier and parents love it.  But they don’t know about that service until after receiving their med, if only they had heard about that service on the phone while waiting for a pharmacist to assist them.  Or a Dentist offering a special on teeth whitening that needs more time to allow for the appointment and the patient didn’t know about it until too late to schedule that day.  

Messages to sell high profit items that a counter salesperson may not have time to talk about are successful for an auto mechanics garage, life time tire rotation explained by a pleasant friendly voice will come across as a suggestion they will like instead of hearing from your staff they may not understand the nuances of salesmanship.  And what do those lifetime tire rotation customers do?  They come in regularly to get their tires rotated and while they are at it an oil change, new belts and to fix the air conditioner.  It’s marketing and professionalism AND profit in one well thought out On Hold Message.   Educate your customers, and inform them about your company and community involvement. Awards you have won over the years. Some of our clients use On Hold Messages to entertain while on hold with trivia about their industry.

So, do you really want to put someone on Hold and apologize over and over again, is’t almost like apologizing they had the thought to even call you. Not a great start for a potential new or current customer.  Let us show you how you’re on hold message will increase your profits, bring trust and bridge the gap when your customers and patients call you.  And don’t forget to keep it consistent, use the same voice for your IVR messages at a reasonable price to make your welcoming on hold message audio as consistent and pleasant as it should be.  Our pricing is below competitors and we are the best in the industry with additional script writing available.  Placing your customers on hold in an unwelcoming cold waiting room surely will not match your well thought out marketing campaign.  And we make it easy to for you to make a message on hold a reality for your company today.  Talk to us today, you’ll never hear us apologize!   Give our demos a listen or request a free sample using your company or practice for the message. No contact, 3-12 changes a year or a simple start up package. We have something of every company’s budget.