3 Reasons Having No Marketing On Hold Strategy Is Costly
One thing for sure is the cost of marketing is no joke, but another certainty is the cost of having no marketing strategy is even greater! In fact, it can be detrimental to your business, and this is especially true when it comes to on-hold time at your business.
Very few business owners actually call into their business to evaluate what the on-hold experience is like at their company. This is something we’ve covered in a previous blog post
When you’re slow to embrace on hold marketing, or have no strategy at all, the message from industry experts is clear – the risk of a poor caller experience is huge, but the rewards of a positive caller experience are infinite.
Below, we’ll take a look at three top reasons having no on hold marketing strategy is costly to your business, and how you can correct it.
1.Lost Business
Ask yourself: “How much extra business are you missing out on from existing customers? … Do you have any idea?” While it might be nice to think that callers know everything you can offer, the reality is – they don’t. The truth is, even your best customers forget! Have you ever had a customer or potential client say: “Gee, I didn’t know you also did this or that?” They haven’t got time to study your business inside and out, so it’s your job to keep waiting customers focused on your business.
Marketing on hold is the perfect medium for cross-promotion to drive more sales, as well as the perfect way to remind callers of all the great reason why they do business with you, and add value to their customer interaction. Don’t let callers buy from a competitor simply because they’re unaware that you could also satisfy their additional needs. Think about this for a moment. The more customers know about your business, the more likely they are to increasing their spending with you. Every day that your business goes without having an on hold marketing system in place, means everyday you’re losing out on missed opportunities.
2. Lost Customers
Remember, it’s not just a call, it’s a customer! Many business owners view that ringing phone simply as a caller, when in essence it’s more than that – it’s also a customer (or potential customer), and customers equal revenue.
A CNN survey found that 70 percent of callers in who hold the line in silence hang up in less than 60 seconds. This is known as “caller abandonment”, which stands for the percentage of people that hang up before their call is either answered or completely handled. And to make an already bad situation worse, according to a North American Telecommunications Association study 75% of those callers won’t call you back. In the U.S., caller abandonment results in as much as 40% in lost potential revenues.
Message on hold will entertain and engage callers. In fact, Call Center Metrics found that callers who had information to listen to remained on hold up to three minutes longer, thus giving you a chance to serve their needs, rather than lose a customer.
3. Wasted Marketing Spend
Since we now know that without a marketing on-hold strategy, you can lose business to competitors, and lose customer who abandoned their call, there’s also third hurdle to consider – wasted marketing spend!
Even though many people will begin an initial search for a product or service online, according to Smart Insights, the good old-fashioned telephone is still the preferred method for contacting businesses. So, whether you’re advertising your business in print, on tv, or online — your marketing dollars are driving inbound sales calls. You don’t need to be a math genius to quickly figure out that if you’re not properly handling these inbound calls, then you’re wasting precious advertising dollars.
These are just a few of the common problems which occur from having no marketing on hold strategy being implemented. The longer you continue without it, the harder it becomes to recover from it and the more damage you are likely to cause your brand.
Get in touch with the Original On Hold today to see how we can help.