Are You Holding Onto Customers Who Are Waiting On Hold?
For most types of businesses the telephone plays a major part in daily operations, but one of the continually problematic issues with quality of customer service in any given business environment is the average hold time customers must endure when calling in. This is overlooked by most companies, and is considered trivial, but (aside from breaking laws) this is probably the biggest mistake that a company can ever make.
Why Long Wait Times Are a Problem!
When they call in, they’re already on edge. A long hold time is just going to make this worse, they will continue to become more and more stressed and they will begin to worry if your company will be willing to even help, considering they are being made to wait so long. Plus they will feel devalued and deflated by this experience, and they’re likely to take to social media to broadcast their dissatisfaction, or give your company a negative online review. This will can cost you lost potential revenues of future customers who may be skeptical about doing business with you.
Why Poor On Hold Experiences Are Costly!
If you thought that long hold time or poor on hold experiences is a problem for the caller, then you’re quickly going to discover that it presents an even bigger problem for businesses. Why? It’s simple, it costs them money on numerous levels!
In the scenario above if you take an already upset or angry customer, exacerbate it by long wait times or a poor on hold experience not only will they jump ship to a competitor,
You now know that a bad on hold experience can be costly, but to make matters worse, if a caller was responding to a sales advertisement and are placed on-hold, studies show that “Over 60% of customers will abandon a call after just 60 seconds of waiting on hold.” Ouch! This represents a big time double whammy! Not only did you lose out on making the sale, but you’ve also wasted the valuable marketing dollars you invested in getting that prospect or customer to call.
What’s the Solution?
Now that we know why long hold times are a problem, how can we abate them a little? The answer is — custom on hold messages. Have thoughtfully designed on-hold messaging is critical in creating a positive telephone experience. An effective, engaging on-hold messaging strategy will retain customers on the line, prepare them for their upcoming customer service interaction and/or engage them with entertaining content.
When placing a customer on hold, there is the reality of time and its perception. Disney makes queuing for a ride part of the joyful experience. Airports deliberately place baggage collection a long way from the arrival gates because having to hang around waiting for their bags is more annoying to customers than having to walk.
Ready to Get Started?
Original On Hold has a team of experienced writers that brainstorm with you to develop a custom on-hold messaging solution that will help you brand engage callers, boost sales and improve your caller on hold experience.
