Motivate Callers and Increase Sales: A Marketer’s Approach To Customer On Hold Time

 So, you’ve had an epiphany. It’s time to finally take advantage of the time callers spend on hold at your business. Maybe the boss called in and was shocked at hearing a competitor’s radio commercial while on hold. Maybe the phone system has been upgraded? Or, the CEO got placed on-hold and what was playing for your hold music doesn’t properly reflect your brand image. No matter what the reason for finally deciding to take the leap to add on-hold messaging, here’s a big kudos to you.

When researching messages on hold, you’ll read about how it improves the caller experience, how it keeps callers on the line longer, how it creates a positive impression and how it reduces perceived wait times. While all of this is true, from one marketer to another at the end of the day on hold marketing  is all about advertising, results and being proactive!

Often times, businesses are simply looking for the least expensive way to do it, but rather than looking at on hold messages as simply a filler for caller hold-time, you need to look at it from a marketer’s perspective. In many ways, telephone on hold messages are the original form of content marketing, the creation and sharing of media content in order to acquire and retain customers.

And, when it comes to content marketing the experts tell you it must be engaging, timely, relevant and never stale. The same is true of on-hold marketing, and one of the biggest dangers is to leave that message on for years without any changes or updates. On-hold messages that grow stale may even irritate your existing customers who become burned out by hearing the same old on hold marketing content.

Want to really increase your revenue with on hold messaging? It’s time to get smarter, and design a strategy that allows you to be proactive in promoting time-sensitive sales, special events, products, services, seasonal offers, etc. to callers on hold. Grab a calendar. Grab your marketing plan. Look at what you need to achieve the next year, month by month and quarter by quarter. You know your marketing objectives. Now, flip your mindset around to that of your audience, and plan out message updates.

Businesses spend so much time and money trying to get people to call; they forget to focus on what they will actually experience when they do. This is where your marketing spend can end up wasted. Do you really want callers to hear about your 4th of July specials in October? Or, a/c services during the freezing winter?

Instead, you need to take control of this very important environment, and routinely present information about your business that is both quantifiable and sustainable. Taking a proactive approach to your on-hold marketing content will yield the greatest return on investment!