NFL Kick Off: Is Your On hold Marketing Playbook Ready
Sept 5th kicks off the 2012-2013 NFL Season! Whether you’re a true die hard , or just an avid football fan, when it comes to marketing for your business, there’s a lot to learn about thinking like an NFL team. How you say? It’s simple. If you were an NFL team you wouldn’t face your opponent without a good playbook, and when it comes to competing for customers and capturing the sale, you had also better have a good playbook, otherwise your opponent might win — and you lose!
Just like when coaches draw up play schemes, you too have so much potential to win customers over and over again when you make an effort to put together marketing playbook that includes a professional on hold message?
Some businesses think their callers only have to hold for just a few minutes or seconds, so what’s the big deal? Well, using our football comparison, we’ve seen countless games, even championships won or lost in a matter of mere seconds. Time can be your best friend, or your worst enemy, it’s a matter of what you do with it that counts.
Some establishments think caller hold time is minimal, and they fail to take advantage of on hold messages’ terrific power to advertise products and services. Instead, they leave their callers listening to dead air which does absolutely nothing except frustrate callers, and cause them to hang up.
This is like being faced with a 4th quarter, 2 minute warning situation, with no time outs, and your team must march down the field and score in order to win the game. As they say: “While anything can (and usually does) happen on any given Sunday”, the fact is teams practice and prepare over and over for this exact situation, so they know the right play to call, and if they execute properly they give themselves a chance to win the game.
We already know that it’s inevitable for companies to put callers on hold due to the massive volume of calls received every day. While it would be expected for customers to hang-up when they’re not attended right away, studies have already proven that they tend to stay on the line especially when there are there’s music on hold & messages entertaining them.
Companies who utilize on hold messages have in fact called the right play! Why? Because study after study has shown that on hold messaging increases caller retention, enhances the caller experience and increases sales. In addition, 10% to 15% of callers admitted to buying something extra from the products and services advertised in a company’s on hold message. How’s that for an added sale and profit?
So when callers are on hold at your establishment, will you be prepared win with an on hold marketing playbook? Or will your brand fall short and lose?
