On hold Message Best Practice Tips for 2013

Even with advancements in technology, and hip social media channels, the telephone is still the preferred form of customer contact and waiting on hold is something that every individual will eventually deal with as they call a company for customer service. Even as innovative technologies have made us more connected and streamlined a number of communication processes, people are waiting on hold more often now than ever before.  Don’t think so? More and more websites have a click-to-call feature, and more and more of your prospects are surfing and calling directly from their mobile device!

Phone time presents an ideal opportunity to escalate sales. Using on hold messages gives your business a golden opportunity to tell potential buyers all about your brand, product and service offerings, while at the same time, improving the caller experience at your business!

Here are our tips for On-hold messaging Best Practices in 2013:

Define your goal

You may have a general idea of keeping callers on the phone while you place them on-hold, but you are lacking the clear detail. Your ultimate goal should be clearly defined. You need to set clear and achievable goals first before you even start. A good, clear goal is something like, ‘to lower the perceived wait time for callers by informing them of community events, or promoting new and existing products and services.  The more effort you put into the details the clearer the vision becomes.

Keep it Up-to-date

Think about putting your current promotions and most important announcements in the spotlight. Present to your captive audience know what you have for them instead of running the same message over and over. Maintaining your clients’ level of enthusiasm by giving them something to look forward to will assure you that they’ll always come back for more.

Call-to-action

If you are already changing and refreshing your audio regularly, you may sometimes hit a bit of a dry spell. If this happens, ask yourself “What do I want my caller to do?” Give your customers a reason to ask about a product or service and make sure you have a defined, easily measured call-to-action for each message.

Entertain your callers

Who says on hold messages have to be dull? Try to introduce a really cool fact about your company that might raise an eyebrow or mix male and female voices in a conversation. With an entertaining and informative message on hold keeping customers company, callers will most likely stay on the line.

The job of the on hold messaging system is to inform, yes, but its most important asset is to keep the caller from disengaging. Use these on hold Best Practices, and you will no doubt keep callers happy, and help increase your chances of earning that sale or referral.