Top 5 Reasons Businesses Overlook On Hold Messaging

What are the most common misconceptions about On Hold Messaging?

At the Original On Hold, we’ve been making brands (in a wide variety of sectors) sound better for over 30 years. During this time, we have developed processes which allow us to deliver an exception level of customer service (just check out our Google Reviews!)  – and on the other side of the coin,  we also know a thing or two about helping our customers deliver a great service to their customers…

However, when it comes to both On Hold Messaging and the Caller Experience — to put it simply, some businesses just don’t get it! In our more than 3o years, we have been discovered a variety of misconceptions about the importance of implementing on hold messaging to not only raise brand awareness, but to provide for a superior caller experience.

We’ve listed below a few of the more popular misconceptions that we hear from potential and (now) customers. Here are a few of them:

“Our new VOIP Phones come with default On Hold Music”

Oh Boy! While it is true that today’s common voip/cloud-based phone systems do come with default on hold music,  in the majority of cases, it sounds like either cheesy 80’s porn music or something fresh off the elevator playlist!? We’ve all at some point been forced to listen to this kind of on-hold audio, and we are confident you’ll agree that it is hardly engaging and is therefore of very little value in the context of caller/customer experience.

The bottom line here is that voip service providers are in the phone business and not the audio marketing industry!

“We don’t place callers on-hold”

This is a fairly common response and ironically, has even been raised after we have ourselves have been placed On Hold with the prospect?!  In fact, more than about 80% of  phone calls to business are placed on hold, and on average for more than a minute — so, are you really sure you NEVER put any customer on-hold?!

If the answer is still no, callers will also hear on-hold messaging  if their call gets transferred, this is of course very common if your business has multiple departments with corresponding phone extensions.

“We can’t track the ROI”

It’s hard to have a marketing conversation these days without hearing ROI-this and ROI-that. It is, after all, one of today’s most beloved business buzz terms. And of course top management wants the “bottom line” on marketing’s contribution to business goals, and ROI is a handy yardstick. But is “return on investment” an accurate way to measure marketing effectiveness? Sadly – and perhaps even shockingly to some – the answer is no.

While “Plain” ROI is certainly an important metric, marketers beware, as this might hurt:  Using ROI to gauge impact can severely distort the true value marketing is delivering for your organization. It falls well short of helping us understand marketing’s contribution to business goals, or how those contributions can be improved. ROI is too limited. To gauge and improve marketing effectiveness, for example, we must factor in the strategic intent of all marketing investments a company makes.

When it comes to measuring the ROI of on hold marketing, it’s just not as simple as including promo codes tied to your on hold message and asking callers to mention it, which of course is one of the methods clients use, but an on hold message is a mix of disciplines from Branding to PR to Marketing.

Branding and PR is about indirect ROI while marketing is about direct ROI, but when all these functions are lumped into a single form like message on hold, companies have to consider the ancillary return on investment, which may not be as simple to measure, but it exists.

“It’s too expensive”

Sure, every company of course has different sized marketing budgets, but they all share the same common goal to increase sales and improve the customer experience.

That is specifically why we provide different on hold packages across a range of price points, so you can still invest in your brand, on a smaller budget, or be as proactive as you can be with new content updates every month.

It is also important to remember that On Hold Messages is not solely for the benefit of your callers, rather it works both ways; implementing a profession On Hold Marketing Strategy is a great way to advertise your products and/or services to people who are already interested in your business (they wouldn’t have called otherwise!).

Now regardless of the many benefits on-hold audio offer in contributing ton increased sales (as much as 30% or more in most cases according to OHMA) …  If you think it costs too much, then we strongly to encourage you to consider how much business you may be losing out on due to caller abandonment – callers who hang-up before giving you a chance to serve them!

If you’ve spent marketing dollars to get prospects to call, but they hand-up due to a poor on hold experience, then it’s very very simple! You lost a potential sale, and to rub salt in the wound — you wasted the ad spend to get the phone to ring.

“We’re just a small business, we don’t need it”

While this is a logical response, the size of your business does not eradicate your need for an On Hold Message. In fact, if you only employ a handful of people, there are inevitably going to be times when the required person is not available and a caller is placed On Hold.

Moreover, smaller businesses will naturally have a reduced marketing budget, this doesn’t mean however that you can’t compete with the bigger guys when it comes to innovative means of marketing; our on-hold solutions are utilized by all kinds of businesses, from Fortune 500’s to small family-run enterprises.

Final Thoughts…

So there you have it, our Top 5 Reasons business make the mistake of overlooking including on hold messaging as a part of their overall marketing and brand experience strategy.

Still not sure?  Then we invite you to take us for a test spin and see (and hear) our creative juices for yourself with a risk free custom on hold message demo trial for your brand!  We’ll script it, produce it and if you love it (which we’re confident you will) then you can implement your very own professional on hold messaging solution.