If you’ve decided that it’s finally time to ditch that old, clunky, inefficient business telephone system, and switch to today’s more popular VOIP phone system. There’s no doubt, you’ll love the cost-savings, and the fact that VOIP systems are feature rich. But, one feature you and your customers won’t be thrilled with is the on hold music.

Many VOIP (aka cloud-based) phone systems such as Ring Central, Jive, 8 X 8 etc., come with default hold music as a part of their service, but VOIP providers are in the phone business, not the branding and marketing business. So, as you can imagine not a lot of thought goes into the default hold music they provide which is usually pretty bad!  However, the silver lining is that most VOIP platforms allow you to upload your own custom on hold audio recordings.

Ask yourself – how long did you wait the last time you needed to change an airline ticket or needed to deal with youbank, or get your license plates renewed?  Remember it’s all about the “caller experience”,  so ask yourself this – “Is the VOIP providers horrible funeral parlor sounding music going to do anything to improve the caller experience, keep callers from hanging up, or enhance your brand image?”  The answer is a resounding NO!

Here are some of the main benefits to using Custom On Hold Messaging:

1. Retain Callers/Reduce Caller Abandonment

How often do callers hear silence on-hold and wonder if they have been disconnected? Callers with silence on hold will often hang up within 40 seconds, while callers with on-hold messages will stay on the line up to 4 minutes. Callers who hang-up before giving you the chance to serve them is known as caller abandonment. No matter what you call it — lost calls will cost you sales and wastes marketing spend!

2. Create A Professional Image

Let’s face it. While callers are waiting for assistance, you have a great opportunity to create and reinforce your corporate brand. Today, people make instant opinions about your business based on the way you answer the phone and what they hear when placed on-hold. Businesses with silence on-hold sound small time and unprofessional. How important is the image of your business?

3. Sell Your Products and Services

Target the callers that call you. Keep in mind, your callers phoned you to learn more about your products and services. You have their complete attention; use this unique opportunity to educate your callers about all of your current marketing needs, corporate branding as well as timely promotions and events. Did you know that it is 10 times less expensive to sell additional products and services to your existing clientele than it is to attract new clients?

Final Thoughts…

It’s pretty common for business managers to question the value of adding on hold messages in addition to music that may be played by their business phone system’s call hold and park features. After all, callers are not going to have to wait more than a few seconds – aren’t they?

Well, callers are likely waiting on hold for a lot longer than you think! Studies show that average hold-time at businesses is over a minute, and when callers wait on hold in silence or canned music, 60% hang-up in less than 40 seconds. And, given the hectic activity of today’s lean and efficient businesses, customers ARE being held for even longer and longer durations.

The caller experience should be a primary focus of a business, rather than being completely overlooked! …  If you had message on hold, or even if you’ve never had messages before and then switched to a voip system, it’s ridiculous to think that because your voip system comes with funeral parlor sounding hold music that you no longer need custom on hold messages.

If you want to create a better experience for callers and increase sales, then try our risk free custom on hold demo or contact Original On Hold today!