Why Outdated or Inaccurate Marketing Content Is Making Your Business Look Stupid!
The bulk of our blog posts have the reader in mind as it relates to everything about on hold messages, including on hold marketing strategies,best practices, music on hold do’s and dont’s, how to leverage hold-time as an invaluable marketing and customer service tool, etc. Additionally, we also stress the importance of preventing on hold advertising content from becoming stale, or giving out incorrect/inaccurate information. Today, we’ll have none of that! I am giving you my very own personal experience on why incorrect or inaccurate marketing information (not just messaging on hold) is most certainly hurting your business, and probably more than you realize.
In a unscheduled (and unexpected) Friday meeting, our company was approached to attend a Convention for a National Group that we provide services too. Knowing that it’s been a couple of years since we’ve taken a hard look at our tradeshow marketing, we decided it was time to freshen things up a bit, and it was time to consider a makeover of our exhibitor booth, and we would begin that process during a staff meeting the following week. However, while enjoying my first cup o’ joe of the day, I decided to poke around on the internet, and see what options may be out there. After hitting the keyboard, entering my search, and checking out a few sites – Bam! I found what I thought was a real good quality product, and for a very reasonable price. I poked around a bit, checked out a few testimonials, etc. Then, I did a comparison of other companies online, and it was clear the company I had such high hopes about, stood head and shoulders above the rest! Well, until….
The Company advertised on their site that they’re “Open 7 days a week 8-8 “, so I thought, “Hey great, I’ll give them a call.” Well no one answered the phone when I called at around 10 am. I though, ok well maybe there’s just some delay in them opening, and I’ll try back again. Well, I did try back again, at 1pm, and again at 3pm. And no one ever answered the phone? Sunday afternoon I had some downtime, and decided to give them another ring, but the result was the same, no answer, just voicemail. So, at this point I decided to hop back online, and check out the company’s website again. Partly because I wanted to a little more digging around, and partly because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t completely crazy about them advertising being open 7 days a week, from 8-8. While on the site, I verified my lack of need for lobotomy, and confirmed the company was in fact advertising that they’re open 7 days a week. I also noticed another little nugget of information that I hadn’t noticed when previously on the site, which caused for a raised eyebrow.
The company was promoting their “spring” sale that is good through April 30th. Well, that would probably be a great deal, except we’re now in the second week of June. So, between no one answering the phones over the weekend, and seeing the outdated advertisement my thoughts were: “If you’re not paying attention to the message that your business is giving, then why would I think you would pay any more attention to my needs as a prospective client!”
Needless to say in our staff meeting we narrowed things down to a few companies, one of which was the one I investigated a bit over the weekend, and expressed my concerns to my colleagues, and we decided to go with a different company. Out of curiosity however we gave them a call, and they did answer their phones. When the salesperson answered the phone, I explained that I had called over the weekend, and no one answered the phone. I had also mentioned that while interested in the promotional offer was that still valid in June, as it ended in April? The representative was apologetic, and said: “ the hours on our website are incorrect as we changed them a few months ago, and regarding the promo offer advertised at the site, that was no longer available, and they just haven’t gotten around to removing it from the site as of yet.”
I politely thanked the rep for his time and hung up the phone. The sad thing in all of this is, the company really had some rave reviews about product quality and price, and for all I know, maybe they are able to deliver, but they clearly lost a sale, because their marketing information was both inaccurate, and outdated, causing us not to have those warm and fuzzy feelings, so we elected to go elsewhere.
The moral of the story? …Whether you are a one-man business or a multi-billion dollar marketing department, “letting a marketing message become outdated” isn’t a viable strategy. The marketing message needs to be accurate, timely and relevant. I would be doing our readers an injustice if I did not point out, that this very same scenario applies to your on hold marketing content, if you’re not on top of your game, you could have your brand looking hopelessly outdated… in under 60 seconds! Often times clients’ have seasonal hours, yet don’t updater their message to inform callers of the change. Some have also admitted to promoting discontinued product/service offerings because they weren’t paying attention to their on-hold content.
Don’t let outdated marketing information make your business look stupid. Consult with The Original On Hold about our powerful and affordable on hold messaging update plans to keep callers informed of your latest developments and drive more sales. There’s no excuse to play inaccurate or out-dated on hold messaging, because with Message Xpress, our 24/7 online content manager, you can update messages at anytime, from anywhere!
