Why Your IT Staff Shouldn’t Choose Your Music On hold and Message Company
We get lots of inquiries here at The Original On hold Inc., and so today I’m going to address one of the mistakes that many uninformed business owners, and management teams make when deciding to implement a marketing on hold strategy.
Before I get started, this is not a knock on you I.T. folks out there (we know you do a great job). This is moreover the fact that, while you may think IT staff are a jack of all trades, you should let them stick to what they do – information technology, not marketing!
Your I.T. guy is great for servers, networks, computers and all the techie stuff at your business. In fact, you’d probably consider them experts in their field. Now there are all kinds of experts, in all kinds of fields, but that doesn’t mean that they’re experts in every field. A plumber for example is trained to handle plumbing dilemmas and provide plumbing solutions, and he is an expert in the plumbing field, but would you let your plumber perform brain surgery on you? Of course not!
Message On hold is About Marketing, Not About Tech
Of course there is an element of a technical side concerning message on hold, which is the installation or deployment of an on hold system. However, implementing a music on hold system on your business telephone system is pretty straightforward.
The truth of the matter is, most message on hold players are plug-n-play, or if you’re using an even more modern hosted pbx telephone system, virtual phone system or ipbx system – playback equipment isn’t required. These types of systems merely require an audio file, not an external music on hold playback device.
Your IT department views the task of implementing an on hold system at your business from a tech standpoint, not a marketing standpoint! Once you’ve given them the task to find out about music on hold, they’re job is to search around, ensure compatible equipment and ease-of-installation, not how the messaging on hold will give you the best bang for your marketing buck, or how it can help to improve your bottom line.
So, when it comes to incorporating on hold messaging at your business, it needs to be viewed as a tool for business development and marketing, not the IT.
You Don’t Need A Tech Expert, You Need A Marketing Expert
Whoever is in charge of your audio brand image, should be someone who understands how the right type of marketing has an inherent ability to connect and communicate with prospects and customers. Now just because someone knows how to connect the network at a business, doesn’t mean they know how to connect with your most valuable asset – your prospects and customers!
This doesn’t mean IT has to take a backseat completely, but understand that the technical side of installing music on hold for telephone systems is very small and insignificant when compared to the real job of what on hold messaging can accomplish, which is leaving an impact with your potential customers. The technical aspects really end after your on hold system is set up.
Brand Image, Is Not IT’s Job!
On hold marketing is about enhancing your brand image, and inspiring customers. It’s about catering to your target audience, and a good marketer knows not to lose sight of that. But, does your IT guy know that? I tend to doubt that.
The big question concern that comes up when I hear the IT department is handling a company’s message on hold is:
Do they understand sale, marketing and branding?
Do they really know how often you should be updating your messages on hold content?
Are they in-tune with best practices when it comes to creating a signature sound for your brand?
Letting anyone other than a well-versed marketing person deal with marketing and branding can either be a big mistake, a waste of time, or both. Think about. Your IT person is merely looking for a way to fill that silence on hold void.
It’s All About The Strategy
The biggest issue with letting your IT department handle your on hold marketing is that they aren’t qualified to create and implement an effective strategy to accomplish your greater business goals. There, I said it. Quite frankly, You don’t use a hammer to tighten a screw!
Sure, go ahead and consult your IT person about installation, but a marketing team member who truly knows what they are doing is more qualified about the aspects of marketing strategies, and is far more qualified to how to select the right music on hold and message company, with the right marketing strategy for your business.
