Phone On Hold News

Just like any other marketing tool, the on hold provider you choose should be judged on what it can do for your business:

• Reinforces your advertising campaigns
• Promotes specials, seasonal events or products
• Saves staff time with messages that answer frequently asked questions
• Mentions important manufacturers or product lines you represent
• Cross-sells products your sales staff may neglect to mention
• Increases customer knowledge about your business

Info on hold has been proven to do the following:

• Enhance a company’s image
• Decrease caller hang-ups and agitation
• Keep callers interested
• Stimulate new sales

A custom on hold message and music recording can help you quickly and conveniently provide information about your business to a caller, who is already interested in your product or service. Couple that by directing callers waiting on hold to your website, blog or Facebook page for detailed information or specials.

Be heard and seen by targeted customers with each phone call placed to your business.  That’s a powerful combination.

The codecs and processing routines on mobile phones is optimized toward human speech. Any sound not recognized as speech (i.e. music) is minimized to conserve network bandwidth and cancel out noise. Music with a singer has a better chance of being heard, but just music (especially at a low volume) is normally cut out by the codec.

And It doesn’t matter what type or brand of phone you have. What matters is the codec that your mobile provider uses to encode the call content before it puts it over the air. In other words, it’s not that your phone can’t hear the music on hold, it’s that Verizon, AT&T or any carrier is not sending the music to your phone with very good fidelity. The codec discards anything that doesn’t sound like speech.

The Internet has changed the way we do business, yet most of your customers still reach your business by phone.

Human nature is what it is and we want to talk with somebody. So, why are your callers not hearing about your business when you put them on hold?

Telephone On Hold Expectations

A professional on hold message and music program has been proven to do the following:

• Enhance a company’s image
• Decrease caller hang-ups and agitation
• Keep callers interested
• Stimulate new sales

Improve the image of your business by advertising to an interested party, someone who’s already called you and is captive to your message. You can improve sales/profit by retaining callers who might have hung up due to silence or a poorly tuned radio station.

However, just like any other marketing service, the on hold provider you choose should be judged on what it can do for your business:

• Reinforces your advertising campaigns
• Promotes specials, seasonal events or products
• Saves staff time with messages that answer frequently asked questions
• Mentions important manufacturers or product lines you represent
• Cross-sells products your sales staff may neglect to mention
• Increases customer knowledge about your business

An on hold message and music recording that features information about your company gives you control of what your callers hear while waiting and greatly improves their perception of your company.

Researchers in the U.K. polled people to find out when their frustration kicked in after being placed on hold. They found it happens between five and six minutes. More than half of the people who responded said they have been irritated waiting on a call and 4 out of 5 have gotten so upset, they hung up. Results of this poll also showed that 67% of participants felt “annoyed” at having to wait at all. Almost one-third said they felt stressed being on hold for an extended period of time and 19% said they got “angry.” Read More

Can you imagine if they had to listen to a static-filled radio or heard nothing? A quality on hold message and music program can provide a more positive experience for your callers. However, it’s still important to keep hold time to a minimum.

Dan Andrew recently added a message with music that plays for his callers placed on hold. His customers no longer suffer in silence wondering if they are still connected. In addition, he is providing his customers a service by promoting the products and services he offers.

When people call your business, their mind is open to any message you have for them because they want your product or service to fill a need or solve a problem. How well your business fills that need or solves a problem is the difference between success and failure.

Is your business the obvious choice for (insert product/service here)? When people need a new (product/service), do they call you first? Do prospects of your business feel that they would have to be an absolute fool to do business with anyone else but you? If not, why not?

How often do you have your prospects attention when promoting your company? They have called because they are interested. If they are let down, there is always a competitor they can contact.

As a business owner myself, I believe my company is giving prospects and customers quality service they won’t find elsewhere. In fact, most hard-working business owners feel this way. We are so focused on running our business, we don’t have the time to really consider how our prospects and customers perceive our business.

Have you ever called your company and pretended to be a prospect to see how your call is handled? You might be surprised to hear an employee answering the phone with food in their mouth, or the radio station playing on hold has a commerical running from a competitor. Is your phone being answered with enthusiasm that conveys to callers your business is happy to hear from them, or does it sound like you have better things to do?

Some business owners have told us they don’t put people on hold for very long or not at all. We understand, nobody likes to be put on hold. At least that is what people will tell you. What they don’t tell you is they don’t like being put on hold and hearing nothing or a poorly tuned radio station.

You can change your information and hold music as often as needed to reflect changes with your product or service.

Most companies have one on hold message and music recording produced and then update every year or two. Other clients change their hold messages with each new season or have chosen to update their program monthly to offer specials and announce other dated information. New messages can be coordinated to present special events, roll out a new product line, or any other custom needs.

Please also consider the following: Do you receive frequent calls from the same people or do you tend to have a steady stream of new customers? Keeping your on hold message fresh has proven to be more effective when marketing to repeat callers.

For Video and Film makers, Television and Radio broadcasters, Multimedia producers, Game or Software developers, Website owners, Advertisers and more, thousands of high-quality music tracks are available at affordable prices for all of your production needs.

With Royalty Free Music, you pay one-time and use it as long as needed. Your purchase gives you the rights to use music tracks in as many productions as you wish. There are No recurring licensing fees or royalties.

Audio files are made available in high quality WAV or MP3 format and you have the ability to re-download your purchased files at any time if you should misplace them.

In addition, GO Productions in-house musicians can write and compose the perfect music for any project, including Original Scoring for Film, Video, Television and Radio, Corporate Business Applications and Corporate Themes, Product and Training Videos, Tradeshow and Marketing Presentations, Multimedia and Games.

Nothing?

Why give a valued prospect or client the silent treatment?

Radio?

Your callers on hold are a captive audience to a lot of commercials. Are any of them yours?

Music?

You’re in business to make money. Shouldn’t you promote your business?

Professionally produced messages on hold create a positive, professional impression of your company. Studies show that what your customers hear while on hold has a dramatic effect on how they perceive your business.

Does your company have a website? Good… that’s important. Every business should have a website. Even a one page presence is better than none at all. The Internet has changed our lives forever and for the younger generations, they don’t know a world without the web.

However, even with smart phones and social networks and all the other communication tools we have thanks to the Internet, we still talk to each other, and most communication is still done over the phone. This is especially true for business.

Of course you want to make sure your website is effective and looks great, but don’t forget your phone etiquette. This includes: answering the phone promptly (before the third ring if possible) and speaking clearly in a pleasant tone of voice.

I know I am stating the obvious here, but many companies don’t consider how they sound when they answer the phone and that first impression will stay with the caller long after the call is completed.

With the radio, you have no control over what your customer will hear when placed on hold.

Certainly, the local soft rock or smooth jazz radio station plays appropriate music, but these stations also have announcers and play commercials. You may be shocked to find your customers on hold hearing a commercial for your competitor!

With a satellite music system or other music service, you have control over the style of music. However, most companies are in business to make money. Music on hold without a message about your company’s product or service is a lost opportunity to promote your product or service and build your company’s brand.

Many businesses will resort to a radio or CD player because they believe it is free. In fact this could be a costly decision. Most musical works are the property of the songwriters, composers, and music publishers and may not be reproduced or rebroadcast without the proper licensing.  Read More