Convert Wasted Hold Time Into a Valuable Marketing Tool
If yours is a typical company, your employees will place 70% of your callers on hold at some point in their phone conversations. That can add up to a tremendous amount of wasted time each year. Or it can serve as a tremendous marketing opportunity.
Think of all the money and effort your company spends encouraging customers and prospects to call. Now, think about the people who eventually do call being put on hold for 20 seconds...30 seconds...60 seconds or longer, listening to nothing! To any busy person these days, 60 seconds of silent, unproductive hold time can feel like an eternity. And while the need to put callers on hold is usually unavoidable, wasting your callers’ time is not. Instead, use the time your callers spend on hold to their benefit and yours.... with On Hold Messaging.
On Hold Messaging, or OHM, is an extremely versatile and cost-effective tool that allows you to achieve many marketing goals, from increasing revenue by promoting your products and services, to building brand identity, to increasing your top-of-mind awareness, enhancing your image, and even improving customer service.
Do your employees field a lot of the same questions from callers? Why not provide the answers in your On Hold Messaging? Are callers hanging up because of your long hold times? Keep them on the line longer with information they can really use - from valuable tips on how to get the most from your products to the latest industry news. Or entertain your callers with humor, fun trivia, or on hold contests. Bottom line: when callers are engaged in your messaging, they’ll perceive their hold times to be much shorter and they’ll hold much longer. In fact, according to Infomax Incorporated, callers stay on the line 25% longer when listening to On Hold Messaging as opposed to silence.
On Hold Messaging can be used to reinforce your other marketing efforts by incorporating similar copy, jingles, slogans or positioning statements, even pre-recorded radio spots. It can also be used to generate a direct response from callers by making an “On Hold-Only” offer. In fact, a survey by MaxiMarketing found that 16% of callers made a purchase based on an offer they heard while listening to On Hold Messaging.
And, of course, On Hold Messaging is a very powerful tool for promoting your products and services to interested callers. For some callers, your On Hold Messaging may be their only exposure to your company’s marketing messages.
The applications for On Hold Messaging are virtually unlimited, and for all that it does for your company 24 hours a day, it’s remarkably inexpensive. But no matter what portion of your marketing budget On Hold Messaging represents, it’s still an essential tool for any company with a telephone system.
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