Like many forms of communication: they both require expectations, communicate a message to a target audience, cost money, and incorporate decisions over design-placement-frequency of content change, and strategy.This is a helpful comparison because the interaction between a billboard and passers-by is easy to imagine. You may have considered the content of a billboard during your drive in to work this morning.

Think of your customized On Hold program as a billboard. When your customers are briefly On Hold, they are “driving by” your billboard. They’re hearing your company’s advertising messages, instead of seeing them on a billboard.

This comparison is especially helpful when exploring the question of how often to change or update the advertising message and content.

If your target market drives past a billboard only two or three times per year, it wouldn’t make sense to change the content monthly. Seeing a billboard two or three times isn’t enough to fatigue a viewer. On the other hand, if your target market is driving past the billboard daily, it does makes sense to consider a more frequent change in the billboards appearance to keep passers-by from ignoring it.

The same principle could apply to many forms of adverting…yep, even On Hold Marketing. Without a content change strategy one can effectively “un-do” the 3 big benefits of On Hold Marketing…callers will hang-up, will feel like the hold-time is looonger than it really was, and will zone out on the marketing messages.

Every business or practice is different. We’ll listen to you, learn about your callers, and recommend the right content-change strategy for you. 

For those readers who see the value in the question, but don’t yet have an On Hold message program, here’s what On Hold is all about. 

When your customers call and are momentarily put On Hold, you lose control of the customer. Since you’re not tending directly to them, their behavior can take some undesirable turns.  For instance, some will hang-up…and many will hang on for a bit, all the while growing just a little more frustrated in their, albeit incorrect, perception that you’re ignoring them.

A music and professionally voiced message on hold program, if properly created, will occupy the customer until you can take their call.  This reduces the ill effects of silence or radio On Hold.  The fun part is that we can use topics about your business to inform and entertain them, while also making hold time more enjoyable.

What questions should be asked when considering how often to make content changes?

•       What expectations do I have for my On Hold message?                                                                 

      (just noise?, inform?, entertain?, branding?, image building?)

•       How often does my typical customer/client call?

      (do they call several times weekly, or only a couple of times during the year)

•       What external changes during the year have an impact on the needs of my target market? 

(seasons, holidays, sports, health, etc)

•       How often does my internal product or service offering change during the year?
•       How much time am I willing to spend thinking of new topics?                                                      

(every planned content change will mean we’ll be working with you to select new topics and have our scripts approved)

Raising Expectations – If your expectation is to only have some kind of noise on hold, there is little reason to change the content.  At least callers will know they haven’t been disconnected.  However, an unplanned and out of date message On Hold program can influence your callers to hang up or at least cause them to be in a less-than-friendly mood once their call is taken.   A little planning and use of proven On Hold messages studies can turn a potential hang-up into a loyal and long term customer.  Raising expectations to include current, accurate, and engaging content will bring results in the form of improved branding, awareness of your breadth of product and service offerings, and simply a better caller experience.

Typical Caller- Let’s use a visual analogy of your callers On Hold experience.  Think of any roadside billboard that you pass in your daily travels…and now think of yourself as the owner of that billboard and the drivers as your typical callers On Hold.  If the drivers see your billboard daily, then it makes sense for you to change the billboard content frequently, say monthly or quarterly.  However, if they only see your billboard several times a year, then changing it annually can be just as effective, not to mention more economical in terms of your time and money.

To use a concrete example, think of someone you call a lot. A good example may be a distributor of something you consume or resell in quantity. You’ll likely experience hold time frequently and things that would cause you to become impatient (or even hang up) could be silence On Hold, an On Hold message that repeats often, or On Hold messages that you’ve heard repeatedly over several calling experiences.  Since the typical caller is On Hold more often with a distributor, frequent content changes should be considered.

On the other hand, think of someone you call infrequently. A good example may be your tailor or dry cleaners. Since you call infrequently, this kind of business can change their content once or twice a year without the caller noticing, and the business can still realize their higher expectations for their On Hold messages.

External Influences – The needs of your target market have a significant impact on what you inventory and promote…and these needs can change due to lots of forces.  Even physicians see changes in what tests and treatments are needed due to seasonal sports injuries.  The social event-filled holidays can make dental patients think about tooth whitening.  Businesses of every kind can see their inventory change due to seasonal and weather changes. Consider how your market changes during the year and see these changes as opportunities to make your On Hold message more current, more relevant, prompting callers to ask for more information.

Internal Offering Changes - Consider how your inventory and promotions change during the year due to supply-side changes in availability, model changes…even changes in your staff can have an impact on your offering. New people bring new talents and skills.

Your Time- Using the above mentioned criteria for selecting a content update frequency is legitimate.  However, if one hasn’t the time to think of new topics and approve our written scripts, then planned updates may not be completed.  It may be better to select a less ambitious plan and order content changes as time allows, than to fall short of a structured plan.

It’s your call.

Ok, surely it’s your call, it’s your business and you call the shots. Beyond that, it’s “your call” in the sense that your advertising dollars paid for that inbound call.  I like to say that the “ringing” noise your telephone makes is the sound of your marketing dollars trying to get back into your wallet!

Just as walk-in customers get an impression about you by their experience in your lobby or reception area, they also get an impression of you from how their telephone call is treated.  Keeping a current and engaging On Hold message reduces hang ups and makes hold time seems shorter while enhancing your professional image.  And speaking of professional image, the benefits of fewer hang-ups and improved customer service alone justifies the relatively low cost.  Any direct sales activity can be considered as gravy. 

Ask us to help you evaluate the right update plan.   We'll help you maintain the right image while maximizing the results of your On Hold Marketing.

 

If you live in Virginia, you’re part of an interesting heritage.  I’m not sure the founder knew it at the time, but when Lloyd Shockley founded On Hold Marketing in 1989,he was one of the very first On Hold companies anywhere.  Ask anybody. In 1989 very few telephone systems even had a way to connect an external audio source, and those that did were playing a radio to callers on hold. (a violation of copyright law)  So Lloyd had surely hit upon a need, a need that fell squarely in the lap of his talents as an ad agency entrepreneur.  (The Shockley Agency had been operating in Richmond since 1982.)

The first true association of On Hold companies, the On Hold Messaging Association, (OHMA) wasn’t even created until the year 2000.  By then, On Hold Marketing was a fully established company serving businesses and practices in over 20 states, Canada,and the U.K.   Lloyd Shockley was recognized as one of the foremost pioneers of our industry and was asked to serve on the OHMA board.

On Hold Marketing has been providing audio studio services, professional copy writing, and telephone equipment support for over 20 years now, but one doesn’t survive this long without going thru some transitions.  Keeping up with the changes in telephone systems is enough to run some on hold companies completely out of business.  The introduction of computer/internet based telephone systems is a perfect example of a new technology introduction that can obsolete a business model to the extent that it simply cannot serve the market. Changes in the audio production process have gone from analog mechanisms and enough outboard processors to fill a building…to a computer running special software, replacing tons of gear. Did I mention doing business over the internet?  This change has not only impacted how sound files are moved around, but also how customers can hear voice talent, music, and productions to make better informed decisions and become comfortable form relationships with us, even though we’re thousands of miles away.

Virginia, even though one of the oldest states, is also among the innovators of what we take for granted…music and messages onhold….which, by the way, is responsible for helping just about every business and practice every day.

 

Months ago we added a “Live Chat” feature to our web pages to give web site visitors a direct connection to us…and the experience has been surprising. Yes, we get inquiries from people searching for a better On Hold Marketing provider, but I believe we get more live-chat inquires from customers of OTHER On Hold companies that want to complain about the service they’re getting.

We think we know why we receive complaints about other providers.  Customers often think we’re their provider because there are so many on hold companies that have a company name similar to ours…..so, when someone Googles “On Hold Marketing”, they see our listing first (since we have earned the #1 position with the major search engines).

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.  When the offended customer realizes that we’re not the company that offended them, they often become customers…and the world becomes a better place.

The question is “Why are our competitors creating so many complaints about lack of service, incomplete productions, not returning phone calls, and productions…and choose to remain invisible and apparently uninterested in customer satisfaction?”  Naturally, we can’t answer this because we’re not them, but we do see it as an increasing trend. 

It’s true, we do make it easy to find us…which has contributed to us hearing complaints about our competitors.   I guess that’s the point.  We do complete productions on time, return phone calls, and work hard to get customers to update their audio On Hold programs…and when you need to find us…we’re easy to find. You’ll find all our contact info on our On Hold player and invoices, or just google “On Hold Marketing”…we’ll be #1.

If the folks that developed Asterisk had approached the companies that create on hold messaging content and asked how the Asterisk platform could best be designed for on hold messaging flexibility, the answer and wish list would have been nearly identical to what is in place today with Asterisk.   

Not all emerging phone system technologies that tout VoIP as a leading benefit have in effect benefitted the on hold messaging industry.  In fact, many hosted IP offerings are a clear step in reverse in terms of providing flexibility for the end user customer.  Some Hosted IP offerings will not offer the end user ANY option for customized on hold content.  They offer canned music only. 

So what’s so special about Asterisk?  It’s simple and can be explained in the form of 3 major benefits.  

1. More content choices:  While a clear majority of phone systems offer only one source for providing content, Asterisk supports multiple sources in the form of audio file slots per customer.  This means that the on hold content can vary per customer.  Human Resources, Sales, Customer Support can ALL have their own unique messaging programs playing for their callers.  This greatly improves the effectiveness of how a company can educate callers on products and services by applying the content directly to why the caller is calling in the first place.  Marketing professionals know the value of playing appropriate content to a captive audience (callers on hold are highly captive).  This sort of flexibility allows the phone system to truly function as a value business tool in terms of branding and marketing a company and its capabilities.   Additionally, there are many companies that happen to allow other companies in their multi-tenant building ‘space’ on their phone system.   This can be a huge problem if the phone system only offers one source for messaging content as you may imagine.  With Asterisk, the programmer can easily assign the proper content to the appropriate company and department.

2. Lower Cost:  The Asterisk platform allows for simple loading of audio files, eliminating the requirement for purchasing 3rd party equipment.

3. Ease of Management:  Customers that subscribe to frequent updating of their on hold messaging can do so easily without the intervention of service personnel.  This saves in time and hassle and money in the long haul.

In summary, Asterisk is about as flexible as it gets for the ability to cost effectively create an effective marketing and branding tool for a company.   This flexibility is most likely overlooked during the sales process, as the audience that benefits from this flexibility is not typically the telecom or IT professional as much as it is the executive or marketing group! 

The best on hold messaging programs return anywhere between 0 and 10,000% return on the initial investment.   There may be certainly be weeks, months, or even a year whereby it may be difficult to completely and convincingly attribute transactions and sales to the on hold program.  Most likely, sales ‘happened’, but the sale could not be completely traced or attributed to the program.  Or maybe the program content was more designed to make general branding statements or provide educational content to customers on hold.   And then there are those glorious occasions that make your on hold provider dance for joy and plead for a written testimonial.  That’s the monster $600,000 sale that was easy attributed to the on hold program, because the customer happened to ask somebody to tell them a bit more about a new service or product they heard about while they were on hold. 

 It happens. 

It happened to one of our customers, and they were kind enough to call us up and tell us.  We wonder how often it happens and we don’t get the phone call.  We also wonder how often it happens and our customer is not made aware of what initiated the sale.   Well…..we’ll readily admit it’s somewhat difficult to truly track ROI and sales efforts to an on hold messaging program. 

However, even if the answer was 0%, the reality is that a good on hold messaging program pays for itself quickly.  For a buck or two a day, take into consideration the work that the program is doing in terms of just keeping a customer holding instead of hanging up.  If you don’t have an on hold messaging program, “Silence” on hold is not golden.  People hang up on silence, and quickly at that. 

Do you return those ‘beep-beep’ tones that are considered a phone system feature?  Beep tones can drive your callers crazy and be confused as being call-waiting.  Playing a radio station on hold?  A radio station may promote your competitor, or a simple music file can get old very quickly.  A ‘hang-up’ caller may very well be an existing customer that calls a competitor.  That’s lost revenue, and it might be big $’s. So……if you can’t seem to measure the ROI of your program, don’t fret.  Your program is always quietly and certainly paying for itself. 

In addition to giving you another avenue to build your brand, it is also functioning as a tool to keeps folks holding.  Other forms of advertising (billboards, direct mail, TV / radio advertising) fill no other function other than to simply advertise.  Your low cost on hold messaging program is fulfilling a crucial additional function.   So is your program paying for itself?  Yes.   Can I accurately measure how many sales $’s are generated?  Probably not.

We’re fortunate to work with quite a few medical practices, and some of the things we’ve learned in writing their scripts we’re able to pass along to the rest of our clients and friends. As America gears up for the coming flu season, and especially the H1N1 or “swine” flu, the advice from our medical practices is practically unanimous. Whether you get a flu shot or not, and whether you get the Swine Flu vaccine or not, remember to always wash your hands after going to the bathroom, before eating, or after touching anything that just doesn’t feel clean. Cover your mouth when you cough, sneeze into the inside of your elbow. Maintain a healthy diet, get regular exercise and drink plenty of water. If you feel bad, stay home. If your kids feel bad, keep them home. Preventing the flu is the best thing you can, preventing it’s spread if you get it is the next best thing.

An ongoing project in 2009 has been the redesign of our web site, which debuted in it’s new form at the beginning of September. If you have visited us lately, please spend a few minutes at www.onholdmarketing.com . We think you’ll find it easier to navigate, and to find the things you’re looking for, especially audio demos, and how to contact us. There’s also a new section on playback equipment, including some close-up pictures that can help new customers understand our players and help existing customers troubleshoot their players.

A recent caller wanted to know why they should choose On Hold Marketing instead of another provider. My natural response was because “we provide a better product and a better service.” Of course that’s easy for me to say because I truly believe that we do. But if you’re shopping around, you need a more objective point of view. So here are a few questions to ask a potential provider:
1. How long have you been in business? You want to invest your time and money with someone who’s experienced in our industry, and who’s going to be here to serve you next month, next year and for five years down the road.
2. How long are your On Hold programs? Some providers will quote you a lower price, but they don’t tell you that you’re only getting a four minute program with just one voice. 6:00 has been the industry standard for over a decade, and a good provider will offer you alternating male and female voices on just about every program, unless you specify a different preference.
3. Do you have voice talent samples on your web site? As good as any scripts might be, bad voice talent will ruin them. And not everyone has the same level of talent available. Make sure you’re able to listen to the talent available before you make final decision on an On Hold provider.
4. Does your staff have experience or a background in telecommunications? While there are still plenty of old-fashioned PBX and KSU telephone systems out there, today’s newer systems offer many more features, and can also be much more complex. This can impact what you can play On Hold in a number of ways, including whether or not you need an external player, and if so, how it might connect to your phone system. Make sure your provider is familiar with your phone system before moving forward.
5. Do you write and produce your programs in-house? Those providers who farm out the writing and/production aren’t really in the On Hold business. They’re in the sales business…selling something to you that somebody else produces. They typically don’t have very much invested in your success, or in the quality of your On Hold programs.
There are a number of other questions you can ask, but these are probably the most important. Please don’t hesitate to call us if you want to know more about choosing an On Hold provider, even if it’s not us…although we hope it will be.