What Do They Want to Hear?

There’s no question that customer feedback is a great way to improve and better shape the consumer experience. What better time than the approach of a new year to measure how your customers are responding to their on-hold messaging experience and make changes to your strategy?

What are your customers saying?
This is a great way to gauge the effectiveness of your current message components, including content, offers, and music. There are many ways to go about measuring this that are as basic as having your customer service team ask about your customers’ on-hold experience during their call. If your company conducts any kind of survey program—whether it’s specific to your on-hold messaging or just a quick question at the end of an overall customer service survey—that’s a great way to gather feedback. It can also be as upfront as taking to your social media channels and asking your fans if there was anything that struck them about their on-hold experience.

What are your customers doing?
Evaluate and track how your customers are responding to content in your current on-hold messages. Are they excited about anything in particular that they then ask about on the call? Are they redeeming any specific on-hold offers?

Don’t take it personally
If you’re noticing a trend in the responses, see it as an opportunity to improve and get more out of your on-hold messages. Many components, including your customers’ demographics and their preferences could play a big part in their feedback. It may also boil down to simplifying your content or any industry jargon used.

All of these components may leave you wondering which direction to turn to craft an appropriate on-hold messaging experience. The team at America On Hold can help you assess your current messages and assist in developing marketing efforts that better addresses your customers’ needs.

Year-end Checklist: Integrate Your Marketing with On-hold Messages

As the year winds down, it’s a great time to look at project lists and consider what hasn’t been crossed off. Sometimes it’s even worth revisiting a goal list to see what has been accomplished this year to gauge productivity and help shape the next year. For many companies—especially small businesses—some projects seem too time intensive or too expensive. Marketing may fall into that category, and it may have been something you’ve neglected to create or integrate in 2012. But it’s not too late to integrate your marketing with on-hold messages before the year ends.

Increase Your Bottom Line

One of the great things to remember about the team at America On Hold is that we can help you cross that item off your to-do list and start 2013 with a new tool in your sales and marketing kit. By taking advantage of customizing your customers’ on-hold experience, you increase your brand awareness, retain more customers, and capitalize on another advertising opportunity. All of these factors combine to increase your sales.

Make It Easy for Yourself

Without help, this process can be overwhelming or even seem impossible. What messages do you share? How do you manage the technology? By handing this task over to America On Hold, all of the steps needed to create your on-hold messages are thoroughly handled by our team, from competitive market research to learning more about your company. Our team then uses all of that information to craft an appropriate messaging experience for your clients, with your expert help determining the correct components. The entire America On Hold process from start to finish only takes five business days, and that’s without any disruption to your current phone system for set up.

It’s really as easy as that to quickly and effectively cross a project off your list before the year is even over. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you get integrate your marketing with on-hold messages. If you sign up by December 31, we’ll even give you two months free! The only question now is: What are you waiting for?

Surviving a Holiday Season Technology Crash

‘Tis the season! For many companies, this specifically means gearing up for the busy end-of year retail season. In that flurry of activity, one thing that can spell disaster during a critical time is a technology failure. The last thing any business wants is a slow website or a breakdown of online purchasing capabilities.

While on-hold messages can’t fix a website, this would be a great time to use it as a courtesy resource to help keep customers informed during a less-than-ideal experience. Not only will your customers appreciate the communication during this time but so will your customer service team responding to the influx of frustrated callers.

Here are a few ways that using your on-hold messages to mention the technology glitch can help salvage the holiday shopping season until systems are up and running again.

• With an online system down, customers may panic that the problem is their credit card or computer. Keeping them informed will eliminate any panic and let them know it’s a universal problem affecting all customers.
• By assuring customers that the customer service team would be happy to assist with placing phone orders during this time, an alternative shopping option is provided and decreases chances that the customer will go elsewhere.
• Forewarning callers that wait times to speak with a representative are longer due to the technology glitch is a great way to keep teams internally cool as they field calls from customers.

While no one is immune to technology issues, an up-front communication approach shows that your team is working to address the problem in a timely manner and upholds your business’ credibility.

Did you know that we can create an on-hold message campaign for you to put in place in the event of systems issues? Have a backup plan ready; contact us to maintain the high level of service your customers expect.

The Season Is Here for On-hold Messages

Ready or not, we’ve entered the holidays. Whether you already have your closets full of presents and your shopping list complete or you’re just hoping to ignore the hype for as long as possible, remember to make your on-hold messaging double as your storefront. This doesn’t necessarily mean your messaging needs to sound like a holiday soundtrack (unless that’s a fit for your business), but you should be maximizing this retail opportunity.

Here’s how playing up the holiday season is a win-win for you and your on-hold customers:

Reward your callers: Mention an exclusive holiday promo code that they can use online or over the phone, or run a special on a particularly hot item. Either way, make it exclusive to customers who hear it while on hold.

Keep it easy: It’s already a busy time, so if you can remind a customer about your services while they’re on the phone with you, you’ve not only saved them time, but you’ve also prevented them from looking somewhere else. Ultimately, you’re reminding them that your company could help them cross something off their holiday to-do list.

Plan ahead: This end-of-year shopping frenzy isn’t limited to retail stores with holiday items. Household and business services can be packaged as gift cards and certificates, or you can plant the seed for customers to start planning for 2013 budgets. For example, a business might not be looking to sign up for an outside coffee service for their employees right now, but you can benefit by mentioning that now is a great time to start thinking about 2013 and even offer discounts for signing up prior to the start of the new year.

If your on-hold messaging could use a little holiday spirit, let the experts at America On Hold help you craft the right message for the season. We’ll make sure that you are capitalizing on year-end shopping and preparation.

Make Your On-hold Messages Social

Multitasking is easily part of our day-to-day routines. Add technology to that mix, and you have a customer who is on hold with your company while also using a laptop or tablet. This is the perfect opportunity to use that distraction to your advantage by promoting your social media presence and directing them to those sites while they’re still on the phone with you.

Reminding customers about your social media is a great way for them to:

Reach your company in a nontraditional way. 
Maybe customers have questions after the call — and after business hours. They remember your company has a Twitter account, so that’s an easy way for them to still touch base with your company while it’s on their mind.

Learn about other aspects of your company. 
You might already be the pizza place they love, but when they visit your restaurant’s Facebook page and see photos of the neighborhood youth soccer team you sponsor, they’ve just learned about another way you’re involved in the community.

Hear from other customers. 
Yelp, Twitter, and Facebook are a great way to showcase happy customers enjoying engaging with your company.

Increase exposure. 
If customers become engaged in your social media, their relationship with you lasts after the phone call when they see your company’s posts, tweets, and videos pop up in their social media feeds.

Find more value in your company. 
A customer might just be calling to check up on the status of a recent clothing order, but if your messaging has a reminder to check out your company’s new Pinterest board featuring your YouTube video “50 Ways to Tie a Scarf” the customer becomes interested in another facet of your company, and possibly another purchase.

If you’re interested in increasing exposure for your social media marketing efforts through your on-hold messaging, let the experts at America On Hold help you craft the right message.

What Flavor Is Your On-hold Message?

Fall flavors of the season are everywhere: pumpkin-spice lattes, apple cider, cinnamon, nutmeg…but the real question is: What is the flavor of your on-hold messages? Do they represent the season, or do they still taste like ice cream, cotton candy, and summer?

As we move into a new season, it’s important that your targeted marketing changes to reflect what’s happening in the world. Consumers expect to go into a brick-and-mortar store and see Halloween items in October, Thanksgiving items in November, and trees and menorahs in December; what they don’t expect to see in those months are pool toys and swimsuits. Likewise, when consumers call your business, they expect to hear messages that are in tune with the season.

Even if you don’t have seasonal messages in your on-hold queue, the change of seasons (and expectations) offers the perfect opportunity to update what you’re sharing with your callers. If customers are calling you regularly, they’ll soon grow tired of hearing the same information over and over. Give them something new to fill their ears and keep them tuned in!

As you prepare for all of the fun upcoming holidays, take a moment to see what you’re telling your customers. It should be regular practice to call in to your business and listen to your on-hold messages monthly to make sure everything is current. Sometimes, we just forget about what we have in our messages because we get caught up in the daily life of the business. Make it someone’s role to check what you’re sharing — in your on-hold messages, social media, blogs, website, and print materials. Too often, it can get out of date and no longer be relevant.

So tap into the flavors of the season. After all, who doesn’t love a good pumpkin-spice on-hold message?