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Promoting And Selling "on Hold" Messaging....

Posted by telemoxie on 5/14/2007 at 4:36 PM ET 2000 Points

I'm struggling with a project, and could sure use some fresh ideas, insights, and perspectives.

One of my clients does "advertising on hold" - recorded music interspersed with advertising for folks who have called a company and have been placed on hold. I believe this is a highly effective form of advertising, and a proven solution which has been around for quite some time.

My traditional projects are marketing innovative and unique big-ticket solutions (typically specialized products and services) to larger companies... and this project is selling "mature", relatively standardized, inexpensive services to small "late adopter" companies.

I'm tempted to go back to the client and say, "this really isn't my specialty" - but I would like to "give this the old college try" - especially since I have worked with this client on a number of other projects. On the other hand, if I can successfully promote and sell this, then I can broaden the types of products and services that I can promote.

I would appreciate any and all comments and suggestions related to promoting and selling "advertising on hold" services. Thanks in advance.

Posted by MONMARK GROUP on 5/14/2007 at 4:45 PM Accepted

I do not think it is a good form of 'advertising", but believe it may serve to reinforce the brand of the company, while a prospect/client is on hold...ONLY...for a brief amount of time.

One of the issues I have with "marketing-on-hold", is that it becomes obnoxious to the caller. Time being money--- many, most callers do not have the time to wait, under any conditions.

It should be up to the vendor to ensure that this customer/client does not wait long enough to listen to a cycle of messages/music.

Many/Most people calling are on cellular, and may be in traffic, or on the road. They do not want to wait for a response. Nor should any retailer/vendor want them to wait. If waiting is a component of working with this vendor, then perhaps I have chosen the wrong vendor. Perhaps they are not good time managers; perhaps they are understaffed.

Why should I wait to have my needs met by this vendor? If they truly want my business, then I should be a top priority, not a "caller on hold".

My $.02

Randall
WMMA
Helping You Reach The Summit(s)
Posted by michael on 5/14/2007 at 4:51 PM Accepted

Dave,

Just so I'm clear....

I call a company and that company's on-hold message is designed, by your customer, to advertise the other products that company offers?

The down side is that no one really wants to be on hold. Therefore a company runs the risk of alienating a customer by advertising when they're most irritated...unless I'm missing something.

Now that I've gone all negative on you....here's a story that might help. We had a customer who used to call the competition just to see what radio station they used for on-hold. Then..they advertised on that station. (Wasn't my idea, but it was a great one. No one in the competition really paid attention to it)

So a message that says "your competition is hijacking your on hold message" (that's off the cuff) would answer the objection that "playing the radion is cheaper". By the way, a lawyer friend of mine told me that playing a radio station for an onhold message is a "re-broadcast" and not allowed without permission. That means some angry customer who wants to stick it to a company, could concievably cause a real problem...if they notified the right person.

Michael
Posted by BARQ on 5/14/2007 at 6:29 PM Accepted

Dave,

We have produced several "on hold" messages for our clients. From our perspective, there is nothing better than an RLHB (Real Live Human Being) at the other end, AND reality says sometimes people are left on hold for minutes (if they are lucky! Just got off the phone with Wachovia's voice-jail. WAY too long!)

I would recommend that you hook up with an audio specialist who does this. They can lay in the brand-appropriate background tunes, and find good VO talent to accomplish your client's goals. All you need to do is craft the right message -- that being the one to which the market is most attuned. If you are clever enough, and the message is effective, you have built a nice little profit center.

BARQ
Posted by mgoodman on 5/14/2007 at 8:08 PM Accepted

I agree with others that wait times long enough to warrant music with ads are probably too long and annoying (for the caller). But, that said, you still have to play the hand you're dealt, and the client wants to find a way to sell this product.

My suggestion would be to devise some consumer research, if there isn't some already, that demonstrates how music/ads on hold actually improve consumer attitudes and/or intent-to-purchase when compared to silence and/or music only.

If you can demonstrate the benefit this way, you should be able to convince your target audience that it's worth a shot. Maybe even bundle some custom research into the sale, so that you can "prove" it's working for them, and if it's not they get a free make-good of some kind.

Hope this helps.
Posted by darcy.moen on 5/14/2007 at 8:43 PM Member

nothing says 'Your call is important to us' like a recording on hold telling me that my 'call is important'. If my call WAS important, I'd have a CSR on the phone right now. The longer I wait, the more likley it is I will hang up and not call back.

You might want to consider monitoring the length of time someone is on hold waiting and plotting peak call times. Schedule extra staff to take calls during peak hours if you can. I think voicemail is sometimes preferable to 'on hold' as it's time efficient for you and the caller.

My two cents.
Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network
Posted by telemoxie on 5/14/2007 at 11:40 PM Author

thanks, everyone, for your help...

Randall - I agree that being put "on hold" is a pain. As someone who is on the phone most of the day, I'm particularly frustrated by the folks who say, "your call is important to us". If the call is really so important, pick up the phone!

Michael Dunne - yes, my client produces on-hold messages, sells the boxes which play the messages, etc. It is in fact illegal to play the radio (in the US) unless the company has purchased an annual agreement to do so.

Barq - that is exactly what my client does: produce these "nice little profit center" recordings, with music, info about the company, etc. My question is: how do I promote such a service?

Michael Goodman: yes, my client does have this sort of information and statistics, e.g. http://www.imagegenerators.com/Telemmercials/Survey%20Results.pdf
He has other statistics as well which I can forward to you if you like. Assuming for the moment that we have the statistics to back up the service - what is the best way to generate interest?

Darcy: the sort of companies you describe (e.g. staffing up with multiple CSRs, plotting call times and wait times) sound like bigger sorts of companies to me... and those larger companies are the sorts I'm most comfortable calling upon. The majority of these companies have a solution in place - and so I've targeted smaller companies. Maybe the real issue is not that I'm uncomfortable with the product, but with the target market I've talked myself into working... maybe I should be focusing on folks who recognize the value of the technology - especially since my client is looking for companies with multiple sites anyway...
Posted by Jeff K. on 5/15/2007 at 3:28 PM Accepted

Dave-

I'm going to go at this from the business side, rather than the customer side. I worked for a consumer electronics company that had technical phone support in-house. Granted the best scenario is that a customer would not have to wait on hold for a technician, but the reality is they do.

So now that I've dealt reality to you, here's what we did. We used the on-hold message to do the following:

1. Introduce new products
2. Inform about the web site and how they might find help on-line.
3. Talk about upcoming events and shows
4. Make the customer aware of any new regulations that may be important to their business. (kind of "did you know...")
5. Thank the customer for their call and for their interest in our company.
6. During the holidays we would get a recording of holiday music and wish them holiday greetings.

We had both dealers and customers calling in and sometimes this on-hold message was their first exposure to new products and services. Is it great to be on hold? Of course not, but if your company makes quality products, wouldn't it be great to know what else the company makes?

Hope this helps some!

Jeff
Posted by darcy.moen on 5/15/2007 at 10:33 PM Accepted

I've been playing around with VOIP and a few open source systems that run on top of Asterix. I can play MP3 files as music on hold, or record my own MP3 file and run commercials on hold. Better yet, I can route the calls through to my cell phone. I can also set up rules for calls and keep wait times to a minimum. If I set up a proper call cascade, the call will chase my staff accros land lines and cell phones until they get a live operators as fast as possible.

All in all, I'm pretty impressed with the flexibility of what is available for opensource. If only I had more time to work on my call centre server VOIP system, I'd be able to do even more.

No offense, but I think in today's fast paced world, one might have a competitve advantage making sales answering calls in person than advertising on hold. We have a bank in town that is advertising the fact they have NO Voicemail or on hold, just real live operators...something to think about when everyone else is zagging.

Darcy Moen
Posted by telemoxie on 5/16/2007 at 12:08 AM Author

Thanks. I had asked for your perspectives on a simple question, how to promote and sell a particular service, and you have broadened the discussion to underlying issues of competitiveness, customer service, and best usage of technology.

The consistent theme in the answers above is to take a step back and look at the way that businesses communicate - and to ask how businesses might create a competitive advantage by better communications. This leads me to believe that I should go back to my client and suggest they broaden their offerings somewhat.

I'll leave this question open a bit longer...
Posted by voicevision on 5/16/2007 at 1:13 AM Accepted

WOW! No one wants to help you sell this product/service. We use this technolgy and it does help reinforce brand and drive new product sales. My experience has been good with on-hold messages. Have you thought about getting testimonials from current customers. Develop a white paper on how it has impacted your customers business. I read somewhere that a Pizza Hut used this technology to help sell special offers and customers responded positively. Try a referral program with existing clients. Give the existing clients additional free recordings or prizes if they provide referrals. Send out a www.zoomerang.com survey to existing clients to collect data for your white paper. At the end of the survey have a hyper link to a web page that asks for a referral. Each order form should have a place on the order form that requires the sales person to fill in a referral name at the time of the order. Do an email campaign directed toward plastic surgeons, dentists, dermatologists. They all need this service. If possible do a 30 day money back guarantee or a free trial. Try doing a webex with current customers speaking to potential customers about the advantages of this technology.

I hope this helps.
Posted by rkarthikk on 5/17/2007 at 7:13 AM Accepted

we have done this. when i was at a conferencing/collaborative service co. during the time when a caller is placed on to a conference call, we ran brief messages on our other services, sometimes tips on how to use the conference better like #6 to self mute et al.

hope this was helpful
Karthik
Posted by trevorcurrie on 5/17/2007 at 8:11 AM Accepted

I don't know much about auto-attendant technologies, but what about creating on-hold-aikido? Try to redirect some of the callers on-hold energy.

Give listeners on-hold options:

1. press 1 to tell us your best/worst customer service story (enter to win contest...)
2. press 2 to hear the latest sports scores
3. press 3 to hear the joke of the day
4. press 4 to listen to the most egregious muzac we could find
5. press 5 to hold in silence so you can put us on speaker and do other things
6. press 6 to hear more about our Flux Capacitor and how it's changing people's futures

Think content generation, but for on-hold, vs. websites. You client provides the content and updates it daily. Could be a good on-gong gig for you to generate the content.

In the customer service field, there is nothing worse than having no choice. The above at least gives the person on-hold some control and an outlet to vent some frustration. Just make sure the CSRs have the punchline for the joke of the day.

Trevor
Posted by MONMARK GROUP on 5/17/2007 at 8:18 AM Accepted

Your question is "How do I promote...."
Step 1: Believe in the product/service.
Step 2: If you do not believe, in product/service, time to put your acting lessons to work for you.

Does the client know that his marketplace needs the product/service? Is it better to just have the message state that "...all lines are busy, press 1 to leave a message and we will call you back immediately, in just a few moments, later...whatever. And, by doing so, the caller gets to go back to work, instead of wasting time listening to soft rock and an occasional commercial.

Allow me to go further-If the person calling:
1. Is new, and responding to an offer, is it a positive experience for them to wait, or to receive a "leave a message and we'll call back soon? Thus permitting the prospect to get their work done...even though part of their work load is to get answers from your firm. Which is best?

2. Existing client, knows the company, knows they can be busy and this is one of the rare times they will be on hold. They may wait, if the pre-msg says it will just be a few seconds.

Loads of possibilities, but I believe in order to sell, you must convince the buyer that they may lose clients if they just leave the system alone.

You're the great script writer, pal. It's up to you to tell them that if clients are to wait, they will need entertainment, quizzes...etc..

Ramblings cease at this time.

Randall
WMMA
Posted by prbypr on 5/18/2007 at 2:47 PM Accepted

Dave,

You may want to think about new trends in this field. The shift from traditional phone advertising to cell phone advertising, for example. The mobile market is hot right now -- and discussing this trend might unlock some media opportunities for your client, particularly if they are heading in that direction.

If you're searching for press coverage, you also may want to think about drafting some fun feature stories about how marketers can use the latest phone technologies to reach out to audiences who are "stuck" on hold. Talk about interesting trends? Has the ad time increased? Decreased? Is music choice changing? What do people respond to? Jokes? Funny ads? Serious ones? What should companies avoid when planning their phone ads? How about a top ten list? Top ten things to...avoid when planning your phone ad?
Top ten things to...keep listeners happy while on hold?

Hope this helps!

Patricia

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