Custom On Hold Promotions

 


Why Other Options On Hold Are Bad for Business



YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

70% of ALL business calls are put on hold.

-- North American Telecommunications Association
and Teleconnect Magazine

 

  • What are YOUR callers listening to when placed on hold?
  • Is YOUR valuable ON HOLD TIME being used WISELY?
  • Are you truly maximizing the FULL POTENTIAL
    of your business phone system's ON HOLD feature?

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Custom Written and Professionally Voiced On Hold Messages with
On Hold Music are BETTER than any other option on hold.  

It is the smartest business decision you can make for utilizing your on hold time. 

Research surveys support this (please see various survey results below):

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Consider why these other options - silence, radio, courtesy messages,

and just music on hold - are NOT beneficial to your business at all:

 

These options are all BAD business decisions. I wish there was a nicer way to say it, but there’s no point in mincing words here.  When it comes to doing what’s best for business, one needs to look closely at the power one has at the touch of a button, when the right choice is made for your phone's on-hold feature.  Please read about why these other options  --  silence on hold, a radio station on hold, courtesy messages & music on hold, or music alone on hold --  just do not measure up.  Learn why they can do more harm than good for your business, when you place a caller on hold.

First, take SILENCE ON HOLD:   Dead silence.  Silence is certainly the farthest thing from golden when a caller is holdin’!  Have you ever been on hold with absolute silence and wondered if you’d been disconnected?  Did you finally just hang up? 

When you’re on hold with SILENCE, the time seems to drag on so much longer, making you much more aware of it.  Waiting on hold with complete quiet can create ill-will in the caller.  There is nothing there to engage and captivate the caller’s mind; therefore, you give people too much time to think, get frustrated and annoyed, hang up, then possibly call your competition!   Having silence on hold may have resulted in a lost customer.

Silence on hold can also undermine your professional image. It gives the perception that you really don’t care about your caller’s time and how it is spent while waiting.   Simply put:  Having silence on hold is NOT good customer service.
 

50% of all people on hold with silence hang up after 20 seconds.
    -- USA Business Telephone Today

90% of all people on hold with silence hang up within 40 seconds.
    -- North American Telecommunications Association
Secondly, JUST MUSIC ON HOLD:

One word to start:  ILLEGAL.  Similar to playing a radio station on-hold, there is the issue of playing copyrighted material. It is ILLEGAL to phonecast commercially purchased music on CD or as MP3 files. If you’re caught,  you WILL be fined. Steeply. Why risk it? Some royalty-free (license-free) music may be available to play alone; however, music by itself, without any messages which inform or promote to your callers on hold, is useless.  There’s simply no benefit to it.  Is music alone really the smartest business decision, that utilizes the full potential of the on-hold feature of your phone system?  What if the caller doesn’t like your choice of music? 

Since there are no messages playing to engage the mind of your caller, you risk subjecting your callers to music on hold that may not appeal to them at all - at worst, causing a negative reaction and a hang up. What are they learning about your products and services as they wait on hold?  NOTHING.  Wasn’t this a chance to cross sell on-hold?  Increase profits? Again, this was a golden opportunity at your fingertips, (the on-hold button), wasted. 


Research supports that music alone is not as effective as callers listening to MESSAGES AND MUSIC COMBINED.   If you place your callers on-hold for at least 30 seconds several times a day, wouldn’t it be a wise and SMART BUSINESS DECISION not to overlook this golden opportunity? You have the power right at your fingertips to make a positive difference for your business AND for your callers waiting on hold.  
 

People on hold JUST listening to MUSIC hung up within 70 seconds.

    -- North American Telecommunications  Association

   88% of people prefer messages with music on-hold to anything else.
                  -- Maxi Marketing
 

16-20% of callers made a purchase based on an offer they heard on an on-hold ad.
          --Maxi Marketing

Third, a commercial RADIO STATION ON HOLD:

You might think to yourself, “What’s wrong with playing a radio station on-hold?”  On the surface, it seems like another quick and easy solution.  But watch out!  Did you know that playing a radio station on hold involves ANNUAL LICENSING FEES?  Putting the radio on-hold is considered a commercial use of copyrighted material.  If you are currently playing a radio station on hold and are NOT licensed to do so, it can result in a heavy price to pay for “willful copyright infringement”.  Fines can be as high as $10,000 or a 1-year prison sentence. And, the ‘music police’ ARE out there, making phone calls to catch violators. Many people are unaware of radio licensing fees and may do so unknowingly; or, because they weren’t fully informed by whomever installed their phone system.  Even if you are LEGALLY phonecasting (the name given to anything played on hold), why should YOU be paying to advertise OTHER people’s businesses?  Think about that.  Does that even make sense as a smart business decision? After all, the caller may hear a competitor’s radio commercial and be influenced by it. In addition, hard-selling radio ads can evoke a negative response (especially when held right up to the ear).  Should you be paying a monthly or yearly fee for a satellite radio station without commercials, just read the reasons why JUST MUSIC is an inferior choice for your callers on hold as well as for your business.

Lastly, the radio station of YOUR choice may be disliked by the caller, creating a negative reaction.  At worst, it could easily make your business, organization, or medical practice come across as unprofessional.  You may lose a potential customer, once they hang up and never call again.  So,  as you can see, putting a radio station on-hold is clearly NOT a SMART business decision.  Look below the surface.  Instead of paying to advertise other businesses on-hold, advertise your own business with a set of well crafted, custom written on hold messages, unique to YOUR business. The power is at your fingertips.
 

72% of FIRST TIME callers who hang up will call your competition.
    -- Sales & Marketing Magazine

Having on-hold advertising reduces caller hang ups by almost 90%.
    -- Better Business Marketing

Fourth, COURTESY MESSAGES with MUSIC ON HOLD:

Commonly heard courtesy messages on hold with music may serve as a temporary solution to silence but these trite messages don’t do one thing for your callers except possibly annoy them!  People have heard these messages so frequently over the years, that these ordinary courtesy “thank you for holding”, or "we appreciate your patience and will be right with you"  messages with music have reached a point of no longer being effective. They only serve to annoy or frustrate. You risk a hang up, too, by a caller just too fed up to stay on hold any longer!

Most on hold systems or message on hold equipment have courtesy messages built into them, until the business finds a professional Custom Message On Hold Company such as “Custom on-Hold Promotions” by MINOWA VOICE-OVERS to customize their messages. But often businesses forget, neglect or trivialize the importance of customizing their hold messages after getting a brand new phone system and message on hold equipment.   And since the owner or employees of a business are not on hold themselves, they are not aware or are just not thinking about what callers on-hold are subjected to, time and time again! 

As a result, months or years can go by with these same boring, no impact, useless courtesy messages on hold.  Now, wasn’t that a waste of money? You may have already invested thousands of dollars in a brand new or upgraded business phone system and message on hold equipment, but then neglected one of its most valuable and beneficial features!  If this is the case with your business or organization, do more than just “babysit” your callers on hold with the built-in quick and easy solution of courtesy on hold messages. 

After all, guaranteed, courtesy messages on hold are not making a positive difference for your business, or for your caller.   Why waste any more valuable on hold time?  Make use of the many benefits you have at your fingertips with  your existing On-Hold System or Unit.  MAXIMIZE the FULL POTENTIAL OF YOUR PHONE SYSTEM’S ON-HOLD FEATURE with CUSTOM written messages and music on-hold.  It’s the smart business decision. 

88% of people prefer messages with music on-hold to anything else.
    -- Maxi Marketing

16-20% of callers made a purchase based on an offer they heard on an on-hold ad.
    -- Maxi Marketing

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MAXIMIZE the FULL POTENTIAL of your phone system with

"Custom On-Hold Promotions" by MINOWA VOICE-OVERS.

Please visit the PURCHASE OFFERS page for more information,

or, send email to: michelle@minowavoiceovers.com or call 302-478-8764

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Some satisfied customers of "Custom On-Hold Promotions" by MINOWA VOICE-OVERS
are located in Boothwyn, Pennsylvania (Boothwyn, PA);
Berlin, Maryland (Berlin, MD);
Miami Beach, Florida (Miami Beach, FL);
Portland, Oregon (Portland, OR);
Hebron, Indiana (Hebron, IN);
Oxford, Pennsylvania (Oxford, PA);
Lawrenceville, New Jersey (Lawrenceville, NJ);
Oxford, Connecticut (Oxford, CT);
Campobello, South Carolina (Campobello, SC);
Springboro, Ohio (Springboro, OH);
Hanover, Maryland (Hanover, MD);
Duarte, California (Duarte, CA);
and West Norriton,  Pennsylvania (West Norriton, PA). 


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