Goals for Messages on hold: sometimes overlooked, often ignored. Did you?

Goals for Messages on hold
Goals for Messages on hold: what are yours?

What are your goals for messages on hold?

You probably don’t have any.  You probably heard that messages on hold work, or got cold called by a salesman who promised how good they were.  You wanted to sell more.  You wanted to sound more professional.  But you probably got sold something less than you expected.

Any marketing tool…any plan…works better when you make a plan.   Here are 5 goals for on hold messages that you may have thought you’d reach.  They help you get your money’s worth!

Goals for Messages on hold

1. Productivity: Productivity is pretty general, but it’s just helping your employees accomplish more.  Your employees are probably the most expensive part of your income statement, so increasing productivity is the easiest way to increase profits.  How can your messages on hold make you more productive?  By helping customers faster, by starting meaningful conversations that get right to the point, by educating your customers about better ways you can help them.  No matter how you slice it, productivity is the key.  This can be one of your main goals for messages on hold.

2. Employee Morale: What’s this got to do with messages on hold?  Lots. That’s because there’s nothing more discouraging than an unhappy customer who becomes irate because his call wasn’t handled right away.  Put an unhappy customer on hold…for 30 seconds…a minute…or more, and their anger only increases.  30 seconds on hold listening to a staticy radio, or in absolute silence (did they hang up on me???) turns a small problem into a catastrophe.  When your employee finally answers the phone, the customer explodes…even if you have a solution to their problem.  Keep them calm…start to help them…give them information that they’ll value…information you want them to have.  When you answer their call, they’ll be calmer and still want to be helped.  Your employees will be much happier.

3. Competition: You have competition.  But there are things that you do that make you a better choice.  Do your customers know what makes you different?  What makes you the best choice?  If you don’t tell them your competition probably will.  And you’ll lose your customers to them.

Goals for Messages on hold help you achieve more
Goals for Messages on hold

4. Customer Loyalty: American Banker’s Association research proves that customer loyalty is directly linked to the number of services you use at your bank.  This holds true for almost every business: the more you rely on them the more loyal you’ll be to them.  So why not take the time your callers waste on hold and put it to use educating your phone callers about your “add on” products (Buying cookies?  Got milk?).  Why let your customer buy something they need from your competition when you can help them right now?  Why not add this to your wish list?

5. Profit: That’s the bottom line.  Everything your business does, from loyalty to quality to service are done to earn a profit.  Most messages on hold bore your callers.  Why not give them the helpful information that helps them buy more, buy more frequently, and only want to buy from you?

That’s why Goals for messages on hold are important

Well written messages on hold can do this.  It starts by setting goals for messages on hold.  When you bought your messages on hold no one ever asked you about your goals.  They probably just wrote a basic script, and never considered figuring out the end result you wanted from your on hold service. .

Do you have messages on hold?  Did you ever set goals for messages on hold?
Probably not.

Free offer: Call The Informer.  We’ll listen to your marketing messages and give you a free written report on what they can help you accomplish.  We’ll talk about goals they can help you achieve and how they can help you.  Then, if you’re interested we’ll show you exactly how you can plan for success and achieve more at your business.