You advertise and promote your business every day, and if you’re successful, your business telephone rings. And do you know what happens? AT&T research shows that 69% of Business telephone calls are placed “on hold.” What do your prospects hear while they’re waiting? Want to fix the problem? Start by asking “How do you write a good on hold message?”
Remember, it’s a marketing tool
Waiting “on hold” can be frustrating. Annoying. And 40% of your callers will give up (and hang up) within a minute if you don’t help them.
An on hold message is a marketing tool that gives your telephone callers…your clients and your best prospects…information about your business: what you do, how you do it, and what makes you different from your competition. We’ve all heard them. When they’re bad, it’s even more annoying that just listening to music on hold. But when they’re good, they’re really helpful.
How do you write a good on hold message?
A good on hold message starts helping your customer even if they have to wait on hold for a while. To write a good on hold message, you’ve got to understand your customers’ needs and what they want, and give them information that they want, and that you want them to have.
Think about your callers: what do they usually call about? What are their problems? What are they looking for? They’ve probably already looked at your website (and your competition’s) and they’re interested enough to want to talk with you. If they have to wait on hold, at least make that time interesting, informative, and helpful.
What should I say in a message on hold?
Why not start by saying much of what you’d say in a conversation with your customer. What do they usually ask about? You probably have a pretty good idea about what they ask, and what you’d say from your previous contacts with past customers. Put this experience to use by making a list of ideas that you frequently hear. When someone calls about messages on hold, they usually ask
- when do callers hear them?
- who comes up with the ideas?
- who writes the script?
- who does the recording?
- do they work on PBX phone systems? On VoIP systems?
- Is there a long term contract?
- How often can I update them?
Experience has taught us that these are questions that callers have, so we use them in a series of short messages in our on hold message. And our callers mention what they’ve heard playing on hold when we pick up their call.
Writing your own on script
Writing your own on hold script is simple…but its not easy to write one that accomplishes your goals. Have you written your own script? Let us give you some helpful comments. Call us for a free 15 Minute Discovery session to discover how to improve your script: in Connecticut call (203) 655-3920. In New York call (212) 355-6980. And Nationwide call (800) 862-8896. Or click here to email us to set up your own on hold script Discovery Session.