The phone rings. It’s a customer who needs help. Before they can talk with someone, they’re put on hold. The music on hold is loud, staticy, and slightly weird. So what does your customer think about working with you?
When it comes to customer service, no detail can be overlooked. From the way you greeting shoppers in your store, to support visitors to your ecommerce website, to the way you answer the phone, you only get one chance to make a great first impression. Unfortunately, we get plenty of additional changes to ruin even the best impression.
Even your music on hold counts
Experience shows that most of your customers will call you, no matter what your sales model. Even Amazon, the ultimate e-tailer, is hiring hundreds of telephone customer service reps in its customer service centers around the world. So when they do, you’ve got a chance to do it right, or do it wrong.
Do you answer every call with a “live” representative? Most companies can’t. Automated answering is the standard for just about every company. But exactly what does the customer hear? Is it your secretary, or your phone installers voice? Then when the caller waits to be answered, what does your caller hear? Do you subject your callers to “someone else’s favorite” music on hold (don’t forget to pay the license fee)? Silence? The radio?
Music on hold doesn’t cut it anymore.
Your customers are busier, and more impatient than ever. You have more competition that ever before. Your chances to keep your customers are fewer than ever before. So why try to keep callers content with music on hold while they wait for their calls for help to be answered? When customers call you, they’re looking for help, advice, answers to their questions, and solutions to their problems. They’re giving you a chance to stop a complaint before it starts to spread. Do you really want to make that caller sit and listen to music on hold.
A better choice than music on hold
Why not replace your music on hold with more of what your callers want? Why not start to give them information that can help them? Messages on hold that are custom written can address your callers most important issues, and the questions they ask so frequently. Replace your music on hold with ideas about how you can help them, and what you offer them that is unique and designed to help them best and they’ll listen. Think about your own experiences asking for help. Do you feel entertained listening to music? Or do you feel more and more impatient? Do you want answers sooner or later? If you’re shopping, would it help to get information that helps you make the right choice? Of course it would. So why do you still make your callers listen to music on hold?