If all you want to do is sell more, and take advantage of a “captive” audience, your on hold messages may just end up doing the opposite. On hold marketing is a form of selling, and the sales process follows the simple rule of “know, like, and trust” (Bob Burg). But if you try advertising on your telephone’s hold button, you may find that your on hold messages don’t work.
On hold messages don’t work ?
Luckily, there are on hold messages that prove this, and show you how easy it is to succeed. Here are a few tips for making your on hold messages more effective. If you follow these unwritten rules (I guess they’re actually written now) your messages on hold will be 300% more effective (or at least a lot more effective).
- Keep ‘em short. Long stories are known as novels. They’re great when you’re sitting in a comfortable chair, reading about the Russian Revolution. But no one has the time or patience for a long story. So keep your story brief. Short messages are harder to write but the results are worth it.
- Write about the ideas that are important to your customer. Most advertising materials (both those written by the “end user” and those written by “professionals”) start with your company name or the word “we.” This is just as true with on hold advertising. It shouldn’t be any surprise that “it’s not all about you.” It’s about the customer. You may work hard and do great things with your products, but it’s the customer’s wants and needs that matter most.
- Write like your customer talks. If they talk in jargon, write in jargon. If they talk like PhD’s talk like them. If they talk like 6th Graders…you get the idea. Don’t talk technical to artists. Don’t talk artsy to techs.
- Let every message stand on its own. That’s because you hope your caller won’t be on hold very long. So you don’t know how many messages they’ll hear. In most situations you don’t even know which message they’ll hear first. (This is different on some VoIP Phones. Here’s how many VoIP phones work.)
- Be really clear. REALLY clear. Since the most effective messages on hold are about 30-50 words each, you’ve got to concentrate on clear more than fancy.
- Write in shorter sentences. Your audience is listening to your story, not reading it. They’re on the phone, not facing you. And they’re probably in a distracting environment (computers, co-workers, family, windows…). Shorter sentences make clear messages even clearer.
On Hold Messages Don’t Work. We’ll show you why.
So what’s the answer? If your on hold messages don’t work, these ideas will probably help. Why not ask for a Free evaluation of your hold messages? For a Free 15-minute coaching session, call 800-862-8896