VoIP music, the “default” setting for what your telephone callers hear every time they have to wait on hold, is easy to hate. It’s the standard stuff you hear when you call up a business that has a new VoIP Phone System. Just about every new VoIP phone system comes pre-loaded with this feature. It’s automatically turned on, so you don’t have to think about it. Some engineer in a foreign country thought that VoIP Hold Music was easy to add, cost them virtually nothing, and that you’d settle for it. But they didn’t think about your customers.
VoIP Music: think about your customers
Everyone hates VoIP “on hold” music. It’s annoying, boring, and the music on hold makes the time spent waiting even longer. If I were to play you the well-known Cisco hold music, or the Ring Central Hold music, you’d recognize it immediately: it’s so widespread that it’s like the common cold.
What happens when your business telephone rings? Statistics show that, no matter how hard you try, and what your “company policy” is, one of two things happen: Either
- Your telephone calls are answered by a pre-recorded greeting, and placed “in the queue” (on hold) to be answered “in the order in which they were received,” or
- They’re answered by “live operator” who, more than likely, ends up having to place the call on hold.
That’s when it happens: your callers are stuck listening to your music on hold…and can’t escape!
Have you heard any of these?
Replace your music on hold
You may be surprised to learn that you can replace your hold music with something better: information. You can give your telephone callers information that they want, and that you want them to have.
What kind of information should you give your callers? That depends on
- who your callers are
- what most of them are calling about
- your business and your goals
- and what you’d like to accomplish with your telephone caller
The most effective information on hold does more than try to “sell something… anything!” That’s because “Nobody likes to be sold…but we all love to buy” (Jeffrey Gitomer).
Captive Audience?
Some people think that you’ve got a captive audience when callers are waiting for help. Actually, you don’t. They can just hang up…and call your competition. But even if that’s not a real alternative (like on tech support phone lines), forcing your callers to listen to a sales pitch is just a bad idea.
Instead, give callers information that they want, and will appreciate, like:
- tips on how to self-help with problems
- ideas on new ways to use your product
- links on your website where they can find answers that they need
- quick case studies of how your customers have benefitted from your products
- ways to get more value from your products
- information about loyalty programs
- answers to FAQ, and where they can find more on your website
A thousand ideas
There are a thousand ideas (or more) about how you can make “hold” time less frustrating, more helpful, and seem shorter by giving your telephone caller information on hold.
Need ideas? Click here or call us for a Free 15-Minute Discovery Session, or call us at (800) 862-8896 today.
