What happens when a customer calls your location and there is no live person available to answer the phone? Does the call go to a general mailbox? Do you send it to a holding queue or do you invite callers to participate in a self-service channel driven by your customized Interactive Voice Response (IVR)?
Regardless of the final destination for these callers, you have a unique opportunity to do something with the interaction. If you’re sending them to a general mailbox, what will your message include? If they need to wait in a holding queue, will they wait in silence? If the IVR navigation is the selected destination, will the menu be the only thing you convey?
Yes, these are a lot of questions to answer, but for good reason. An individual has called your business, which means they are interested in what you have to offer. If you don’t take the opportunity to tell them something of value, you may never have the chance again. This is your opportunity to build trust in your brand and convey an important message that will lead to more sales.
This is especially true if the customer is on hold, but you have to be careful with your approach. If the typical hold time is 30 seconds for the average caller, don’t spend all 30 seconds telling them how wonderful your product is and why they should buy it. Instead, thank them for their call, convey how you value their business and then share something of value.
For instance, if you offer an add-on service that extends the value of your flagship product and enhances productivity in the customer’s environment, the hold message is a good opportunity to share that information. If you’re planning to launch a new line that compliments your most popular products, this too could be included in your hold message.
Before determining what message to share, first identify your goal in the interaction. Do you want to entertain, inform or transform callers into customers? Do you want to do all three? Do you need greetings, directories, announcements or multi-language prompts? Do you know the most common reason your customers call and could a message pertaining to that reason streamline call handling?
All of these questions matter when developing the right on-hold message or other phone voice content. Phonamations knows this well, offering customized services for companies seeking professional quality messages and easy to follow voice prompts. To learn more, the company was invited into the TMC newsroom at ITEXPO in Miami. Get the full scoop on the company and their exciting industry via this ITEXPO video.