There are many types of people in the world, but I have a feeling that nobody likes being placed on hold. I mean, when you are calling a place of business for their services.... you are in need of something and sitting on hold doesn't sit well with urgency. So, if you are going to place a caller on hold, don't irritate them by playing some boring elevator music... ENGAGE them, perk their audible senses with some amazing music from On Hold Music Studio. Our licensed music selection is the best in the business and if you can tell us what it is you are looking for then we can get the perfect music selection for you and your callers. Don't waste time dealing with the other on-hold vendors that buy their music from us..... come straight to the source, straight to the studio and we will get you up and running in no time. On Hold Music Studio is the industry leader in on hold music and messaging services for businesses around the world.
Everyday businesses place callers on hold, but what happens in those moments while a caller waits is an often overlooked opportunity. Imagine if just 6 callers were places on hold every day. Now imagine if 50% of those callers were existing customers/members and the other 50% were potential customers/members. If your business is open 5 days a week and places 3 callers a day on hold that's 15 callers a week, or 60 callers a month. 60 potential a month that you could be promoting products and services too, 60 callers a month that you could be engaging while on hold. The On Hold Process So how does the process work? When a client, or potential client calls your place of business it's not always at the best time. There are times when we are assisting others and can't necessarily manage an inbound phone call. So the call is answered, and the caller is asked to wait on hold until the call can be handled. During that time spent on hold the callers attention is glued to the phone call... they are waiting for someone to return to the line and answer the questions they may have. This is considered a captive audience and is the main reason that on hold music and messaging is considered captive marketing. You have a 1 on 1 opportunity to engage, inform, and educate your callers.... so do it! Hold Music vs On Hold Messages There are options when broadcasting audio to callers on hold. You can choose to broadcast music only, or you can broadcast music and messaging. I would say that only about 10% of our subscribers broadcast music only. Once a business realizes the opportunity that exists on hold to market to a captive audience, they take full advantage of it. Broadcasting on hold music only is fine for keeping callers entertained and giving them an audible reference to let them know they haven't been hung up on. But why stop there? Why not market to them while they hold? Businesses need to realize and leverage the advantage of marketing to callers on hold. Visit http://onholdmusicstudio.com for more information about On Hold Marketing and Communications.
A music on hold player is an audio playback device that broadcasts music and/or pre-recorded messages over you phone lines to callers that have been placed on hold. On hold messaging in general is a service used by businesses to market their products and services to a captive audience. There are many schools of thought regarding the content one would produce to effectively write and produce content that engages callers placed on hold. Look, nobody want's to be placed on hold and most business owners don't want to place callers on hold... but it happens, that's just a part of business and the daily operations of any business.
Is the music on hold player something special, or can I just use my iPod?
There are a few differences between an actual on hold player and an iPod or any other .mp3/.mp4 player you may be wanting to use. The good thing about a dedicated on hold music player is that it was designed to be powered on and playing 24 hours a day. They don't overheat (I'm sure there are exceptions) but my experience would suggest that 99.9% of the time they don't. They are typically warranted by the on hold music and message companies that are providing you with the on hold service. There are also some devices that are programmable so that different messages play at different times of the day. Some of the more advanced featurse come with a price tag, but as technology advances the price of these music on hold players fall drastically.
Can I just play the radio music on hold?
Sure, you can do whatever you want. But there are a few words of wisdom that I would be glad to share with you. First, the radio is unpredictable. There are DJ's rotating in and out of the station hosting shows that may or may not be suitable to your callers. What about the music? Whose to say that the song lyrics of any given song isn't offensive? How about your competition? Any chance a competitors business could be advertising their business to your callers? I have actually signed a client up for our services that had this very complaint. He owned a local car dealership, someone from his office called and inquired about our service. After having multiple discussions with them, I found that the owner had called in, was placed on hold, and at that time was exposed to a radio advertisement for a local competitors dealership. When his call was finally taken, he was su livid that they contacted me that day to begin the process of custom on hold music and messaging. I believe they purchased an .mp3 music on hold player.
Can I just play my CD's?
Sure, and I will say the same thing I said above. You can do whatever you want. The issue now with broadcasting music from a CD to callers that have been placed on hold is that unless you have licensed that song or album... that is illegal. Now, what are the odds anyone reports you... well, my guess is that it's pretty slim.. but why take that chance? Why risk something so silly when on hold music and messaging is the most affordable means of promoting your business to a captive audience on hold. Depending on the service provider and the services offered you could spend anywhere from $65 a month to $265 a month for custom on hold on hold music and messaging subscription.
My Thougts.
For whats it's worth, here are my thoughts regarding on hold music and messaging as a service and the music on hold players used to broadcast that audio to callers that have been placed on hold. First, on hold messaging is a service that is often overlooked by mid sized businesses. Smaller businesses typically try and leverage every affordable advantage available, and on hold music and messaging aligns pretty darn well with that need. Large businesses have enough of a call volume that they are aware of the need to keep callers engaged while they wait for their calls to be handled. But medium sized businesses seem to overlook the value of on hold music and messaging because they feel calls are handled in a timely manner and they do well enough that the investment is hard to justify. Now that's just been my experience, I'm not saying that's the case every time by any means. The businesses that acknowledge the opportunity and are looking for a competitive advantage over other businesses utilize on hold music and messaging to their advantage without even thinking about it.. it's just an everyday part of the operation.
Now there are a ton of on hold music players out there and some may serve your needs greater then others. It really depends on how you want to utilize on hold music and messaging as a marketing tool. For a great break down of a few of the on hold music players you can visit theis website for further details regarding on hold music players http://www.onholdmusicstudio.com/music-on-hold-player
Music on hold for phone systemscomes in many styles and the identity of your business should dictate the style of music that you broadcast to callers that have been placed on hold. The available genres for licensed hold music for phone systems include, but are not limited to Jazz, Blues, Alternative, Classical, Rock, Corporate, Ethnic, Holiday, Country, HipHop, R&B, Techno, Dance, Trance, Dub Step, and just about any other genre of music you can think of. Music On Hold for business isn't a must have but more of an accommodation for your callers. Think about the times when you call a business and are placed on hold, do you like being place on hold in silence? Wondering if the call has been disconnected, wondering if they forgot about you. The least you can do as a business owner is provide your callers with an audible reference that you are still there, that the call is still live and you will be returning soon.
CUSTOM ON HOLD MESSAGES
In addition to hold music for phone systems, businesses can add custom on hold messages to their audio production. So now, instead of just providing a temporary source of entertainment for your callers you can in addition, inform, educate, and entertain them while they wait on hold. Using professionally written copy and professional voice overs you can create a world class production that is polished from concept to delivery. These messages can be updated weekly to reflect weekly promotions or sales offers that a business may be trying to showcase. Some businesses choose to update their custom on hold messages every holiday, others choose seasonal message updates, while some prefer quarterly updates to their hold messages.
HOLIDAY ON HOLD MESSAGES FOR BUSINESS
So one thing that a lot of businesses do that can be fun is update their custom on hold messages for the holiday season. The fun part about this is that there are typically holidays every month, or some sort of monthly "day" to recognize (groundhogs day) for example. Of course you have all your major holidays that you can acknowledge not only with the phone on hold messages but with the music as well. For instance for the New Years you can use auld lang syne, February could be a love song, March you could broadcast Celtic music to callers, July 4th patriotic music, October something spooky, and December some holiday cheer. Now that custom on hold music can be accompanied with custom on hold messages that are specific to those holidays in addition to your business message. Next I will talk about the format of a professional on hold production and the sequence of messages that are standard in the industry.
PROFESSIONAL ON HOLD MESSAGE SEQUENCE
A lot of times the sequence of your business on hold messages doesn't matter. That's because most of the music on hold players were designed as loop based playback devices. This means that they are on a constant loop and when a caller is placed on hold they hear the custom on hold production at whatever random part of the loop it's in. So if you wanted message number one of your custom on hold production to be store location, and hours of operation, there is no guarantee that this is the first message that a caller will hear. Now the newer VOIP and Hosted PBX systems do have playback capabilities that allow for from beginning playback. This gives you the luxury of broadcasting your on hold recording from the beginning.
SEQUENCE
Even though 95% of the message on hold equipment out there is on a constant loop, I still like to pay attention to the sequence of messages in the production. One message can set up another message, like any other sales script or process. So typically the first custom hold message is a location tag, it has the address (if it's a brick and mortar establishment), next we go for a promotion of some sort, a pitch on products and services... more of a general overview. The next message may be a courtesy of some sort.. "thanks for holding, we appreciate your patience" or "we value your business, someone will be right with you" - something like that. Next is a product or service pitch that's very specific, instead of a generic overview we dial in on the details of a specific product or service. The messages that follow will continue to be product promotion and services. That's it, that's how it's done.
Here is an example of a generic on hold music and courtesy that they offer as FREE HOLD MUSIC.
Keep your eyes out for more articles about On Hold Music and Messaging.
Instead of a general overview, we may focus on specifics of production and/or writing.
