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Information to help your business benefit from telecommunications
Making the Most of “On Hold”
Posted on Dec 07, 2015
For many of us one of the great frustrations in life is being put on hold when we make a call, but the reason for the frustration is an interesting one, because the rationale for our frustration may not be what we actually experience. Perhaps we should explain...and the explanation is down to expectation. The moment you're put on hold there's an expectation of a potentially long and tedious wait, and with 60% of business calls being put on hold, that can add up to a lot of waiting. Apparently, on average, we spend between 10 and 20 minutes a week just waiting to get through...so our frustration comes as no surprise.
So what's the answer?
The fact is that for most busy businesses it's almost inevitable that there are times when you're going to receive more calls than you can handle. The trick, if that's the right word, is to take the pain out of the wait and to make the caller's waiting time as useful to them as possible.
How do you do that?
Not, repeat not by subjecting them to 80's music rendered on violin.
Not by telling them how important their call is.
And not by telling them that you're receiving a high rate of calls at the moment and you'll be with them as soon as you can...because in all of these the message you're subliminally sending is We're understaffed but we're fine with that, you'll just have to wait.
We'd suggest something much more constructive, and it's this:
If you had just a couple of minutes to tell a prospective client why they should be buying from you rather than your competition, what would you tell them? Then articulate this in a way that gets your message across without being boring.
There are other options. You could simply offer the caller the opportunity to leave their number so you can ring them back. You could offer useful advice as to how to get the best out of your product or service, or even more general advice to do with your area of operations...or you could simply play something that will keep them entertained. Whatever you do, make sure your caller doesn't have to hear the same thing twice, and remember to keep your message fresh by changing it regularly. That way you'll end up with an audience that actually (almost) looks forward to being kept waiting!
If you would like to make more of your hold function then give our friendly staff a call on 033 33 58 33 33.