When someone calls your business, the hard part is over. They likely know who you are, know what you do, and want to do some sort of business with you.
They are a highly-engaged, interested customer, and you have their full attention.
But so many businesses fail to use this connection as an opportunity to make additional sales and increase their revenue because they fail to play messaging while the customer is on hold.
To help your business get the most out of a customer’s holding time, use these tips to turn your messaging into an opportunity to increase your revenue.
Promote and Up-Sell
If your business has a primary product or service that brings in most of your revenue, consider how you can highlight other products and services by positioning them in your message as:
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Add-ons
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Specials
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Complementary Products
And don’t forget to mention items your callers by not know about such as:
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Product & Service Packages
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Warranties
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New Products
Motivate Callers
Use language that guides callers to take action.
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Stress urgency by adding deadlines and dates specific to promotions. (i.e.This offer is only available through May so don’t delay.)
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Offer rewards and bonuses that encourage the caller to take action. (i.e. If you add this onto your purchase today, you receive 25% off.)
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Add clear call to actions that tell the listener exactly what they need to do next. (i.e. Ask about, Add this to your purchase, Stop in to see our display, etc.)
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Offer referrals incentives to customers to create brand advocates. (i.e. Refer a customer and save 10% off your next service.)
Keep It Interesting
Callers that zone out and stop paying attention aren’t likely to take action once they get off the phone. So make sure you keep the momentum going.
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Keep your messaging concise. Each point in your message should be 100 words or less.
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Tell stories. Frame information in a way that tells a story rather than delivers facts. This could include using customer testimonials or explaining the user experience of a product.
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Occasionally add inflections to your voice and change your pacing. Not sure what that means? Listen to some of our voiceover samples to get ideas about how a professional hold message should sound.
Be Respectable & Helpful
You are using your messaging as a means to connect with your audience in the event that they are on hold.
You should never intentionally put or leave callers on hold so that they can hear your message.
Always remember the point of view of the caller. They called to accomplish a task, and your job is to help them accomplish that task as soon as possible.
Don’t jam sales messages throughout the entire message. Periodically offer callers answers to FAQs (such as hours or directions) and every minute or so thank the customer for their patience.
Don’t Forget About Your Away Message
We have been talking about information that callers hear while waiting to speak to a live representative at your business, but don’t forget about your out-of-the-office messaging.
Callers aren’t going to sit and listen to a long message when they know no one is coming to the phone on the other side. But you can still use that as an opportunity to highlight one very short special or promotion before giving the details your caller might be looking for (such as hours, location, or website URL).
Create a Positive Customer Experience
By using hold messaging, you are working to drive additional revenue. But you are doing some bigger than that.
You are giving your customers a better calling experience, which will lead to other benefits such as improved customer satisfaction, a deeper sense of trust, and a stronger relationship between your customer and your brand.
You spend a lot of time and resources trying to get customers to call your business. So make sure you follow through with the process and give your customers a calling experience that will improve their experience and increase your revenue.
Ready to improve your business’s hold messaging, but not sure where to start? Our specialists at Spectrio can help you build an entire on-hold messaging system that will engage callers, decrease customer hangups, and increase sales opportunities.
Learn more about our solutions or contact a specialist today.