Your On-Hold Marketing message is often the first impression a caller gets of your business while waiting. It’s your opportunity to engage, inform, and leave a positive, professional impression. However, there are certain things you should avoid at all costs to prevent turning your caller’s experience into a cringe-fest. Let’s dive into the important things to avoid producing cringe worthy on-hold messages.
Excessive Jargon: While you may understand industry-specific terms, your callers might not. Avoid overwhelming them with technical jargon that could confuse or alienate them. Keep your message clear, concise, and easy to understand. Some callers are not industry experts and may find technical terms confusing or alienating. Using excessive jargon risks disconnecting them from the message, or tuning them out and having the important information you are conveying becoming just background or “white noise”.
Insincere Apologies: Saying sorry repeatedly without providing a solution can frustrate callers even more. Instead of apologizing profusely for the wait, acknowledge their patience and offer something of value, like a discount code or useful information. Steering a caller towards your website for online booking or ordering replaces the apologies with a solution or alternative than reinforcing the wait time they are experiencing.
Long Promotions: Time moves slower when a person is on-hold, and callers don’t want to listen to lengthy advertisements. Keep your promotions short and relevant. If you have multiple offers, rotate them periodically to keep the message fresh. Smaller segments ensure that information is easily digestible for callers who may be listening attentively or multitasking. By breaking down the messages, you allow for natural pauses, preventing the listener from feeling overwhelmed or bombarded with information. Additionally, this format facilitates better retention as callers can absorb key points more effectively. It also provides opportunities to maintain the caller’s interest by alternating between different aspects of your business or promotional offers.
Jokes: In the realm of on-hold marketing messages, humour can be a tricky tool to wield. While a well-timed joke might elicit a chuckle in other contexts, it often falls flat in this setting. Why? Firstly, humor is highly subjective, and what one person finds amusing, another might find cringe-worthy or offensive. Secondly, callers on hold are often in a state of impatience or frustration, making them less receptive to jokes. Attempting to inject humor into your on-hold message risks alienating or irritating your audience rather than engaging them. Instead, it’s best to focus on providing valuable information or appropriate background music to enhance the caller’s experience and maintain and project a professional tone.
By avoiding these pitfalls, you can ensure your on-hold marketing message enhances the caller’s experience rather than detracting from it. Keep it simple, engaging, and customer-focused to leave a positive impression and keep callers coming back.
Remember, your on-hold message is an extension of your brand, so make sure it reflects your company’s values and professionalism. Regularly review and update your message to keep it relevant and effective in capturing your audience’s attention. Let us help you create the perfect On-Hold experience and and avoid producing cringe worthy on-hold messages. Get started today by giving us a call at 1-888-466-4653, or contact us today
“Time is the coin of life. Only you can determine how it will be spent.”-Carl Sandburg
“Avoid Cringe Worthy On-Hold Messages!”-Copyright 2024-“On-Hold Marketing Inc.