Companies have been using on-hold music to keep their customers entertained while waiting in call queues for many years, but only recently have they started to see the value that customised, on-brand hold music can have for their business.
Due to the withdrawal of BT’s traditional ISDN phone line services, many businesses are migrating to cloud-based VoIP phone systems.
VoIP makes on-brand hold music incredibly easy to implement as the hardware costs once associated with traditional telephone systems no longer apply. This allows companies of all sizes to take advantage of on-brand hold music and messaging, which has been shown to help retain callers by up to 98%.
What is branded hold music?
No one likes being put on hold, but in reality, around two thirds of callers spend time waiting to speak to a telephone operator when trying to contact a business within the UK.
Complete silence or a repetitive beeping sound is not engaging and is a sure way of losing valuable callers.
With this in mind, businesses employ custom on-hold music and messaging to entertain and engage their callers while they’re waiting to speak to a telephone operator. Bespoke audio files are programmed into their telephone systems to convey a professional message and to keep callers occupied. This audio is then played at regular intervals.
Custom on-hold music helps businesses to stand out from the crowd, upsell and promote their services, and thank customers for waiting in line to speak to a telephone agent.
Does on-brand hold music help with customer retention?
The simple answer is yes!
In an ideal world, customers would never be placed on hold. However, during busy periods, it’s inevitable that customers will find themselves waiting in a virtual queue to speak to a telephone operator at some point.
With prolonged wait times, it can become easy for customers to feel agitated, and to eventually just drop off the call all together, which is what businesses want to avoid.
On-hold music tends to have a bad reputation, however studies show that hold music of any kind tends to stop customers dropping off phonelines in drastic numbers.
The results of one study found that 52% of callers dropped off a phoneline when they were left in complete silence for 1 minute. In contrast, when presented with branded messaging and on-hold music for 1 minute, only 2% of callers dropped off the line.
4 business benefits of utilising custom on-hold music and messaging:
1. Music helps to change your customers’ perception of time
Long phoneline and customer service wait times can often lead to high levels of customer dissatisfaction. Due to this, customers feel undervalued and will be less inclined to purchase from you.
An ideal way to counteract this response is through custom hold music. Customers listening to entertaining hold music and useful branded messaging are less likely to pay attention to how much time has passed since being placed on hold and are more likely to purchase and stay loyal to your brand.
2. Personalised caller experience
Uploading multiple audio files that can be played based on a caller’s selection will also help to keep customers interested and engaged throughout their call wait time.
If these audio files are designed to answer user questions, the recordings might also answer customer questions before they have spoken to a call handler, allowing customers to drop off and shorten your overall queue length and waiting time.
3. Customers feel reassured when their call is connected
When customers experience complete silence while on hold, it can cause confusion. Customers may assume your phonelines aren’t working or their call has been cut off, which can lead to high levels of frustration.
Utilising bespoke hold music will reassure waiting customers that their call has stayed connected throughout their wait time. Messages apologising for long waiting times and informing the customer of their position in the queue will also help to ease frustration.
4. On-hold music can help to maximise sales
While customers may be contacting your business about one specific product or service, they might be completely unaware of your other service offerings.
Custom hold music allows your business to upsell new and existing products that customers might otherwise not have known about during their time on hold. This marketing strategy is great for any business as you can freely advertise directly to your target audience.
On-hold call music from DVAD
At DVAD we want your on-hold music to create the best impression of your business.
To ensure this, we offer a bespoke solution that allows business owners to create an on-hold music experience that promotes both professionalism and the correct company message.
We offer a wide variety of uplifting tracks along with branded messaging options that will allow you to promote extra products and services, ensuring you retain a captivated audience.
Contact Us
If you’d like to speak to us about the on-hold music and messaging services we offer, or any of the other telecoms services we provide, please call us on 0800 84 999 84, or email us at enquiries@direct-voiceanddata.com. Our team will be happy to he
