Do you see your sales growth here?

Metro small business squeezed hard

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What they do:

Schulhoff Animal Hospital serves an affluent community of pet lovers in Connecticut from remodeled mansion that was used (briefly) as General Sherman’s headquarters in the Civil War.  It’s a family-run business, that really took the time to communicate the feel of their pet hospital; And so, our writing on this project achieved the best type of on-hold messaging content: stories!

Schulhoff Veterinary Service serves an affluent community in Conn UNUSUAL CASE, BOA CONSTRICTOR, PT.1

DOCTOR BENYEI TELLS AN AMUSING STORY ABOUT WHEN HE WAS FIRST STARTING OUT AS A YOUNG VET, WILLING TO TACKLE ANYTHING THAT CAME ALONG.  ONE SATURDAY MORNING THE EXAM ROOM WAS FULL OF LITTLE SICK POODLES AND CATS.  A FEW MINUTES LATER DOCTOR BENYEI LOOKED UP AND THE ROOM WAS EMPTY, EXCEPT FOR A TWELVE-YEAR-OLD BOY SITTING THERE WITH A PAPER SHOPPING BAG.  THE REST OF THE STORY, IN TEN SECONDS…

UNUSUAL CASE, BOA CONSTRICTOR, PT. 2

AS DOCTOR BENYEI WAS STARING WITH CURIOSITY AT THE SHOPPING BAG, OUT POKED A HEAD AND PEERED AROUND LIKE A PERISCOPE ON A SUBMARINE.  IT WAS A SIX-FOOT BOA CONSTRICTOR WITH AN UPSET STOMACH!  WELL, OF COURSE DOCTOR B. TOOK CARE OF THAT POOR SNAKE!  WHATEVER’S AILING YOUR PET, BRING IT IN AND WE’LL MAKE IT ALL BETTER!  TELL US ABOUT IT, WHEN WE RETURN TO THE LINE.

Marketing Challenge:

Every veterinary clinic wants their customers to do two things 1) come back for regular checkups, and 2) Use them for the scope of services that they provide.  Schulhoff Veterinary Hospital has a dog and cat boarding service which is the best in the area.  Cats can freely roam around on furniture in a dedicated room, and watch the action outside through an antique picture window as the sun streams through. Sounds like the perfect cat holiday for me!

Equipment:

Veterinary service has a strong seasonal aspect: Summer for vaccines and outdoor issues, Holiday for “keep your pets away from…”, and Winter for cold-weather issues.  So, Schulhoff needed to update their production seasonally.  Hold Time installed a player that automatically updates their productions over the internet within two hours of it being completed in our studio.  Best of all, Schulhoff’s doesn’t have to do anything but approve the production… Hold Time handles the rest!

Schulhoff was referred to us through our website, www.holdtimestudios.com, but not to the home page, they told me.  Curiously, the keywords “music on hold Avaya” takes the search engines to the Installation Page ( see hyper link here ), which lists instructions for many types of phone systems.

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All in one week.

It’s amazing to me how many industries use on-hold messaging… I’m constantly walking into NW businesses and saying, “Who knew this was here?”  Just last week, I was working with:

#1: St. Vincent De Paul: Originally a Roman Catholic institution, this charitable organization now helps 350,000 people every year in the Portland area - and 60% of their assistance is through food.  From Milwaukie, OR their warehouse transports 1.3 million pounds a year to the hungry.

#2: Game Time: Soon to open in Tigard, OR, these guys have taken an old restaurant and upgraded it with bowling lanes, arcades, and over 35 flat screen TV’s.  Ever wonder what the back end of a bowling alley looked like?

#3: Stopping in at the Rose Garden for telecom network event sponsored by Allworx, followed by the Portland Winterhawks.  Those are some noisy fans.

#4:

Logmax: From Vancouver, WA. this Swedish company distributes logging equipment - specifically, an all-in-one 7000 pound head that cut down, delimb, and stack a tree in 30 seconds.  You can see the video here, it’s pretty incredible.

#5:E and A Auto Repair gets the Inspirational Award for the week: Nazier came from Sudan by way of Saudi Arabia, where he worked on the Prince’s Rolls Royces.  After work, he rebuilds a Shelby GT 500 “Elanor”.  He figured out a way start his own shop, and now has a very loyal customer base in NE Portland.  

All this in one week!  Amazing.  I love my job.

Patrick 503-740-0121

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It’s amazing to me how many industries use on-hold messaging… I’m constantly walking into NW businesses and saying, “Who knew this was here?” Just last week, I was working with:

#1: St. Vincent De Paul: Originally a Roman Catholic institution, this charitable organization now helps 350,000 people every year in the Portland area - and 60% of their assistance is through food.  From Milwaukie, OR their warehouse transports 1.3 million pounds a year to the hungry.

#2: Game Time: Soon to open in Tigard, OR, these guys have taken an old restaurant and upgraded it with bowling lanes, arcades, and over 35 flat screen TV’s.  Ever wonder what the back end of a bowling alley looked like?

#3: Stopping in at the Rose Garden for telecom network event sponsored by Allworx, followed by the Portland Winterhawks.  Those are some noisy fans.

#4:

Logmax: From Vancouver, WA. this Swedish company distributes logging equipment - specifically, an all-in-one 7000 pound head that cut down, delimb, and stack a tree in 30 seconds.  You can see the video here, it’s pretty incredible.

#5:E and A Auto Repair gets the Inspirational Award for the week: Nazier came from Sudan by way of Saudi Arabia, where he worked on the Prince’s Rolls Royces.  After work, he rebuilds a Shelby GT 500 “Elanor”.  He figured out a way start his own shop, and now has a very loyal customer base in NE Portland.

All this in one week!  Amazing.  I love my job.

Patrick 503-740-0121

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At least once a month, someone calls me asking about the music on hold BEEP that callers get on the RCA Executive Series 25403, and 254XX systems.  

Sorry, Frank. The annoying BEEP cannot be turned off.  You’ve got three options:

1. Buy another small system like this one from AT&T.  We have several customers who ditched the RCA, and are very happy with this one

2. Get a professional grade phone system.  

3. Equipped with a music on hold analog adapter from Hold Time Studios, we can effectively mask the BEEP… but we can’t make it go away altogether.

Every phone system has a different configuration, and Patrick knows what to do.  Email him, or talk to him right now at 800-521-5570.

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At least once a month, someone calls me asking about the music on hold BEEP that callers get on the RCA Executive Series 25403, and 254XX systems.  

Sorry, Frank. The annoying BEEP cannot be turned off.  You’ve got three options:

1. Buy another small system like this one from AT&T.  We have several customers who ditched the RCA, and are very happy with this one

2. Get a professional grade phone system.  

3. Equipped with a music on hold analog adapter from Hold Time Studios, we can effectively mask the BEEP… but we can’t make it go away altogether.

Every phone system has a different configuration, and Patrick knows what to do.  Email him, or talk to him right now at 800-521-5570.

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Out of dozens of options, this paragraph was picked by our customers most often to be used in their Holiday 2011 production: 

 

Part 1:

 

Chances are you may be invited to a Holiday soiree over the winter season where a “white elep hant” gift exchange takes place.  Do you know where the expression “white elephant” comes from?  We’ll tell you about it,in ten seconds…

 

Part 2:

 

Kings in southeast asia used to keep the rare white elephant as a 

sign that they reigned with justice and power.  The animals were considered sacred and were protected by law from labor, so a gift of one was both a blessing and a curse.  Eventually, any gift that was expensive to maintain, or DIFFICULT TO DISPOSE OFbecame known as a “white elephant”.  We don’t see too many elephants here, but this season there are customers a-

plenty!  We’re on our way to your call right now! 

 

What does it sound like? Hear it here!

WHITEELEPHANTFRAGMENT.mp3 Listen on Posterous

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Christmas already?  At Hold Time Music, we started two weeks ago writing, getting approval, and (soon) producing Holiday productions for our clients.   There’s a lot to talk about, especially for those companies that expect an end-of-year bump in revenue, and Hold Time Music is making their customers that call in have ever opportunity to consider EVERYTHING that they do: 

Plumbing services: A slow drain is an early warning system for your plumbing - get it fixed before the guests arrive.

Dental: Look your best with a custom whitening program.

Country Clubs: Holiday parties coming up… reserve your time in our boardroom.

Heating and Refrigeration: That nice HVAC system you bought should have a service checkup by the end of the year - because the warranty requires it.

Alarm and Security: No need to leave your house abandoned while your traveling this season.  Get it protected!

Printing: It’s not too late to get your Christmas cards done!

Eyecare and Optometry: Gift certificates for our high-quality sports and sun glasses.

Veterinary: Give your pet the gift of a good dental cleaning.  If you hadn’t brushed your teeth in a year, how would you feel?

Retail: Have you thought of…?  and special promotions for the Holiday season.

Hold Time has options for small phone systems too.  You don’ t have to have a commercial grade phone system like Avaya or NEC to get great music on hold!

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Using Google the Economic Indcator’s to forecast business activity In addition to music on hold, I also spend time listening to economic and marketing podcasts, so rather than just being a talking head about on-hold messaging, here’s some information you might also find useful in your business! In the depressed B2B and mixed financial markets, finding an economic indicator that you can count on is anybody’s guess, but here’s one that everyone can relate to.  Google tallied all keyword searches for  ”calendar / business / salary / stapes” for US markets, putting a numerical value on casual B2B activity across many years of data. For the full graph, and analytics on other industries like Finance, Furniture, and Banking, see here. Hold Time has music on hold packages with unique marketing ideas.  You can learn more about us at www.holdtimestudios.com, and be sure to check out our customer testimonials…business - and callers - like us!  Want to talk to someone who’s really good at music on hold?  Seriously, we do this all the time.

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