In this post we take a break from our considerations of the strategic application of music and message to look at the issue of your choice in an on-hold music and messaging provider.

Muzak has earned a dubious reputation over the years with both the public in general and, apparently, with some of their customers as well. The typical impression most people seem to have of “muzak” is “that insipid, vapid, annoying background sound in the air (regardless of whether or not Muzak actually produced it) on elevators, in restaurants, in hotel lobbies and doctors’ offices, and, while waiting interminably on-hold calling one’s favorite mega-corporation.” Rock music legend, Ted Nugent, was at one time reputed to have attempted to buy Muzak for $10 million “…just for the pleasure of erasing the tapes”.

Nowadays there are options in the world of on-hold music and messaging, however this may not yet be common knowledge. Could it be that Muzak took for granted the popular perception of their being the only game in town? In addition to being infamous for a product most people seem to think of as a joke, albeit the “only” joke, in February of this year Muzak made the news when it filed bankruptcy. Perhaps the apparent scarcity of competition led to a lack of motivation and consequently lax business management in various areas, such as customer service.

Holdtime Music has heard complaints of poor customer service and “vindictive five year contracts” more than once in discussions with local Muzak customers exploring their options. If on-hold music and messaging were “just muzak”, these issues might not warrant a second thought.
Given the potential, however, of on-hold technologies for reaching a warm market with fresh, targeted messages such neglect does not make good business sense. Muzak’s seemingly cavalier attitude has created a wide-open opportunity for competitors such as Holdtime, small though they may be, to pick up valuable market share through no-brainer strategies including realistic contracts, aggressive pricing, and customer-focused customer service. Add to that mix, thoughtful, well-written, custom on-hold productions, and the general public, not to mention Muzak, may soon be in for a paradigm shift.

A friend of mine is the director of a school for the arts that specializes in “unlocking the creative energy and talent in those who are right-brained and who wish to pursue the arts”. She has also written a book on understanding right-brain intelligence and gifting. On the frontispiece, she quotes Albert Einstein, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

It takes all types of people to “make the world go ‘round”, and the business world is no exception. “Right-brain creatives”, “left-brain rationalists”, and everyone in-between seem to have their place. While some people may be more strongly disposed toward one or the other way of seeing the world, most of us probably fall somewhere in the middle. None of us is entirely devoid of the alternate thinking style; even the most logic-driven analysts have emotions and some capacity for appreciating the “whimsical”, all of their “rational” denial notwithstanding. Conversely, even the most fanciful “artiste” possesses some sense of logic, dormant though it may be. Chances are, you have a varied mix of “types” calling your business or organization on the telephone every day. Your music and messages on-hold are the perfect vehicle for reaching this diverse audience.

Music appeals to the emotions. Messages – i.e. words – are capable of moving in areas of rational precision and specificity from which music and emotions seem forever barred. At the same time, words can appeal to the emotions as well. In fact, both music and words can impact the emotions in ways the other cannot. Curiously, the actual structure of music is packed full of logic and mathematics, even as its end result can be a mysterious, almost magical manipulation of the emotions or the opening of doors into other worlds of the imagination. Together, music and words (messages) are powerful tools you can easily use to impact the people who call you while they are waiting on hold.

In our last post, we met Jane Doe. Jane (you’re familiar with her brother, John) hails from the famous “Doe” family, long-renowned in the business world for their exceptional business acumen and discernment. Jane has little patience for either poor customer service or cheesy phone hold music. This post continues exploring how you can make better use of your phone hold music to win the “Jane Doe’s” out there as loyal customers.

For many business people, it seems that “phone hold music” – aka “music on hold”, “on-hold messaging”, “messages on hold”, etc. – is little more than an afterthought – i.e., a necessary but trivial requirement on the level of pencil sharpeners, potted plants, or paper towel dispensers in the bathroom. I.e., it’s just one of the “etcetera”. The perception of the public at large with regard to the modern business phenomenon of “phone hold music” may not matter much. Your perception is, arguably, another matter for the simple reason that you may be wasting a potentially powerful, low-cost, and easily employed means of communicating with, educating, and motivating your customers to do business with you. If so, you might want to consider the value of undergoing a self-imposed paradigm shift on this subject.

If you think the only purpose of your phone hold music is to entertain – to help keep your customers from becoming so bored and irritated while waiting on hold that they hang up – you’re missing the boat. Obviously phone hold music can fill in the empty silence. It can also, however, be a great deal more than just “filler”. Regardless of your industry, your customers are individuals – whether they are calling on their own personal behalf, as representatives of a company, or whatever. They not only have unique needs, they may be at different stages in the buying process, or, they may have already purchased and be calling with a service issue, a question, or a complaint. They may be long-time, repeat customers or they might be just “window shopping”.

Regardless, every caller is a future customer. What’s more, there is, generally, no guarantee that a current customer cannot be lost. Moreover, theoretically at least, every customer can potentially be a candidate for additional products or services. It is up to you to “broaden their horizons” by educating them with regard to your product line, suite of services, etc. While they’re on hold, you could describe your sales and fulfillment processes, let them know what they can do to streamline things, and tell them how they can help you help them. You can share the creative ways other customers have made use of your products. Plant the seeds of new ideas. Help them think “outside the box”.

As for the “entertainment value” of your phone hold music, why not bump that up a notch while you’re at it? Instead of “cheesy hold music”, delight with relevant but amusing trivia. Or, engage in some endearing anecdotes or share a notable bit of customer feedback or something your business has done to contribute to the community. “People do business with people”. By the time “Jane Doe” finishes her time on hold she will, if you have made good use of your phone hold music, have undergone something of a transformation into a customer that is better informed about who you are, what you do, how you do it, how she will benefit, and why she might want do business with you.

Something is sometimes better than nothing, but not always. Take the case of “free hold music”, or any kind of “free” onhold messaging your company or organization might be considering. Sure, it’s fair to say that, in theory, it’s far better to have something playing for your callers who are “on hold” – some kind of music, or verbal message, or combination of the two. Almost anything but dead silence. No question. Statistics and common sense back this up.

It’s easy to imagine exceptions to this generality, however. For example, if the quality of your audio is bad it can project an unprofessional, even fly-by-night image. As organizations with unprofessional, low-quality onhold messaging or music become more rare, the detrimental imaging suffered by those who have not yet modernized their callers’ onhold experience becomes potentially that much greater. I know that when I find myself on hold nowadays and subjected to bad audio, and/or cheesy music, and/or poorly written announcements, the experience seems anachronistic, and, even more comical than it used to twenty or thirty years ago! (Search for “worst hold music ever” at YouTube for a humorous response to one particularly egregious example of “cheesy hold music”.)

True, you might save a few bucks on the front end by doing your on hold music or message “on the cheap”, but as with all of your other marketing and imaging tools, you get what you pay for. Especially in an economy like this one, when it comes to your ability to compete and survive, your image really is everything, and your image is potentially threatened by any weak links in the chain. Bottom line, if you do decide to find some source of free music to play on hold, or to write and produce your own on hold messages, you had better be prepared to put the time, effort, and energy into the research and education necessary to ensure that you are not shooting yourself in the foot. A better, more cost-effective option might be to avail yourself of a service who specializes in on hold music and messaging and who has the expertise and experience to deal with technical and equipment issues, writing and production, and regularly scheduled refreshing and updating of your messages, as well as covering all legal and copyright infringement bases.

What do you think of when you hear the words “on hold”?  I’m going to guess that for most people, the connotations are less than positive.  To put a project “on hold” means to postpone it or block its forward progress.  Typical “on hold” experiences for people calling businesses or organizations on the telephone range from the mildly irritating to the outright maddening.  One of my personal pet peeves is the cognitive dissonance I experience when my “listening pleasure” is interrupted with “Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received” as opposed to a more grammatically correct alternative such as, “Calls are answered in the order in which they are received”, prompting me to shout into the phone, “If you’re going to interrupt that stupid music at least use good grammar!”  But I digress.

Because most businesses need to keep their callers “on hold” for so much of the time, strategies have been developed to minimize the negativity.  Simple, often cheesy “hold music” such as what we might think of as “Muzak” ™ has been widely used, while targeted, custom written and produced messages combined with better quality “hold music” have grown in popularity in recent years.  Fortunately, it’s becoming less common to encounter a business or organization that doesn’t have at least some kind of “hold music” instead of empty silence.  At least you know your call is still connected.

The telephone has played a major role in the world of business almost ever since Alexander Graham Bell’s famous, “Mr. Watson–come here—I want to see you” back in 1876.  Today, evolving technology has dramatically modified the way companies use telephone technology, but its importance remains undiminished.  If anything, telephone communications management may be more critical than ever.

“Face-to-face contact between consumers and businesses has decreased in direct relation to the advancement in communication technology.  Establishing and maintaining consumer-business relationships is now heavily dependent on great service, including fast turnaround times and quality phone contact.”  (Wikipedia)

While most sales managers would cut off their right arm if it meant “getting the phone to ring”, simply getting customers to call is not enough.  What happens next is just as important.

“…85% of consumers would stop doing business with a company based entirely on poor experience with their call management… [2] …Using Messages On Hold has been proven to reduce caller hang ups by 79%.” (ibid)

If your “hold music” project is “on hold”, perhaps it’s time you “take it off the back burner” and learn how to leverage this invaluable tool.

Hold time Studios provides custom, regularly updated music on hold and onhold messaging for a range of business types from financial services to manufacturing to healthcare – and just about everyone in-between. From the professional quality of the finished production to the flexibility to work with most phone systems (including Avaya, Cisco, Panasonic, Mitel, and NEC) to the low cost onhold messaging from Holdtime makes good sense. Why should you consider the benefits of onhold messaging for your company? Let’s use a nautical metaphor to paint the picture…

Sailing the seas of today’s business climate is not for the faint of heart! You need savvy and grit to stay the course. Jumping through all of the legal hoops and clearing the hurdles of red tape and paperwork just to be able to get your “ship” out of the harbor, is only the beginning. Endless challenges await on the open sea. Pirates (commonly referred to as “excessive taxes”) seem to be constantly on the increase plundering and extorting (and beware running aground on “hidden” taxes!) Rival merchants vie for precious customers at every port. Then there’s the cost of equipping and maintaining your ship and crew. If you’re determined to stay the course and not abandon ship, you have to find a way to lighten the load as you leverage the “wind” that drives your ship forward.

Cash flow is the wind in your sails, and the key to cash flow is customers. “Top of mind awareness” could be the “sails” in our analogy. Yes, you may need to cut back on marketing ideas that are not cost effective, but eliminate marketing entirely and you’ll likely find yourself dead in the water. For many reasons, customer retention is often as or more important to cash flow as customer acquisition. Whether for taking care of existing customers or “reeling in” the ones “on the line”, few marketing strategies match the efficiency, flexibility, and cost benefits of onhold messaging. Strategic use of your phone system through onhold messaging could be just what you need to give you the edge to “bring your ship to port”. You can listen to samples of Holdtime’s custom onhold messaging right now at Hold Time Studios.

The On-Hold Messaging Association says 70% of business callers are put on hold. Make sure that time is put to good use by telling your on hold customers or prospects about how you can solve their problems, or to introduce new products. This audio point of purchase is an opportunity to direct your message to the people who are already interested in your business — because they’re calling you.

One more statistic – 12 to 16% of on hold customers will make a purchase, based on your excellent music on hold.

What makes an excellent on hold message? According to Hold Time Studios, a personal touch, appropriate humor, briefly explaining your unique solution, are all factors. Another is adding some good music on hold for a total creative marketing package.

Patrick Bolan, owner of Hold Time Studios, and sister company Hold Time Music, says some of his clients report their customers ask to be put back on hold; they were enjoying themselves so much!

Radio or print ads can cost thousands, and let’s not even think about the cost of a TV spot, but on hold messaging targets your best customers for as little as $350. Your cost depends on whether you have multiple locations, how often you want to refresh your scripts and whether you need to purchase equipment.

It’s helpful when making business decisions to hear what others have experienced in your situation. Visit Patrick’s testimonial page to read some great reviews and then give him a call.

What do you like to hear on-hold? We’re used to getting silence, static, or the radio. Nobody remembers music on hold paragraphs that are long, boring, and full of superlatives packed into lists of services. All of these present a bleak, if not crummy image of the company that’s being called.

Maybe you remember a cool on-hold message that was creatively written, mixed with a bit of humor… or better yet – sound effects? www.holdtimestudios.com can do the boring stuff, yes, but why when for the same price you can engaging and educational music on hold?

Skip the boring studios, toss the old radio – and try us out.

Oh, yes… there are statistics to back us up. Here they are:

AT&T said,

“70% of calls are placed on hold for 30 seconds or longer. If a callers listens to silence, with commercial call will suffer a 75% abandonment rate. For first time callers, more than half will not call back.”

CNN said,

“The average person spends 100 hours per year on hold.”

Cellular Marketing Magazine

“Over 90% of callers prefer on-hold messages over silence.”

Telemarketing Magazine said,

“Surveys show that 25 to 40% of callers make purchases based on information they heard on-hold.”

So, does that sound like a good $1.50/day investment for your marketing budget?

It’s the Razzies for Music On-Hold. First let’s start with our top three music on hold paragraphs at the studios.

The Best Three Paragraphs We’ve Ever Recorded

WHAT’S THE DEFINITION OF AN OPTOMIST? A MUSICIAN WITH A MORTGAGE. HERE AT BEACOCKS WE’VE GOT PAYMENT PLANS FOR JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING, AND MUCH MORE FORGIVING THAN A MORTGAGE. THANKS FOR CALLING, WE’LL BE RIGHT WITH YOU.

*If a toilet is over-flowing, is it just a simple clog? Does the toilet need to be repaired? Or, did your son’s favorite action figure “go for a swim” and never return? We don’t “guess” over the phone. Our technician will give you a complete evaluation and accurate price up-front … before any work is done. We’ll back it with a warranty …. Adventuresome Power Rangers excluded. J

IF YOU’RE SPENDING TIME AROUND EXTENED FAMILY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON, TAKE A LOOK AROUND… THOSE WRINKNLES WILL BE COMING TO FACE VERY NEAR YOU WITHIN A FEW YEARS – BUT THEY DON’T HAVE TO. YOUR SKIN CAN BE CLEAR AND BEAUTIFUL AT ANY AGE. WE’LL BE RIGHT WITH YOU.

You can hear some of these at http://www.holdtimestudios.com/marketing-ideas.php

And how about two for the worst.. holy cow, these were bad; And in these two cases we didn’t write them … they read like a As-Seen-on-TV script….

HAVE YOU TRIED EVERYTHING TO RID YOURSELF OF CELULLITE? DID YOU KNOW THERE IS A NON SURGICAL SOLUTION FOR THIS PROBLEM? DR. ++++ KNOWS THIS IS NOT A MATTER OF WILLPOWER OR LACK OF SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS. FORTUNATELY, THERE REALLY IS A WAY TO GET RID OF CELLULITE! IT’S CALLED MESOTHERAPY, AND THE ++++ CENTER IS THE WEST COAST’S LEADING PROVIDER OF THIS REVOLUTIONARY WAY TO GET RID OF CELLULITE. IT IS LIFE CHANGING. DON’T WAIT – INQUITE TODAY ABOUT HOW YOU CAN GET RID OF CELLULITE AND SAVE 25% OFF YOUR PACKAGE!

And so much information, that you won’t recall any of it…

PROTECT YOUR FAMILY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM YOUR FRIENDS HERE AT HECHT AND HECHT INSURANCE AGENCY. WE OFFER A WIDE VARIETY OF HEALTH AND LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES. INCLUDING BOTH INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP LIFE AND HEALTH PLANS, MAJOR MEDICAL AND EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLAN AS WELL AS WHOLE, AND TERM LIFE, IRA’S, AND ANNUITIES. AT HECHT AND HECHT INSURANCE AGENCY, WE BELIEVE THAT NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU FAMILY’S HEALTH AND PEACE OF MIND.

Yick. .!

There is often undue consternation over what style of music should be used for a company’s telephone on-hold message. The music must support (and not distract) from the MESSAGE about your business.

1. Understand that you’ll be choosing a genre of music – you won’t be able to use that U2 song unless you’re ready to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars in copyright fees.

2. Choose a style that fits your businesses image, not just your favorite genre. It’s a classic marketing mistake to pick artistic bents that you enjoy, instead of what’s most effective for your target audience. It’s Marketing 101, folks. Once I installed a system where the Owner-Doctor of a veterinary clinic was a classical music aficionado, and insisted her on-hold messaging use the same. The “up” nature of their voiceovers was a poor match for soothing classical music.

1. When in doubt, aim for the Lowest Common Denominator among your telephoning audience… it’s light jazz – because it’s least likely to annoy your callers compared to rap, rave, bluegrass, country, and so on…

1. Follow the industry trend. From our experience, here it is:
   1. Banking and financial: Classical Music
   2. Veterinarian and Dental: Light Jazz
   3. Automobile: More aggressive jazz
   4. Business Services: Bluesy jazz, without blaring horns.
   5. Day Spas: Neo-classical, or New Age
   6. Manufacturing: Light Jazz
   7. Adventure Sports and Gyms: Rock to Rave
   8. Retirement Planning: Big Band (boomers love this style)
   9. Locally rooted businesses: Heavily dependent on local music influences.
   10. Businesses who deal with stressed out callers: Neo-classical.
   11. General Restaurant: Light Jazz
   12. Expensive Restaurant: Mellow piano Jazz (we call it “smoky” around here)

Our tagline for Hold Time is “Good things come to those wait.” Maybe it should be, “We think about it so you don’t have to!”.

Hear samples at www.holdtimemusic.com, and www.holdtimestudios.com