While most of our new customers at www.holdtimestudios.com come to us by referral or the website, a few months we got a call out the blue from a dental clinic that needed music on hold for their NEC phone system. At that time, we hadn’t spent a lot time and money optimizing our onhold messaging site for the general public… it was mostly just “calling card”.

Perman Family Cosmetic Dentistry www.bestsmilesincanby.com in Canby had searched in google by their zip code for a telephone vendor, and up came www.holdtimemusic.com, because we’re located nearby and the zip code in somewhere (?) on our website. Who knew?

We hooked them up with some great customized on hold messaging productions, and just recently began to use them as our dental provider. Great service, nice people… and oh, check out their awesome on hold productions! Here’s an example..

PERMAN BIO

BECAUSE OF THE NATURE OF THEIR SKILLS, DENTISTS ARE EXTREMELY DETAIL ORIENTED… AND WHEN DR. PERMAN WAS TEACHING PHYSICAL EDUCATION AT CLACKAMAS HIGH SCHOOL IN 80’S – HE REALIZED IT WASN’T THE TECHNICAL PRECISION HE WAS HOPING FOR. SO AFTER A HEART-TO-HEART WITH HIS OLDER SISTER, HE DISCOVERED DENTISTRY WAS A MUCH BETTER FIT FOR HIM! YOU’RE IN GOOD HANDS TODAY, AND THANK YOU FOR CALLING PERMAN FAMILY AND COSMETIC DENTISTRY.

You can see from http://www.holdtimestudios.com/phone-system.php that our equipment can travel anywhere, remotely updated on hold productions are our specialty; But it’s nice to have a personal connection with a local client. Thanks Dr. Perman!

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.  Here are some fun samples we’ve put together over the years: 

Oh, yes… there are statistics to back us up. Here they are: http://www.holdtimestudios.com/marketing-ideas.php

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?

If you’re a business owner who has been working on a change-of-ownership, or new location for months – you’ll be surprised at how clueless your customers are. It’ may be a big transition to you, but bringing your clients with you will take more than just word-of-mouth. Direct Mail, phone calls, emails, and music on hold advertising messages are part of an effective strategy of information dissemination.

Our expertise is messaging on hold. Often we’re called in to create a customized script that let’s every caller know that the business has undergone a significant change. For a dental office that’s moved, like www.palenadentalarts.com, frustrated patients will be showing up at the old location unless you’re successful with messages such as these:

You’re call is ringing in today at our new location in Salmon Creek. No more stairs! Now, we’ve got a elevator that takes you to one of the most advanced dental care suites in the Northwest. It’s easier to find too… in fact, if you’re on the I-5 or I-205 freeways right now, you’re less than 7 minutes from a beautiful smile. Get directions at www.palenadentalarts.com, or ask us when we return to the line!

This approach works just as well during an ownership transition, new product launch, structural change in the way that you do business that you’re customers need to know about. Use www.holdtimestudios.com ‘s custom on-hold shop to produce messages for you that work. Through inexpensive creative marketing on your phone system, your customer will learn the full benefit of why they make the right call with then called YOU.

Recently, www.spiritwireless.com wanted to use “Riders in Sky”, a popular 70’s song, as background music to their on-hold production. It made sense: their businesses is satellite telephones, but it costs money… sometimes big money.

The American Society of Composers, Arrangers, and Producers manage the copyrights on the vast majority of American-origin songs. If you use a copyrighted song for the purpose of enhancing your business in anyway – you owe the composer and performer money; and ASCAP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCAP manages that legal responsibility. See also www.ascap.com/copyright.html.

There’s no guarantee that they will find you out if you decide to violate the copyright, but I can say that the bigger you are – the more likely you are to get fined. Copyright management can seem heavy handed http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/music-licensing3.htm

, and rudely applied (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/communications/ASCAP.html)

their legal case is bulletproof. Whomever you use for custom-on-hold messaging, make sure their copyrights are in order.

A bad option: Even playing the radio for your on-hold is technically illegal, as you are rebroadcasting music for the purpose of enhancing your business without paying for it.

For more information about using copyrighted music, see our FAQ section at http://holdtimestudios.com/faq.php

One fun technique we use here at Hold Time Studios is taking a big concept, and splitting it into two paragraphs to market to music on hold callers. For example: How much does the average caller know about fraud litigation. Not much, so www.heekinlawoffice.com took a big concept and broke it into two paragraphs.

FRAUD 1

TODAY’S BUSINESS CLIMATE IS RAPIDLY CHANGING, AND THE HEEKIN LAW FIRM IS AT THE FOREFRONT OF THAT CHANGE - ESPECIALLY IN FRAUD RELATED MATTERS. IN A WORLD WHERE 97% OF ALL INFORMATION IS CREATED AND STORED ELECTRONICALLY, IT CAN TAKE AN INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS TO INVESTIGATE FRAUDULENT ACTIVITY. BUT RATHER THAN REACTING TO THE PROBLEM, THE HEEKIN LAW FIRM BELEVES THERE IS A BETTER WAY – WELL TELL YOU ABOUT IT IN JUST A MOMENT.

FRAUD 2

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ONCE SAID, “AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE.” THAT’S CERTAINLY TRUE WITH THE RISK OF FRAUD. THE HEEKIN LAW FIRM HAS THE SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE TO DETER AND DETECT FRAUD. WE PROVIDE FRAUD PREVENTION TRAINING, ADVISING YOU WITH A TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS, INCLUDING LAWYERS, ACCOUNTANTS, COMPUTER FORENSICS, AND HR. THANK YOU FOR CALLING – WE’LL BE BACK ON THE LINE IN JUST A MOMENT.

The beauty of this approach in scripting is this: it makes the on-hold caller wonder what’s coming next…. Instead of fighting the impulse to hang up, they’re hanging on to get the answer!

Messaging-on-hold is far more than just plugging music into a caller’s while they wait. Don’t let an opportunity to go by to tell the caller about your business! However, using music can create an audio atmosphere that will make them more receptive to what’s being said.

In our experience, a typical on-hold paragraph should be no longer than 20 seconds. Here’s why:

1. Shorter than 20 seconds: It’s difficult to introduce, develop, and conclude a relevant idea. At 10 seconds, all you can get in is a web address, and “thanks for holding”.

2. Longer than 20 seconds: You run the risk of your caller not hearing the beginning and/or end of the message. If your average caller is on-hold for 20 seconds, and you’ve got a 30 second paragraph in the mix… their education will be “fragmentary.”

For businesses where no introduction is needed, like a fire department, you can get right to the point. www.ccfd6.com often is 70% scripting, and 30% music – and the scripting is concise and informative.

Most businesses need to develop a little background for the caller, like in this example for www.aact.com and their remote video surveillance:

VIDEOFIED REMOTE

JUST BECAUSE YOUR TRAILER, SHOP, OR RV DOESN’T HAVE A PHONE LINE DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN’T BE FULLY PROTECTED. ALARM AND ACCESS CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES IS PROUD TO INTRODUCE VIDEOFIED – IT’S COMPACT, PORTABLE, BATTERY POWERED, AND RUNS ON CELLULAR TECHNOLOGY. BUT IT GETS BETTER THAN THAT – THE ALARM TRIGGERS A VIDEO CAMERA AND THE VIDEO CLIP GOES RIGHT TO YOUR CELL PHONE. THANKS FOR CALLING ALARM AND ACCESS CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES!

Writing for on-hold messaging is definitely it’s own genre, and Hold Time Studios will perform it for you – just tell us the idea and we’ll run with it!