Why waiting On-Hold feels so long!

August 19th, 2010 by Chester Hull | Click to leave a comment »

Passing TimeAdam Alter writes an interesting article about the quirks in time perception that we all share. Why does the first hour of a long flight seem SOOO long, while the last several hours all cram together in your mind.

I’ll be you’ve had a similar experience in micro…the last time you called a company and were put On-Hold.  With so many things that need to be done in our busy lives, no one wants to wait, and who could blame us?

Have you been in Best Buy and had to wait in line to checkout? What do you do while you wait? You probably skim the end caps, but I’ll bet you spend most of the wait watching the Best Buy TV program on one of the many screens they have positioned in site. Why do they put those there?
Because when your mind is engaged, it doesn’t think about the amount of time you’ve been waiting. It feels like only a few seconds, when really they’ve been able to play four 1 minute promos for you!

Now back to the On-Hold. If your business is putting people On-Hold, and just having them listen to silence, you’re actually extending the perceived wait time.  How would you like it if Best Buy required you to put on a blindfold while you stood in line? Every second would feel like an hour until you could take that blindfold off!

But if you choose to engage your caller during those inevitable times they have to wait On-Hold, the amount of time they perceive they are waiting will be quite a bit less. Custom On-Hold messaging that is engaging and relevant is just like hanging those screens near the checkout line of Best Buy.

From Adam’s article:

There’s still plenty we don’t understand about how humans perceive time, but one fact is clear: we don’t perceive time the way clocks portray time, one second at a time, with each second passing just as quickly as its earlier and later counterparts.

Sure, nobody likes to wait, but what kind of experience is your company providing for those customers who call in? Is your caller experience a good one? Are you speeding up their clock, or slowing it down?

“…I want to know right now how long you expect me to wait…”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpyrgHvZe_I[/youtube]

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On-Hold…more annoying than spam and dog poop – Consumer Reports

August 10th, 2010 by Chester Hull | Click to leave a comment »

Illustration by Jason Ford

In a study released in January 2010, Consumer Reports revealed that waiting to talk to a live human when calling a company ranked as the second most annoying thing that you and I deal with daily. (the first? Hidden fees).

There’s no doubt why. We’re all busy. We want to accomplish our goals while taking the least amount of time possible. And waiting while listening to silence is more annoying than being stuck in a traffic jam! (only #14 on the list)

In fact, respondents said they would rather scoop dog poop than wait On-Hold! (Don’t believe me? Check out the results at Consumer Reports)

As a business, what can you do about this? There’s always the first thing that comes to mind…”Hire more people!”

That’s what most people suggest. And mostly that suggestion probably comes from someone who has never owned their own business. There can never be a one-t0-one ratio of employees to customers. It simply is not feasible.

But most helpful folk don’t stop to consider that. They just want you to handle their issue right now.

One approach we’re encouraging businesses in is to take that On-Hold time seriously. As serious as a customer walking in your front door. What are the things you do to make your customer’s first impression a great one? Do you hire an interior decorator? Do you keep the customer-visible areas neat and clean? Do you have information for customers to take with them when they walk out the door?

You can do the same thing for customers that call in to your business.

Make a great first impression by having more than silence On-Hold. An On-Hold message will grab your caller’s ear when they first hear it.

You’ve got my ear…now what?

Now you’ve got about 2.86 seconds to keep them listening. Is it going to be interesting? Or is it going to be about how long you’ve been in business?

Are you going to tell the caller a story…and make them the star? Or are you going to keep all the stardom to yourself, and try to make your business the most important thing in the message. (hint: customers like to imagine themselves using your product or service to make their life better. They don’t really care that you’ve been in business since 1942)

If you want an On-Hold message that will turn angry customers into laughing ones, tell callers about products or services they didn’t know you offered, or flat-out sell more product, you better be paying attention to the phone. Listen to these On-Hold samples to get some ideas that could transform your Caller Experience.

Then let’s work on a solution for Tailgaters…that’s the next thing on the list!

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On-Hold news worth hearing

August 2nd, 2010 by Chester Hull | Click to leave a comment »

It helps you wake up in the morning.

You watch it while you’re eating breakfast.

It’s on your car radio at the top of every hour (and the bottom of some!)

News. It’s all around us…and we all love it. We like it because we want to be “in the know”. We want to have the latest information…the current story.

We all like to be the one at the party that has all the details to tell everyone else. Oh, not in a self important, smug way, but just a subtle “I’m with it” kind of way.

That’s why we’re really excited to be bringing News, Sports, and Entertainment to your On-Hold message!

Starting in September 2010, you’ll be able to choose our Daily News package add-on, which includes news, sports, and entertainment…(always filtered for positive, upbeat news, of course!), updated daily. It integrates with your current On-Hold message, so you still continue to spread the word about your company, while also providing a fresh alternative to boring On-Hold time.

I’ve attached some recent clips of what each of those insertions would sound like:

NEWS On-Hold

SPORTS On-Hold

ENTERTAINMENT On-Hold

For one dollar per day, you get fresh, daily content integrated with your own custom messaging.

Imagine sounding relevant to your caller!

Just give us a call, and we’ll add News, Sports, and Entertainment to your On-Hold message!

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Know thine own On-Hold Message

July 22nd, 2010 by Chester Hull | Click to leave a comment »

Know before you go”…”Look before you leap”…that’s what they say.Good quotes and all. Handy for telling your friends AFTER they’ve done something that wasn’t too smart. Now they’re suffering the consequences, and you’re coming up with brainy quotes. Helpful of you.

I was in a meeting of store managers recently, and asked “who knows what you’re callers are hearing On-Hold right now? Because right now, a customer or prospect has called your store, and is waiting On-Hold. What are they hearing?”

I was met by silence and blank stares.

Until it was broken by one brave manager: “I have no idea.”

This is so often the case. Top level managers, business owners, and especially employees, have no idea what happens when they push that Hold button. It’s just something they’re supposed to do.
1. Answer call
2. Speak to customer
3. Push Hold button
4. Retrieve call by lifting receiver
5. Speak to customer

Except that if you don’t know what that customer or prospect is hearing while they’re On-Hold, they might not be there for step 5. They may have vanished. Oh, they’re still around. As a person. But they’ve vanished from your business…and you’ve become invisible to them. While your competition has become they’re latest love.

Think about it the next time you push that Hold button. What ideas are you putting in your customer’s head?

If you do use an On-Hold message, to you play it for your employees? If they knew what your caller just heard, right before they picked them back up, could they help reinforce that message? Of course it would!
(Side note: Do you involve employees in your On-Hold updates? You should! They’re on the front lines of your business!)

And do me a favor, will you?
Pick up your cell phone, call your company right now, and ask whoever answers the phone to put you On-Hold.

Does your Caller Experience need some help?

“Know before you go!”

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Bringing “local” to your callers

July 12th, 2010 by Chester Hull | Click to leave a comment »

There’s an interesting story last week about how the City of Portland is replacing boring hold music with local bands’ songs.

Sure, no one likes to wait, but since it’s a fact of life, we figured we ought to make your time on hold as interesting and entertaining as we can. (Portland’s Mayor, Sam Adams)

Hmmm, now THERE’S a new idea! Making things interesting and entertaining, during the inevitable times in life that we have to wait. And it’s not the first…similar programs have been previously launched in Seattle and Austin.

So what is your business doing to make things fun and exciting for your callers? Are there local talents you can highlight? What about right in your own company…maybe not for music, but what about for product tips, service ideas, or ways to use your products?

There is no law that says On-Hold time has to be boring! What will YOU do to make your next customer’s Caller Experience a great one?

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How to think like a customer

July 7th, 2010 by Chester Hull | 2 Comments - click to view »

It’s hard to read the label from inside the bottle. “Huh?” you say?

See what you think is your “inside reality”…the customer experience inside your doors, is only what your customer says it is. Nothing more. And thankfully, nothing less.

That means you have the opportunity to surprise and delight your customer with the unexpected service.

Recently I ended up owning two identical 32gb 3G model iPads. At a time when iPads were more scarce than a hippy at a classical music concert. You just couldn’t walk into an Apple store and walk out with an iPad!

Well, when I found out I wouldn’t have to pay a restocking fee to Apple to return one of them, I decided to send one back. It was only AFTER I decided to do that, when I found out that Apple not only would not charge a restocking fee, but they would send me a prepaid return shipping label, and the return wouldn’t cost me a thing. As in free. I was delighted.

And the reason I was delighted (aside from saving the money, or course!) is because it was unexpected. Nowhere does Apple advertise “Free return shipping…you can send it back, and not pay a dime!” It’s just something they do, that makes me like doing business with them.

So what do you do to delight your customers? What are the little…or big…things that you could do to surprise and delight your existing customers. Strengthening the bond with your existing customer base is one of the best ways to increase your revenue.

So why is it that it often goes the other way? You woo a customer in with fantastic ads, and heartfelt promises, then once they’re “in the fold” they are no longer on the “To Be Delighted” list?

So here’s a way to have some fun, and maybe discover some ways to delight more customers.

1. Get out of the office…business…or whatever work environment you are in. That’s right, go ahead.

2. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, and contemplate your business category.

  • Are there any preconceived notions or misconceptions that prevent more people from coming to your business, or buying what you sell?
  • What mistakes do some competitors make? That is, how could they create a more fulfilling customer experience?

3. Now, call your business, and ask for directions to your store. Pay attention to the what it sounds like…how the phone is answered…what you hear as a customer.

4. Walk into your business, and buy something. Was it easy? Did you enjoy the experience? What was the environment like?

Sometimes it takes getting out of the familiar to see things through another perspective. And even then it’s hard!

Comment below on ways you can surprise and delight your customer!

If you need some help, give our Caller Experience Evaluation service a try. You might be surprised at the view from outside the bottle!

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How “Clueless”, “Uninformed”, and “Annoying” are killing your sales

June 10th, 2010 by Chester Hull | Click to leave a comment »

From Entrepreneur Magazine’s current issue:

Nothing says success like professional presentation. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs who wouldn’t bat an eye at dropping some coin on a decent website, impressive newsletters and other collateral tend to shatter the illusion when it comes to their business phones.

We couldn’t agree more.

In fact, 96% of marketing budgets are spent on enticing callers to call, but only 4% is spent on handling that call.

Advertising to cause your phone to ring, without considering what that caller experience will be like….That’s like buying a SuperBowl ad, but sending people to a website that you threw together with your cousin. (no offense to cousins everywhere…I’m sure some of you can design great web pages!)

Entrepreneur goes on:

Too often, small-business owners send customers the wrong message by mixing business with pleasure–routing all of their calls (work and personal) to the same number, for example, or having overly casual, unprofessional voicemail greetings.

It’s amazing how many business over-look this critical customer interaction point! Some are clueless…like this one:

Clueless

Some business owners and employees are simply unaware, like this one:

Uninformed

And some On-Hold experiences are simply annoying, like this one:

Annoying

If clients and potential customers call your business…stop right now, and take a moment to call your own business.

Go ahead…I’ll wait.

Now, how can you make that a better experience? Want some ideas? Have a complete Caller Experience Evaluation of your phone experience. You might be surprised!

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Giving callers that personal value

May 17th, 2010 by Chester Hull | 1 Comment - click to view »

The party line is dead.

It’s over.

Replaced by the sophistication of electronics. (that is, unless you live in one of the 81 cabins in Big Santa Anita Canyon high above LA)

Ahhhh, the steamroller of progress. A very good thing this time.

The completely non-private service made eavesdropping opportunities abound. If another caller was on the line when you needed to call sometime…too bad…you were waiting.

But when it comes to business, have you realized that the party line is dead? No longer do multiple people share a phone call to your company.

It’s a direct, one-to-one relationship. Have you customized your On-Hold message to reflect that reality?

Talk to that one caller in his or her language.

“Well how?” you say. “How can I have a customized On-hold message? Lots of people call me!”

Right, but have you considered who those “lots of people” really are?

Mike Wittenstein, Chief Experience Officer at Storyminers, says the most important factor to delivering a great customer experience is to know your customer. Personally. That allows you to understand how your product, service, or company fits into their lives. What it is that makes them value your product.

Rather then build the Caller Experience with your ENTIRE customer list in view, pick one, and design it for them. Choose a customer you know personally, and build your message around how your product or service improved their life. Tell a story, with your customer as the star.

Sure, other callers will hear that. And when it doesn’t fit their exact situation, they’ll think “Wow, if this company is “all that” for that customer, they can probably solve my problem as well!”

Applying this to other areas of your Caller Experience is even more straightforward. Here’s a great example from DSW Shoes. (Running on the Voxify integrated speech solution)

You see, if you want to reach an individual caller, you have to talk to them like an individual, not a group.

Does your message need some focus? Our Secret Caller service might be just the thing for you.

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Is your phone system confusing your callers?

April 28th, 2010 by Chester Hull | 1 Comment - click to view »

As I approached the elevators to head to my 14th floor room of the hotel I was staying in recently, I was met with this elevator selector. Someone on the design team of Otis felt 100% positive that this was designed clearly. So that I would have no trouble at all choosing whether I wanted to go up or down.

You may think so as well. But look closely…

If you wanted to go Up, do you push the button that the Up arrow is pointing to? Or the button beside the Up arrow?

It kinda looks a little circular to me, and that could get frustrating!

And here’s what that has to do with phone systems.

Too often, the Auto-Attendant is setup on the fly by whoever is installing the phone system. Sure, they’ve tried to get the business owner or manager to tell them what options to program, and what to say, but the truth is, the business owner is thinking “Phone System” at that point, not “Caller Experience“. See, those are two different parts of the brain!

How many times have you called a phone system that sounds like this: “Thank you for calling XYZ Corp, where we really value your business! If you know your party’s 4 digit extension, you may enter it at anytime. Please press 1 for Sales, Please press 2 for Service, Please press 3 for Parts, Please press 4 for accounting, Please press 5 for Human Resources, or press 0 to reach an operator. Press 9 to repeat this message.”

That’s even hard to write, must less listen to over the phone! And here’s why.

When you give the number before the option, I have to hold that number in my head while I listen to the option, and analyze whether that’s the option I need or not. After listening above, I’ve got a total of  7 options in my head, and they are all jumbled together. Because I’m not calling to push a number…I’m calling to go to a department.

If you list the department first, followed by the option (“to reach sales, press 1”) the department name “clicks” with what I’m looking for in my head, making it a very easy choice to press 1. If I don’t need the Sales department, I can simply forget about that option all together, and move on to the next one.

There’s a time to answer the phones with a live person. And there’s a time to use an Auto-attendant. (do you know which one to use when?)
When you decide to use an Auto-Attendant, make sure the options are clear, and easy for your caller to understand. Not confusing like our elevator. If you confuse them, they won’t know which way is up! (and they’ll go for the last option they hear…pressing “0”!)

So what does your Auto-Attendant sound like from the Caller’s perspective? You might want to use our Caller Experience Evaluation to find out!

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Moving the needle on the “Who Cares” meter

April 21st, 2010 by Chester Hull | 1 Comment - click to view »

<div xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicmcphee/422440966/"><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href=You’ve just called the Wagon Yard, a furnishings and collectibles store in Texas. You’re calling about the 54″ cherry roll-top computer desk you heard they carried. That would look great in your office! And while they transfer you to the Furniture department, you hear this:

Wagon Yard On-Hold

NOW you’re interested in more than just a roll-top desk! And why is that?

Because a compelling, relevant On-Hold message moves the “Who Cares” meter!

I’m sure you’ve heard or seen the opposite in an ad…maybe even today. “We’ve been in business since …” Really?

Who cares?

Now, you’re probably saying “But Chester, I don’t want to do business with a fresh, young, inexperienced company!” Really? Like Google? Facebook? Twitter? These are all companies that developed huge (did I say huge?) customer bases, and they weren’t built around how long they had been in business.

Let’s break this down a little more. When a company leads with how long they’ve been in business, what are they really trying to say?

  • Their experience makes them the expert
  • You will be able to count on warranty support
  • You won’t be left “holding the bag” if something goes wrong
  • (I’m sure we could come up with a lot more things here)

Any one of those would be more compelling…more interesting to you and me as customers, than “We’ve been in business since…”

Why is that? It’s because of the difference between facts and emotion.

Facts say you’ve been in business for 50 years.

Emotions tell me that I want to buy from someone who is an expert.

Answers like “family-owned,” “superior service” and “exceptional value” don’t generate terribly helpful uncovery information. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice information. But it’s not the bottom-line food-truth about your business that is going to get your visitors salivating for what you have to offer.*

Draw me into the world of emotions, and I am more likely to find interest in your product or service. And the best way to engage the emotional side of the brain is to tell a story.

Tell me a story…make me a star

Tell your customer a story, with them as the star, and you will instantly engage their emotional power. (take a moment to go back and read the first paragraph again. Did you notice it was about you?)

When we tell stories, we engage the emotion rather then the intellect. Emotion and intellect are not connected! Intellectual ads are about inarguable facts. It’s about “New!”, (when it really IS new!)

But emotional ads are about what the customer already knows or feels. They connect with what we already believe to be real, while adding a new perspective.

We do what feels right, then use our intellectual logic to justify our emotional decision.

So the next time you’re thinking about what callers hear while On-Hold, take out the intellect, and put in the emotion. It will make a powerful difference!

Not sure what callers are hearing when they call your company? Our Secret Caller service may be just the thing you need.

*Quote from Brian Eisenberg of http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/

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