Don’t Put Me On-Hold!

How often have you heard, “Don’t put me On-Hold!” I’ll bet you’ve thought that a few times yourself!

Being On-Hold is often a frustrating  experience. But let’s break it down to examine why it’s frustrating.
Taking your time

Number one, it’s taking up your time. Time that could be spent doing other things. And companies that have long hold times (we’re talking more than five minutes or so), really need to reevaluate their staffing or procedures for handling calls.

 

Silence

Ah…the dreaded silence. Have I been disconnected? Am I being transferred? Did I just get put into the phone system’s Black Hole? (Most phone systems have one of those—you knew that, right? Somewhere that callers go, never to be heard from again!) As a business, putting your callers On-Hold to silence is one of the worst things you can do to hurt your Caller Experience. It’s like asking people to stand in line with a blindfold on. They’re just not going to stick around! But give them something relevant and interesting to listen to while they’re On-Hold, and the wait time will seem very much diminished!

 

It’s all about me

If you do have an On-Hold message…congratulations on “getting it.” Now, what does it say? You see, callers want to hear about themselves. They want to hear how your service or products are going to make their lives better…how they are going to help them and change their lives for the better. They don’t want to hear a message that is all about you—all about how long you’ve been in business or how great you or your products are. This kind of message comes across the phone lines as “blah, blah, blah.” But tell a story, make the caller the star, and you’ll experience a much happier customer when you pick up the phone!

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