Did You Know? The national average time On Hold is estimated at between 45 and 90 seconds. Over 40 million calls get abandoned every year by callers who are irritated by (amongst other things) silence on hold. Silence on hold has an estimated 60% caller abandonment rate after just 90 seconds and more than 30% of those callers never call back!

A lost call could be a lost sale. In fact, the statistics are staggering in what caller abandonent rates costs businesses each year in hard dollars. Studies show that caller abandonment costs businesses the equivalent of between 10-15% of what their gross annual sales are. How many companies can afford to lose any sales in this economic climate? 

So how can you reduce caller abandonment rates? It's simple. With the use of professional on hold messages. In addition to the many benefits a professionally produced on hold message can provide for your business, one of the most significant benfits is reducing caller abandonment rates. 

Here is the proof:

When using professional on hold programming, caller hang ups are reduced by 90% and 15-20% of callers order additional products as a result.
- Quest Communications

88% of callers prefer to hear messages about a company’s products and services while on hold to silence or radio.
- Sales & Marketing Magazine, USA

Call abandonment rate decreased by 50% after an on hold program was introduced                                                                                                              
- British Airways

Nationwide Insurance (USA) found that the time callers were prepared to hold increased 130% when an on hold program was utilized.
- Telemarketing Magazine

If only 10 callers per hour are placed on hold you have around 20,000 chances annually to increase sales… quite simply on hold is one of the most powerful and cost effective marketing tools available today.

More stats from some leading consumer magazines.

On average, seven out of ten callers are placed on hold.
- Inbound/Outbound Magazine

34% of callers who hang up will not call back.
- Voice response, Inc

88% reported that their customers who were exposed to On Hold recordings inquired about the products or services they had just heard about while on hold. 80% of those respondents also reported fewer hang-ups after they installed their On Hold systems.
- Telcomm Int'l

Executives spend 15 minutes a day, or 68 hours a year, on hold.
 - USA Today

Survey results found that 88% of callers preferred On Hold Messaging to other hold options and 16% made purchases based on an On Hold offer.
- MaxiMarketing

Your business changes. Priorities change. Your competition changes. With new ideas, products, services, and seasons, the message you want your customers to hear should also change. For years we polled clients on the #1 thing they wish they could change about their on hold messages. What was the answer?  Faster, simpler turnaround time when it comes to updating their on hold messaging. That's why On Hold, Inc. has revolutionized they way in which you can update script content to ensure your message reflects your current marketing strategies. 

How? With Message Xpress!... Message Xpress our easy-to-use, on-line interface that provides you with the ability to quickly and conveniently make edits to any On Hold script in your account or archive. Need to make changes for a sale, promotion, or seasonal item???... No problem! With just a few simple clicks, you can update script copy to reflect your current marketing strategy or needs. Plus you can also select new voice and background music for added effectiveness. Plus once your production is complete you can simply download new on hold audio files right form your on-line account. No more playing phone tag with an account rep, faxing back and forth or waiting weeks for a new production to arrive in the mail. 

Wait, it does even more! Message Xpress also maintains archives all of your On Hold Messaging audio files for easy access and you can also view your complete production history and login activity. Whether your company is ranked within the Fortune 500 with locations from coast to coast, or a company with a local presence having one or more offices, Message Xpress is the fastest and easiest way to keep your On Hold Messaging fresh, current and compelling.

For most of the business people, always it seems that music on hold aka music on hold, messages on hold, on hold messaging, etc is just a little more than the thought. This means that a necessary but trivial need on the level of potted plants, pencil sharpeners or the paper towel dispensers in bathroom and it means that all of these things are etcetera. The public's perception at large with regard to modern business phenomenon of on hold music may not matter much. Arguably, this perception is another matter for just a simple reason that you might be wasting a low cost, potentially powerful and easily employed means of educating, motivating and communicating with the callers to do business with you.

If you think that, the only purpose of the on hold music is just to entertain use to keep the customers away from boring and irritated while waiting on the hold that they hang then you are missing the boat. It is obvious that the on-hold music will be able to fill up the empty silence. However, it can be more of great deal to fill up the empty silence and it can act more than fillers. Regardless of the type of industry, all of your customers are individuals-whether these individuals call for themselves or on the behalf of their companies or whatever it might be. These individuals not only have unique needs but they might be there for different stages in the process of buying or else they might have purchased already and might be calling for service issues. They might be long-time, just window shopping or repeat customers.

Regardless of anything, every caller to company is their future customer. What's more, generally there is no guarantee that the current customers can't be lost. Moreover, every customer can be a potential candidate for the additional products and services you provide. Broadening the customer horizons is up to you by education them about the product line and the package of services. While the customers are holding over the phone, you tell them about the sales and all the fulfillment processes that you have to offer and allow them to know what all things they can do in order to streamline things and can tell how you can help them. Creative ways can be shared with them and plants some new idea in their head.