January, 30 2010
A monster $250,000 sale attributed to an on hold message program simply because the customer happened to ask somebody to tell them a bit more about a new service or product they heard about while they were on hold. Well, It happened to one of our customers, and they were kind enough to tell us about it. We wonder how often it happens and we don’t get the phone call. We also wonder how often it happens and our customer is not made aware of what initiated the sale.
Although it would be nice for every client to see this kind of return in their on hold marketing investment we do admit that it is sometimes difficult to track your on hold programming’s ROI. The best on hold messaging programs return anywhere between 0 and 10,000% return on the initial investment. There may be certainly be weeks, months, or even a year whereby it may be difficult to completely and convincingly attribute transactions and sales to the on hold program. Most likely, sales ‘happened’, but the sale could not be completely traced or attributed to the program. Or maybe the program content was more designed to make general branding statements or provide educational content to customers on hold.
However, even if the answer was 0% ROI the reality is that a good on hold messaging program pays for itself quickly. For a buck or two a day, take into consideration the work that the program is doing in terms of just keeping a customer holding instead of hanging up. If you don’t have an on hold messaging program, “Silence” on hold is not golden. People hang up on silence, and quickly at that. In fact, studies show that 50% of callers will hang up if waiting in silence and a staggering 34% of those will not call back. Do you see an ROI return those ‘beep-beep’ tones that are considered a phone system feature? Beep tones can drive your callers crazy. Playing a radio station on hold? A radio station may promote your competitor, or other businesses which do not pay you to advertise their business to “your callers.” Even a simple music file can get old very quickly or not be to a particular callers liking.
A ‘hang-up’ caller may very well be an existing customer that calls a competitor. That’s lost revenue, and it might be big $. So……if you can’t seem to measure the ROI of your program, don’t fret. Your program is always quietly and certainly paying for itself. In addition to giving you another avenue to build your brand, it is also functioning as a tool to keeps folks holding. Other forms of advertising (billboards, direct mail, TV / radio advertising) fill no other function other than to simply advertise. Your low cost on hold message program is fulfilling a crucial additional function. So is your program paying for itself? Yes. Probably in more ways than you’re aware of.