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