A warm, helpful, professional and friendly voice on the phone can build customer loyalty, or if missing, drive them to a competitor. Extend the common courtesies to your callers and create a reputation of legendary service to keep your customers coming back through effective, well-written and produced on hold messages.
The top 3 tips for great customer service and telephone etiquette include:
1. GREET
A warm, friendly, professional voice says a lot to your callers. It psychologically makes the callers feel at ease while they have to “hold on”. In fact, studies have proven that even callers who are contacting your company with a complaint are less agitated when they are greeted by a warm, friendly voice. The same study showed that callers who waited in “dead silence”, or were forced to listen to annoying muzak elevator music were more enraged by the time your human representative answered their call. These studies have suggested that whatever the reason for the call, callers who hear a professional on hold message believe that you are willing to help.
2. TONE
Since you are not face-to-face, the most important measure of good communication in this case is voice quality and tone. Professional on hold messaging allows you to keep the callers experience positive and enthusiastic. Remember, the image the customer has of the person who is answering your company’s phone is the image the customer has of YOUR COMPANY. Is it flat, monotone or upbeat and perky? Is it abrupt, indifferent or polite and empathetic? You want to hire NICE people to answer your phone who will be NICE to your customers. And that’s exactly what an on hold message does for your business.
3. APPRECIATION
Everyone wants to be appreciated. Having a professional on hold message program allows you to effectively communicate sincere gratitude for your customer’s patronage.
In closing, an on hold message just makes good business sense when it comes to enhancing your customer service and professionalism. It makes a positive, lasting impression on the customer. The “Golden Rule” for any business is service, service, service and your on hold message is your company’s ambassador when it comes to good customer service.
On Hold Inc. is a full service custom music on hold and messages production company offering a wide variety of message on hold equipment and production options for any size business and any size budget.