Everyday your business may be losing customers by using a four letter word, and you don’t even know about it. These customers are better known as the “Lost Customer” and most times when you use this four letter word you don’t even know it is happening!
But it is, and here’s how and why it happens…. You make an investment on marketing and promotion (Radio, TV, PR, mailings, web site, etc) to get potential customers to call your business. While some that call become clients, others hear this four letter word when calling and felt that this four letter word was unacceptable, hung up and called your competitor. So what is this four letter word that is costing your business lost sales and revenues? H-O-L-D...
Here’s the scenario: This investment you made in marketing and promotion to get your phones to ring worked, yet some callers happened to call and were put on hold. If their "on hold experience" wasn't acceptable (ie waiting in dead silence), some hung up and called your competitor. This is referred to as caller abandonment (lost calls/caller hang-ups). So not only did you lose out on the investment you made to get them to call, you also lost out on the sale. That's lost business, and only you know what a new client is (or was) worth to you... so you can place your own values on the loss. No business, especially in today’s economy can afford to have these lost revenues and missed opportunities.
Sure, there’s lots of ways to provide a bad on hold experience, but, the most costly and frustrating is causing your callers to hold in silence. By all indications, silence on hold causes more abandoned calls then all of the other bad on hold experiences.
Here are some shocking on hold statistics about “Lost Customers” due to that little four letter word – HOLD!
American Telecomm Association – “50% of callers that in silence on hold hang-up within 21.6 seconds”
CNN Survey - "Without music or messages, 60% of callers will hang up, and 35% won't ever call back..."
Marketing Trend Magazine – “The average cost in lost potential business due to a mishandled call is over $134”
AT&T - “40% of first-time callers who hang up do not to call back”
Consumer Reports polled over 1,100 people and asked them to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 meaning an experience "does not annoy you at all" and 10 meaning it "annoys you tremendously.”) the annoyance level of waiting on hold in dead silence. The result, waiting on hold in dead silence scored an annoyance level of 8.9
Lost telephone callers is vastly different than losing a customer in your store. In your store, you can see it when a customer is right in front you, annoyed and walks out, but you can't see the caller on hold, wondering if they've been disconnected, or forgotten, or if you even care...
Caller abandonment rates are very real and higher than ever before. Smart businesses know they need to reduce caller abandonment rates and lost revenues. The solution? Music On Hold and Messages! Studies prove the results and ROI of implementing a professional on hold message system at your business.
Jefferson Denneandrus Research Firm - “Callers presented with On Hold Messaging versus silence or radio commercials are more likely exhibit interest in the product advertised, more likely to retain information and be less agitated”
US West Communications - Providing information on hold results in a 45% increase in caller retention
Telemarketing Magazine - "Surveys show that 15% to 20% of callers make purchases based on information they heard on-hold..."
Maxi Marketing – “88% of callers prefer on hold messages versus dead silence or radio”
Global Telecomm – “Businesses experience a 20% increase in requests for additional products and services mentioned on hold”
So the answer to lost revenues and caller abandonment is simple - On Hold Messages! You can effectively use hold time as an opportunity to connect with callers, improve the on hold experience and turn HOLD into a new four letter word – SALE!