|
Our clients often think that a message, is a message, is a message. People think that it's like buying a bottle of water the brand is somewhat irrelevant! If you have no care for drinking the brand that's filled directly from a Vietnamese, malaria infected swamp then, you may be right.
Unfortunately, I don't like malaria and this couldn't be further from the truth. Sure there are lots of people with radio backgrounds and good speaking voices. Since when did that make them marketing experts? Was there a 2 for 1 degree on offer that I didn't hear about? My father used to tell me, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. So, to mix a metaphor, if the shoe fits, wear monkey shoes.
Yes, messages can sound similar. The magic, what you're really paying for, are the words. The best on hold companies, like us, are more advertising agencies than on hold companies. We get a brief then have to create ads that sell your business. Think of on hold more like preparing a TV commercial. Now would you trust anyone to put a TV commercial together? You'd be crazy of you did. The reality is that because the TV ad cost so much more you would think carefully about who you hired, their expertise, their experience, the look and feel of the ad, what message you would like to convey etc. In fact, if you knew the ad was going to cost $15K most small business would worry about it for months. Wouldn't you?
So the principle is the same, it's the price that differs. And somewhere in there, because of the small price, people become complacent about on hold. Does a cheap date to the movies require less effort than an expensive restaurant. You still want the same outcome don't you.. (you can fill in your own blank here you dirty minded so and so) BIG MISTAKE. Do you realise that a TV commercial will play to a massive audience most of whom will never remember your ad. The only person that remembers most ads are owners and bank managers because the secret to TV is repetition. By the people remember your ad the average media budget would have expired a year before.
Now the beauty of on hold is that you already have people that know you. You have access to the most targeted audience there is your own.
I know my father reminisces ad nauseam about the good old days when you knew all the local merchants by name. Sorry old timer, but we are living in a fast paced global economy that doesn't have time for niceties like that. I bought my Ipod over the phone without laying eyes on anyone. Credit card number please, address details and PRESTO a new Ipod. (I'd like to thank my brother for leaving his credit card lying around .just kidding)
So what's the point I am laboring to make? That most of our business is conducted over the phone, or at the very least, most of our customers first impressions. Ahhh, the penny drops!
So what I'm circling around is the fact that what your customers hear is more important that what they see, because, like Stevie Wonder, they're not seeing are they. So if what they hear is all important, On Hold is starting to shine a little brighter wouldn't you agree.
Let me explain in my own style a real life situation that happens every day in business but it is from 2 different perspectives.
You have a customer on the line and the phone rings. The owner isn't stupid so he puts one call on hold quickly to answer the next one. So far, so good. The owner makes the sale then comes back to the second call but no one is there? Damn Telstra he mutters. Or perhaps, he is a little more optimistic and thinks the person had another call and will ring him back.
The customer
"I really need a widget", he thinks as he opens the yellow pages. Ring, ring, ring, ring. "welcome to Jim's widgets" do you mind holding" and so it begins 35 seconds of silence later..
"Screw this", he thinks, "I've been on hold forever, I'll ring the next place in the yellow pages" and proceeds to hang up.
You see, truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
| 
