For years, companies have honed in on who their captive audience is, from television junkies to corporate CEOs to radio aficionados stuck in the daily commute to international buyers. But, recently, Advertel, Inc., an ad agency dedicated to making its clients “look and sound good,” has picked up on a new, less obvious market – customers who are placed on hold when they call a company.
“How professional a business sounds over the phone has a direct effect on how successful it’ll become,” Advertel (News - Alert) argues. “… The time callers spend on-hold presents an excellent marketing and branding opportunity. It sets the tone of all inbound calls and steers the perception these callers will receive, reminding them of all the reasons why they should continue to give you their business.”
In one 10-hour work day, if every five minutes a company receives a call, and that customer is put on-hold for 30 seconds, the company deals with more than 250 hours of on-hold time for the whole year, which equals to hundreds of free advertising hours, according to Advertel. And what’s worse than alienating your clients during that free advertising time by putting them on-hold indefinitely and not giving them something to listen to that is stimulating to help pass time.
To make the most of the on-hold button – what Advertel refers to as the “most powerful marketing tool” – Advertel is offering companies its ADS-ON-HOLD service. By purchasing the service, companies can work with Advertel to create customized on-hold messages that include announcements from the company, pricing information and the company’s mission statement. ADS-ON (News - Alert)-HOLD helps “maintain a positive public image, creates consistency, relaxing complaining callers and recommends additional products or services.”
That’s got to be a nice break from all “The Nutcracker” and classical music that companies usually opt to play to clients who are holding, right?
“For firms playing elevator music, callers may be appeased, but playing only music does very little toward developing a positive public image,” Advertel contends. “Since ADS-ON-HOLD is custom written and produced for each subscriber, it can be programmed to address a variety of issues important to you.”
Subscribers can customize messages ranging in length from four to 12 minutes and can choose to have the message changed and updated one to six times a year. In addition, Advertel also offers Holdtime Analysis to subscribers – a service that works like the Nielsen Rating – that predicts how big a company’s on-hold audience is and what type and size of program is needed to keep it “fresh and new.” According to Advertel, not only does a market exist with on-hold individuals, but that market can be calibrated and studied as well.
The ADS-ON-HOLD service connects to a phone system music on-hold (MOH) input, and every call placed on-hold will hear ADS-ON-HOLD, no matter which line or phone is used. However, because the service relies on the phones MOH, customers are limited to the number of MOH inputs their phone system has so it will be difficult to play different messages in different departments of a company.
It takes two to three weeks for a company to receive its first customer production. There are five payment options for the service, which costs less than $25 a month.
So, will listening to customized messages help pass the time and perhaps draw clients’ attention to new company offerings? The magic eight-ball has not yet made its prediction. But, in any event, ADS-ON-HOLD will certainly work to mellow the frazzled customer calling to complain, to excite the client having a tedious day and to ready the client for a real, live human interaction when they are finally taken off-hold.
Carrie Schmelkin is a Web Editor for TMCnet. Previously, she worked as Assistant Editor at the New Canaan Advertiser, a 102-year-old weekly newspaper, covering news and enhancing the publication�s social media initiaitives. Carrie holds a bachelor�s degree in journalism and a bachelor�s degree in English from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Tammy Wolf