We’ve all been put on hold and had to listen to all kinds of hold music.
Depending on how long the hold lasts, that music can make you all but want to abandon your call and try again at a later time. If you haven’t put any thought into your on-hold experience, your customers might feel this exact same way when they have to go on hold. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way.
If you want to make sure that your customers aren’t driven off by your choice of on-hold music, here are a few things you can do to keep them entertained:
Choose the Right Music
A lot of on-hold music is just wrong for the phone.
It’s too pitchy, the tempo’s all wrong and half the time it’s too loud. If your callers can barely keep the phone up to their ear, they’re not going to stay on the line for very long. This is why we offer a collection of royalty-free music channels with every account, ensuring that you have options for hold music that isn’t going to send your customers away screaming. You can choose the genre that best fits your company, and every song will be specifically chosen to sound good and loop easily when your customers have to hear it.
Change Things Up
Some companies set generic hold music when they first set up their phone systems and never bother to update.
This is fine for first-time callers, but if you have people who call your business frequently, they may end up hearing the same music over and over again. Even catchy music can become monotonous after you’ve heard it so many times, especially when it’s just filler that’s there to keep them occupied while waiting for someone to come back on the line. Changing your music periodically ensures that even frequent callers won’t dread hearing your hold selection again.
Take It Modern
One way to really get the attention of your callers is to use music that they’ve actually heard before as your hold music.
Popular music can be licensed for use as hold music, giving you options for music that you might not have considered before. We actually offer several premium hold music channels in addition to our standard offerings that include some licensed music for you to choose from. While not included with every account, these premium offerings can be added for a minimal monthly fee. These aren’t just no-name covers, either; our licensed offerings come from well-known artists that will instantly spark recognition with your callers.
Holiday Fun
Consider changing your music before holidays to something that better fits the occasion.
You don’t have to stick with just the standard big holidays, either; try changing your music on lesser holidays or various “fun” holidays like Talk Like a Pirate Day. Callers might be surprised to hear some of your “holiday” selections, but if you have fun with your choices then they will to. Just make sure that your music is properly licensed if you don’t get it from a pre-licensed or royalty-free channel.
Customize Your Music
If you really want to get your callers’ attention, try adding custom on-hold music for them to listen to.
You can add messages to your hold music, have special music composed specifically for your use or even add songs that aren’t included in channels that you already have access to. We even offer professionally-worded messages that you can purchase. As with the holiday suggestion, you’ll obviously need to make sure that any music you use is properly licensed or royalty-free before uploading it to your system.
While these suggestions might not make being on hold exciting, they should at least keep callers entertained while your customer service staff prepares to take their call. That little bit of entertainment may end up being the difference between a satisfied customer and an abandoned call, so it’s definitely worth the effort to spice it up.
