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GENERAL
Businesses who run ONHOLD music and messaging should carefully consider the "aural" image, and the impact on callers, our service provides. While music is known to relax, even pacify callers, the effect of verbal messages can vary greatly by listener and by the choices you make regarding your ad-copy. The choice of male or female voice-talent, length of text, speed of read, ratio of music to text and message content -- all the elements we call "aesthetics" -- have strong implications toward the impact on your callers and corporate image. We hope you'll take some time to review this section and carefully consider your best course. |
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AESTHETIC CONTENT
Your callers are on-hold for longer periods of time than you probably realize. Auto-attendant and voice-mail systems can and do reduce call waiting times, but a substantial amount of "hold" time exists whenever you or someone in your office "parks" a call -- times when the receptionist is tracking you down or when you step away from the phone. While times vary by each business, we find the average hold time is between 30 and 50 seconds whenever a call cannot be expeditiously routed. And if your callers are parked in a "queue", waiting for the next available representative, then you know they may be waiting much longer.
We also know, as advertising research has proven, that making an impact on a listener requires having them come to understand the benefits of a product or service through an empathetic exchange -- one in which they emotionally, at some level, understand how a product or service will aid them, make life easier, better, more profitable, etc. Therefore, we find it important for our customers to consider how best they want to impact callers through the use of features and benefits. |
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FEATURES AND BENEFITS
From a technical standpoint, your message lengths will vary greatly by the choice of content. Feature-only messages are always shorter in length to Feature/Benefit messages. However, they will carry far less impact on a listener since the mention of benefits relates directly to "emotional impact." If the benefit of a product or service is not shared with a caller, it far less likely that they will extrapilate the benefit from hearing just information about features. Therefore, the choice you make regarding the length of each message should be considered by: (1) the average length of time a caller is apt to be on-hold; (2) whether you desire feature or feature/benefit ad-copy -- for the greatest impact on callers and; (3) the impact these choices have on your corporate image. (It is our usual course, here at ONHOLD, to lean towards feature/benefit messaging in order to achieve the greatest engagement and subsequent impact on callers.) |
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RATIO - music/text
The callers you put on-hold are "captive" listeners and we believe that care should be maintained when providing on-hold entertainment. The vast majority of callers genuinely like on-hold music and messaging, particularly when they're getting information that is useful to them. However, there can be some, having been "parked" on-hold, for whom nothing, not even music, will console them. Because of this and the need to respect your "captive" audience, we urge customers to try maintaining an even balance between music and text. While music is always present on the program, it goes "under" when text is being said and it is far too easy, when attempting to get as many topic ideas, features and benefits into a six-minute program as one can, to have the program be too "text-heavy" -- with little if any music breaks between messages.
Text-heavy programs can be extremely irritating to some callers and the result can be devestating to your business and image. It is, however, important to note, that an even balance between text and music does not have to be precisely even. Studies show that, with music on-hold, time passes more quickly -- callers don't have a precise sense of time. As a result, a ten second break of music between text may appear to sound like twenty. The important consideration, from an aesthetic point of view , is how the length of text and the ratio of music-to-text will be perceived by the listener. You will want to carefully consider this balance as you determine topic and ad-copy content. |
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RATIO - selling/customer service
"Captive" listeners also have a peculiar way of perceiving your intention when it comes to the ONHOLD program. Regardless of your topic mix, some callers will assume, without reason, that your ONHOLD is just a sales tool. It is, therefore, of value to consider the ratio of selling and cross-selling messages to customer service and general information messages. A captitive listener may not want to hear a continuing list of sale messages. Consequently, we urge you to consider offering a balance between selling and non-sale topics for your ad-copy. |
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SPEED-OF-READ
The next critical aesthetic is the question of how fast the reading of the ad-copy should go. The ONHOLD program is a mix of different topics, at a certain set length for impact, balanced my musical interludes, wedged into a six minute recording (unless you pay a premium for added digitial player memory or ONHOLD on CD service). The speed of the text read can help determine how many topics (at what length and by what ratio of music to text) can fit into six minutes. The speed of the read can also create energy and excitement or become difficult for callers to understand and it follows that some listeners will assume that an "up-tempo" ad-copy reading is simply a way to "cram" your six minutes with wall-to-wall selling. (This assumption is made regardless of whether your messages are all customer service or a mix of topic ideas.) Care should be taken to consider topic volume and content carefully, as it relates to the speed-of-read. The following chart can assist you in measuring read time with your ad-py. |
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TALENT
Finally, the choice of male or female voice talent is an aesthetic choice that can make a difference in your corporate persona. We really have no firm opinion about one voice having any radical impact over the other. Still there are some important perceptions, chauvenistic as they may outwardly appear, that you may wish to consider.
The first consideration is: "who is calling" and what voice may most sooth or convey ideas to that caller? Whether the majority of your callers are male or female may come to bear on the decision of who should speak to them. Women callers tend to respond more favorably to a female voice, except in one way. Both male and female callers tend to trust technical issues to a male voice, while deferring customer service to a female voice. Please note that this bias is not ours, but comes as a result of tracking the effect over years of service to our customers. We recommend that you consider the choice of voice both for it's impact on callers and as it relates to your own corporate image. |
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For more information, or for help, please call us at 503-224-3766 |
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