Hello? Hello? Anyone there? Even in a technological world, customers will still pick up the phone and call a business.
What if you’re not there? Do you have a professional telephone message or greeting (not from your secretary)? Can a potential client leave a message? Can they hear your hours, sales, or special announcements? Without messages or music, nearly 60% of business’ callers placed on-hold will hang up. Nearly 30% of these callers never call back. ~CNN
A phone greeting is often the first impression that potential customers will receive of your business. What message about your brand will they hear?
Callers instantly form an opinion. Is your greeting informative, professional sounding and consistent with your brand? If not, you could be sending potential clients to your competition.
Maintain your Brand
The sound of your brand is equally as important as its look. You work hard on your brand colors, logos, etc. and they reveal to your clients how you want them to feel when considering your products or services. So, of course, does the voice and music on your business telephone message system. You can continue to project your brand identity directly where customers experience it – in their ear!
Increase sales with an on-hold professional telephone message
Would you like to increase sales? In a survey of consumers, nearly 20% have made a purchase based on information they heard while on hold. Leverage this quality time with your clients and let them know what you have to offer!
Did you know that callers who listen to music stay on longer?
US West conducted a study that found that callers were willing to stay on hold three minutes longer when they heard information and music rather than silence. Caller retention increased by 40%, inquiries increased by almost 15% and service requests increased by as much as 12%. These impressive numbers are all due to efforts made before the customer talks to an actual person. Would that be valuable if you could increase sales or brand acceptance?
A holiday message with seasonal music can also, let customers know that your message is current. Add an impact for your business by creating additional value for your caller with “Music On-Hold” messages. It’s a powerful way you can use a scripted professional telephone message with your voice over recording. Take advantage of the time when your customers are on-hold to serve them better. Use Music On-Hold messaging to provide customers with discounts, insider tips about how to use additional products and services, or share some facts about your company to make the call more memorable. With a professional voice over recording, you can transform the experience of being on-hold into an opportunity for valuable engagement with your callers.
Make your on-hold message leave a lasting impression
Callers have noted that a high-quality telephone greeting shows that the business they’re calling is reputable, stable and professional. This sets the right tone for customer interactions, adding credibility and hopefully increase sales. You don’t have the advantage of a personal, face-to-face interaction, so it’s even more important to deliver a super-efficient, brand-consistent, customer-oriented brand image.
So what tone should your Business Telephone Message convey?
Let’s not overlook the personality that your phone system conveys. The business messaging program draws prospects in, builds trust and participates in the sales conversion process. Your branding, including your professional telephone message, should convey the same professional quality and attention to detail. A professional voice over recording cannot be overstated. It will project to your callers that the way you communicate with them is on point for your brand and that they deserve the highest level of service possible.
Who has legal rights to the recording?
For example, say the employee who created the voice recordings later quits or is terminated. Who has the legal rights to those recordings? The ex-employee could cause legal issues for the company without some kind of concrete contract. You may have to remove the recordings. Such legal issues could be avoided with professional voice recordings done by a third party.
Not sure what to include in your telephone message?
- A professional voice over can help with:
- Examples of professional messages;
- Call flow charts that visualize the whole call flow which is a strategically-engineered flow that maps out exactly how phone calls move through your business phone system; and
- Service and support to guide businesses through the process of creating their personalized telephone messages.
How does professional voice over recording messaging increase revenue and customer satisfaction?
Well, let’s evaluate what kinds of individuals or groups call in to your business. Are they prospective customers looking for your product information? Are they existing customers who need service information? What information do they seek? What problems do they want you to fix?
Once you’ve identified the categories, then you can include those options in your call flow. Build your professional voice over script and call flow around what your prospective callers seek. But, you know your business best, so the menu options are all up to you.
So, identify the different paths or funnels that incoming calls could fall into. The goal then, is to design your system to facilitate the swift transfer of your caller into the hands of the person who can solve those callers’ problems.
The bottom line is that call flow driven by a professional voice over messaging script impacts your business tremendously. It helps you retain customers and maximizes revenue by increasing business efficiency, lowering costs, and maximizing customer satisfaction, increase customer awareness of your sales, offers and, ultimately, your brand.