Director's Message
It is interesting to note that when you put someone On Hold, you are being pretty inconsiderate to a fellow human being and a prospective customer.  At the very least you must communicate with this customer while they wait.

Fortunately, since starting the message On Hold industry in 1986, it has transpired that recorded voice announcements have become a vital part of customer communications.

Messages On Hold are now so important that for our clients, the customer experience is now recognized as the "make or break" for success in customer retention, sales, and revenue growth.

Now I need to get a few matters in order.

No-one rings your organisation to:
 Message on Hold Company Director David Bonnin
David Bonnin
  • be put On Hold
  • wait in a queue
  • press buttons to select where their call is best handled
  • be told that they will be recorded
  • leave a message
  • be advised that a person is not available
  • be barraged with advertising !!

These are potentially big negatives and yet we……read more

the public, are subjected to these experiences every single day - sometimes call after call.

The Message On Hold Company has exclusive data from some 50,000 consumer phone contact studies, which confirm that if certain rules are applied to telephone recorded voice announcements, then customers will:
Respond proportionately to the relevance, quality, intention and style of the announcements and will appreciate and value this form of communication if it is interesting and stimulating.

In other words, in this day and age, On Hold Communications must form a vital part of your customer communications plans.

So the first rule is that any pre-recorded information must provide the best customer experience. Therefore, all announcements should be designed around what satisfies your customers' needs, and governing this is the ‘human factor’.

Human Factors are those personal perspectives which govern the behaviour of individuals at particular times, in response to particular experiences. In other words, the factors that govern a person's behavior.

So when someone rings you, what do they hear, how do they respond – and why?

Let's face it, what we want from our customer communications is:
  • customer responses assured
  • customer satisfaction and;
  • customer post call behaviour, predicted and optimised


Consider this in the context of your Messages On Hold program:

Have you listened to industry experts?

Have you a scientific basis for your On Hold production?

What is the logic and intent of your On Hold production?

How important is your telephone caller?

What are the most important factors governing your On Hold Communications?
 
To steal a line from Kennedy, consider this:
‘Think not what you want from your customers, but what your customers want from you’.
 
So never trivialize what is presented to your callers - it is not what type of technology delivers the messages but the information itself.

Put yourself in your customers' position and you will create a much better On Hold service than otherwise.

In summary, wherever recorded voice is used to achieve a customer communication, it is imperative that the announcement(s) is relevant and meaningful to the customer. So get the facts, look at your customer statistics, do the research to identify your customer needs – then you can build a long term Recorded Service Strategy from which you will enhance your customer relationship.

This company is an enterprise of experts – please enjoy this website and I invite you to use our experience to improve your customer communications.

Thank you,

David Bonnin


Director's Message