Admit it: You’ve called in to a call center sometime in the last month, and you’ve heard some variation of this fantastic hold message:
“Thank you for calling. Your call is very important to us.”
That sucks!
I’ll admit it: That was our hold message, and it will be for a few more days while we re-program our phone system. But we FINALLY discovered the 4 step top secret formula to great hold messages.
1) You must staff your call center well enough that your customers reach a human on 3 rings or less 90% of the time. If too many people are on hold, your customers will think your service sucks, and your potential customers will hang up before ever getting what you want: an order.
2) Create a personal hold message that doesn’t include how important your call is. If it were, you’d be following rule #1 better.
3) Create a second equally personal and interesting unscripted message for those extra long hold times when your phones are ringing off the hook because you really ARE helping so many customers so your customers don’t end up in an endless loop of the same message from step 2.
4) Last, and this is REALLY important: Have a Chernobyl button programmed into your phone that rings on EVERYONE IN THE COMPANY’S desk if anyone ever makes it past the 2 greetings.
So the secret formual is really no formula at all – It’s just common sense. I don’t think people like to listen to “professional” auto attendants telling them that the company “appreciates their business.” If the company appreciated their customers so much, they’d answer the phone. In the extremely unlikely event that a customer ever hears these messages, I think they might appreciate genuine and friendly. I think I’m right.
What do YOU think?