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Start Communications’ sales director Richard Scott explains how working with AudPro helps create stickier customers, elevate the calling experience and has clear financial benefits for both parties.

The requirement for high customer engagement cannot be understated. Given the economic effects of the global pandemic, channel operations (and their end-users) need to ensure they are making the most of every opportunity that manifests.

Here at Start Communications, our ethos is to deliver the highest level of customer service in the most ethical and honest manner, in all of our work. To that end, we partnered with AudPro to help deliver that premium service to our clients and its effects have been clear. The cloud-based service helps to create stickier customers, elevates the calling experience and has clear financial benefits for both parties. Here’s how.

Creating sticky customers

One of the reasons I love offering Music on Hold is because it gives our account managers a genuine reason to reach out to their customers. Right now, staying in close contact with customers is so important because end-user businesses need support right now. Maybe they’re struggling to pay the latest bill but are wary to show their hand, maybe they’re doing great and are looking to grow. Whatever the situation, long lasting relationships are built on frequent and open communication and Music on hold is another reason to make that call.

When account managers know their customers’ industries inside out, they can offer genuine support by recommending an accountancy firm update their messaging with an offer for End of Year rebates, for example. Again, showing that support and awareness of a customer’s industry and key dates creates stronger bonds and reduces the chances of the customer looking elsewhere.

We strongly recommend Music on Hold to every single one of our customers, not only because of the strengths of the service, but also because the conversations 3, 6, 12 months down the line, are far easier because those relationships are being nurtured regularly. Plus, it’s far easier to approach the conversation around updating a customer’s messaging, than a ‘cold-call’ trying to sell the service post-deployment.

Elevating the calling experience

For end-users, the premise is simple. They want to make the best impression possible for every single caller and a professionally recorded voiceover, combined with well-designed hunt-groups and IVRs, is one of the most cost-effective ways to establish brand credibility and keep customers engaged while on the phone.

The main push-back we’ve faced over the years in offering Music on Hold is ‘we can just record our own’ and this is true. But it’s about framing the service in a way that your customer will understand. Plus, what happens when that member of staff leaves, or falls ill when a new message is needed. If you want consistency and professionalism in your brand, then Music on Hold is an ideal solution.

‘You wouldn’t buy a brand-new car and then decide to paint it yourself’

There’s a reason we outsource certain services to experts – they have a higher delivery standard. Maybe you can think of another analogy – buying a house and building an extension, for example – but the truth remains the same. If you want your house, your car, your business, to be the best it can be, then you hire an expert. And that’s without even considering the financial benefits for the customer.

If your customers aren’t using their on-hold messaging to upsell services and educate their callers on new operation policies, opening times, changes to policies due to the pandemic, etc. then you are doing them a disservice. Revenue matters right now, so informing customers about offers or upselling premium products can help support that revenue stream for your customers.

90% of Music on Hold marketing users say it increases Product Awareness

Plus, call wait times are increasing, therefore reducing perceived wait times is vital to maintain customer service scores and there’s plenty of evidence that Music on Hold does just that.

Music on Hold is the product for right now

We were bowled over at the speed in which we were able to start offering Music on Hold. Less than a week after contracts were signed, we had a white-labelled ordering portal, staff were trained and we had all the marketing material we needed to start our first campaigns.

Plus, it’s an incredibly ‘hands-off’ process for the reseller. As ordering is all online, customers can mix and match voices and background music until they find their perfect match, and upload their script without any need to get in touch with us. AudPro work their magic and depending on the end-user solution, the only responsibility we have is to upload the messaging and bill our customer.

With the rise in remote working, it’s important to note that Music on Hold is entirely Teams compatible – after all, the product is an MP3 file – just as with any other IP-telephony service or legacy PBX.

Remote working is pushing a lot more calls to be put on hold or transferred. It’s also caused many businesses to divert office lines to staff mobiles, possibly negating any premise-based on-hold services.

Considering that 90% of callers will hang up after 40 seconds if confronted with silence and 34% of those who hang up will not call back, securing that on-hold experience is vital if your customers are to stay sticky. Music on Hold from AudPro is an ideal product for the current climate and is a vital tool in Star Communication’s plan to help its customers succeed in 2021 and recover from the economic effects of Covid-19.

Richard Scott

If you’d like to hear more of Richard’s thoughts, as well as those of AudPro’s director, Andrew Jones, click this link to watch their recent webinar with Comms Business’ editor, Charlotte Hathway.

The IT & Telecoms Channel has consistently provided an incredibly wide range of choice for end-user businesses. With such strong competition and a constant race to provide the most cost-effective solution, resellers are under constant pressure to maximise their margins, while still providing strong ROI.

Consider as well that the increased focus on remote working and online collaboration has pushed many resellers to market even more aggressively than ever before, and the chances of your existing customers being attracted to a competitor’s free trial has never been higher.

Therefore, Channel operators need to ensure they are consistently engaging with current users and ensuring high levels of satisfaction to counteract these new, highly attractive propositions. Music on Hold is an incredibly valuable addition to your product portfolio, not only to increase margins and support your bottom line, but to counteract these new deals and ensure your customers don’t look for connectivity solutions elsewhere.

You can get up to speed on what Music on Hold is and how it works here.

Staying in touch

Now that competition in the Channel is so high, finding reasons to touch base and engage with your customers – especially small businesses – is vital. It’s an easy way to show your appreciation for their patronage and that you’re genuinely invested in their success.

Music on Hold gives you another cause for those calls. As we approach the Christmas period, your customers’ callers may benefit from hearing opening times, changes to delivery estimates or operational procedures. Suggesting these sorts of alterations to their MoH indicates again that you’re passionate about your customers’ performance and maximising the support you offer.

Adapting to the new normal

Your end-user businesses are challenged to attract new customers in one of the most difficult economic climates in a generation. Anyone calling your customers will most likely be calling for one of two reasons – either they want to enquire about a purchase, or they have a reason to complain – and Music on Hold helps with both.

Confronted with silence, 90% of callers will hang up within 40 seconds

Now that remote working is so prevalent, the calling experience is more important than ever before with businesses needing to ensure the customer journey is still engaging for callers.

Those with complaints, are already frustrated, therefore, letting callers know that their patience is appreciated and their position in a queue are simple methods to help alleviate some frustration. Therefore, Music on Hold helps them stay on the line and reassure them that the business will address their issue.

For customers looking to make a purchase, Music on Hold could be used to educate callers about features and benefits of products to increase the chance of a sale, or even upsell premium products to maximise revenue. Either way, having silence or a ring-tone at the other end of your customers’ lines is a missed opportunity for them and one that shouldn’t be ignored during these turbulent times.

Increasing customer satisfaction

One of the other great benefits of Music on Hold is that it also reduces perceived wait times and with many businesses are still adapting to work from home practices and fewer staff, average call-wait times are likely to be increasing.

81% of callers that were put on hold for 1 minute – listening to a professionally tailored MOH production, with dynamic music and script – thought they were on hold for less than 1 minute.

Compare that to the same length of time in silence, where over half (52%) of the 10,000 caller base hung up, and over a quarter (27%) thought the wait time was over 5 minutes. The right Music on Hold experience can dramatically improve the callers’ experience while waiting for an operator.

Consider too that over 70% of calls are transferred at some point, and that percentage will have only increased over the last 6 months, as well as the amount of time on hold. Therefore, the on-hold experience is even more vital to get right than ever before.

AudPro’s broad network of professional voiceover artists and wide range of high-quality audio tracks ensure that your customers, whatever their industry or specialisms, will be able to find a tune, tone and voice that perfectly matches their branding and personality. What’s more, with 48-hour turnarounds for all Music on Hold, you can provide a reliable, responsive service that can change at the drop of a hat, when your customers need to pivot, or update their messaging.

Plus, we allow you to charge Music on Hold however you see fit, from price to whether you sell it as a single purchase or ongoing recurring revenue, meaning you have full control over how your customers pay for the service, ensuring you maximise the possible revenue.

If you want to see how much revenue you may be missing out on by not offering MoH, check out our calculator, or get in touch with our team today and we’ll happily do the maths with you!

As the shift to remote working becomes permanent for many businesses, the smartest are taking the opportunity to reimagine their entire customer journeys and find new ways to enhance the experiences.

But even now, many operations are still overlooking their callers and forgetting their user experience could have a significant impact on revenue and customer satisfaction scores. After all, 90% of callers will hang up after 40 seconds of silence, and 34% of those callers will not try a second time.

How did the pandemic changed the calling experience?

Staff may still be working from home, the office or on-the-go, taking longer to answer the phone from the moment it starts ringing, because they’re wrapping up existing calls, running for a train or trying to wrangle children out of their home office.

Plus, businesses with traditional on-site PBX equipment may have forgotten they were diverting calls without the typical on-hold experience for callers, meaning callers miss the on-site on-hold messaging and may only get a dialling tone to inform them they are still on the line. 

These delays and sub-standard experiences do have a knock-on effect on customer satisfaction scores. If a caller doesn’t even hear the ‘ring ring’ on the other end of the phone, they may think they’ve been disconnected and try a competitor instead.

Therefore, addressing these issues is vitally important for businesses that rely on telephone communication, whether it’s through the sales-cycle or after-sales support; otherwise, they risk losing new business and existing customers.

How did businesses manag to stay in touch with callers?

Unified Communication solutions and hosted telephony platforms have helped businesses throughout the country get over remote working communications issue. These systems provide a load of benefits, including being able to route calls directly to employee’s mobile phones, along with maintaining on the on-hold experience, which has been perfect for reacting to the outbreak.

However, businesses with older on-site PBX solutions or plain-old landline phones will have been forced to mask their network providers to manually re-direct calls, which means callers wouldn’t get the typical on-hold messaging when they call. The call would simply be routed to an employee’s phone number with a typical dial tone.

Especially since Teams became the new darling of the IT & Telecoms world, we’ve noticed a barrage of questions around whether our Messaging on Hold recordings are compatible with hosted systems, as well as the likes of Microsoft Teams with its Direct Calling functions.

Does Microsoft Teams work with my hosted telephony service?

The answer is yes. In fact, they’ve been compatible since June 2019!

However, you’ll need to create a ‘Cloud call queue’ and upload the recording there. While this is a perfectly adequate option, we’d recommend speaking to your communications provider to organise the switchover.

For direct calling, the typical process isn’t much different to how it used to be with a traditional PBX, but instead of saving the audio files to your on-site equipment, it’s a matter of simply uploading it to the hosted platform or forwarding on the new recording to your UC provider to incorporate into their system.

No matter what system your businesses uses; on-site, hosted, UC or PSTN, your callers’ on-hold experience is a vital aspect of their entire customer journey. Considering that 70% of calls are placed on hold or transferred at some point, enriching that experience as much as possible means you’re giving your teams the best chance of a win.

If your business could do with some updated Messaging on Hold messaging – whether you want to answer FAQs or upsell your products – give us a call on 0161 483 4668 and one of our team will put you in touch with the most appropriate provider for your needs.

If you’re a reseller looking to figure out how to integrate Messaging on Hold with Teams or another communications platform, get in touch and we’ll figure out how we can make the process super-straightforward for you and your customers!

Thanks to the PM’s update on Sunday 10^th of May, many businesses will be starting their phased plans to return to trading as normal. Great news, not just for businesses but their customers too! The challenge, however, is making sure those customers know what’s going on.

While email campaigns will help organisations get the message out to a wide audience, there’s still a chance those they will be overlooked and will sink lower and lower down the inboxes of potential customers. So, the people you really need to educate are those already actively trying to start a conversation with the business.

Considering that 77% of consumers still believe that a phone call is the most effective way to get a quick answer, now is the time your clients should be shifting their focus to updating their on-hold messaging.

Music on Hold from AudPro is the perfect solution as your clients can record custom messages and let their callers know exactly what’s happening and when to set the right expectations for potential customers.

Though, one message may not cut the mustard.

With many businesses operating phased returns, some remaining closed for the time being and all with all the uncertainty in the marketplace, there will probably be another scenario in the not-too-distant future that will require another new message. Maybe ‘We’re finally back to normal’ or ‘this how we’re changing permanently’ a couple of months down the line, but whatever it is-

That won’t be the last message they will ever need either…

AudPro’s Key Dates Calendar is part of the New Partner Toolkit that’s provided for all of AudPro’s resellers and provides your sales team with all the religious, holiday and key events celebrated in the UK, that may spark up a conversation about MoH and give your customers a reason to update their on-hold messaging. Not only does this give your business a recurring revenue stream with your team calling periodically to explore the potential for extra sales, but it also increases customer satisfaction scores as your business is seen to be checking up on customers more often and considering their wellbeing far more than your competitors.

The Toolkit isn’t just a pretty calendar though. It’s got all the sales and marketing collateral and support that you will need to start your own MoH marketing campaigns, including:

• Prewritten Landing Pages
• Prewritten Emails
• Tips and tricks for Sales & Marketing
• Music on Hold Battlecard
• Scriptwriting advice for messages
• Social/Web Banners

48% of consumers still prefer generally contacting customer support via phone rather than email, so why would your clients want to wall-off nearly half of their customers? Now is the time for businesses to show as much care and consideration for their clients as possible and AudPro won’t only help with that but we will also find you a new, reliable and recurring revenue source at the same time.

So, what’s stopping you? Get in touch today, and let’s get you onboarded by the end of the week!

Unless you have a secret recipe for hand sanitizer locked away in a cupboard, finding new revenue in this current climate isn’t easy. But, there’s a silver lining to every cloud and AudPro can help to steady your income and weather this tumultuous storm.

As the UK’s leading Music-on-hold provider, we’ve seen a massive increase in the number of businesses requiring bespoke Music-on-Hold for their callers.

What is Music-on-Hold?

Well, you can always head over to our ‘How it Works’ page but in a nutshell; your customers can write whatever messages they need recording and can choose from a wide variety of different voice personas (actual humans – not robots) and backing tracks to create a bespoke on-hold message for their callers.

We do all the hard work and, within 48 hours, send over a professional-quality audio track that can be added to existing PBX or hosted telephony services. You get to enjoy a markup for every sale and your customers now have the most engaging on-hold messaging around.

Plus, with so much uncertainty and new updates seemingly on a daily basis, there’s genuine, growing and ongoing demand across all UK businesses for professionally recorded on-hold messages. What’s more our incredibly fast and straight-forward onboarding process means that you can start selling Music-on-Hold to your telephony and UC customers within a matter of days.

So, are you ready to join the race and leave your competition in the dust?

On your marks…

The first step is getting in touch with our team. Our friendly account managers are your one-stop-shop for any questions you may have on the process and can help you with tips and tricks they’ve learnt over the years to make sure your customers’ messages are recorded perfectly first time.

We’ll create your account and work with your IT team to make sure your Music-on-Hold portal works within your existing domain for a seamless customer experience, complete with your own branding.

As long as you’re happy, we can get this all sorted in one day.

Get set…

Then the question becomes ‘How do you get the word out about MoH and let your customers know?’

Well, we’ll send you our New Partner Toolkit, which contains a host of information, advice and testimonials, as well as Marketing and Sales assets that we’ve already written and designed for you. This means you can add your logos and branding into our pre-written emails and website copy to create quick marketing campaigns.

Again, we can get you set in just 24 little hours.

GO!

All you need to do now is sit back and watch the magic happen.

Your customers can create the messages they want recording on your new web-portal, which is then sent to both you and us. We’ll record the chosen voiceover artist and work with them to create the finished MP3 and WAV files, complete with the backing track of your customers’ choice, within 48 hours from order. Then, as soon as the new messaging is uploaded to your customers’ PBX or hosted voice system, all you have to do is send out an invoice. You can take as long as you want with this step, but we’d recommended sooner rather than later.

That’s it. You’ve won the race and collected your medal.

But that’s not all. You can run the race all over again when your customers need a new message; maybe at Christmas for new opening times, or when a special offer needs promoting. Not only does this keep your customers’ callers engaged year-round, but with every new message comes another revenue boost.

We’ve been running this race for years and work with an incredible network of voiceover artists, many of whom you may recognise from their previous projects with brands such as:

So, if you’d like to boost your revenue with a service that is super-simple to sell from the comfort of a home-desk, then get in touch today and start taking advantage of 200% markups by the end of the week!

Especially to those who haven’t had any experience in the recording industry, there are several considerations to bear in mind when you’re deciding what you want your message to include and how to get that down on paper.

In this blog, you’ll read actual, real-life scripts submitted by a genuine business, (the name has been changed for obvious reasons) so that you can understand where others have stumbled, so you don’t have to!

“Freeman Rede Solicitors” is a family run law business that deal in various legal specialisms. After losing their receptionist, the firm’s decision makers agreed to order a new Messaging on Hold Auto Attendant Message to direct calls accordingly, instead of hiring a replacement.

Whilst many scripts are great from day-one, it took several re-drafts of the original script before it was ready for recording so, if you want to create the best possible Messaging on Hold, check out the issues with each of “Freeman Rede Solicitors’” messages to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes!

Draft 1

What’s the problem?

There’s no courtesy text to let customers know they are valued and complicated pronunciations that may not be recorded as expected. Also, the greeting is very brief and distant.

What’s the solution?

Imagine all callers have never spoken to your business before and remember not all callers will be English experts! Also, include notes for the recording artist if your messaging contains non-standard or complicated pronunciations.

Draft 2

What’s the problem?

Military time may not be the best way to inform your customers of opening hours and remembering an email address or website may be difficult for people without a pen and paper to hand.

What’s the solution?

Write EVERYTHING as you want it to be said. Also, leverage existing services like google to make your advice simpler and easier to follow.

Draft 3

What’s the problem?

Adding more information is fine, but too much can become disengaging for callers, pushing callers away, especially long lists that are boring and hard to remember.

What’s the solution?

Bring callers closer by choosing 1 or 2 USPs that really push your message and stay concise.

Final Draft

In this final draft, the long list has been replaced with appealing features and a concise description of the business that will appeal to its callers.

Callers are acknowledged, the recording artist knows how to pronounce non-standard spellings (as do the callers) and the language used is accessible and easy to follow for those with bad reception or for whom English isn’t their first language.

Messaging on Hold is the best opportunity you have to inform customers about your products and services, as you have a captured audience already interested in speaking with you. Engaging with your callers about what makes your business better than the competition instead of listing off every product you stock, whilst letting them know how passionate you are about your products and services is the best way to introduce your business. What’s more, Messaging on Hold offers a scalable and repeatable introduction that ensures callers hear the right introdcution, every time.

Music-on-Hold or MOH scripts have quickly become a standard communication solution for small to medium businesses that need to keep customers engaged, whilst on hold. During Peak call-times through the year, you may be finding that opportunities are being missed because the customer can’t wait for the conversation to begin and ends the call. With an MOH script, the conversation starts as soon as the customer picks up the phone and dials, helping keep your customers engaged even if no one is directly available to answer the call.

Did you know?

Customers know their call is important to them but how can you make the call a memorable experience for them? By giving the customer unique, personalised and relevant information, your customer will be more inclined to stay on the line and wait for an operative.

Let’s go through a couple of the most useful tips to discover how the personal touch makes such a difference:

Decide what information your customers need to know?

This is the MOST IMPORTANT part of the process – get down as many ideas as possible, This is where the brainstorming comes in (brainstorming techniques) now keep them safe and periodically update and refresh them. Decide the main points you want to convey, complete the remaining sentence structure for each and whittle those sentences down until only the vital information remains.

One script is not enough

Businesses and information can change in an instant, so why shouldn’t your MOH messages change too? Find a calendar and go through each month to make sure you haven’t missed any useful opportunities like a new product launch, Christmas special offers or opening times over a Bank Holiday. Then go through it again, whilst cross-referencing with your brainstorming ideas, to create a plan to determine what messages you want and when.

Once they are all written, you can swap or mix-and-match them with minimal effort or having to spend valuable time redrafting.

If you’d like to discover how much revenue/margin you could be missing, try out our Calculator

Write simple words with simple sentences

Remember your customers aren’t reading the message and they can’t rewind. You need to package the information so that it goes in one ear and sticks. Long words and complicated grammar will alienate your customers and make them feel inferior and that your business may not be the right fit for them.

Keep everyone on-message

Are your operators following up on the info the customer hears on hold? Do they know what those recordings sound like? Keeping on top of training and encouraging them to listen to your messages helps keep the business focusing on current needs, looking professional and driving results.

Stay Positive

Have you won any competitions recently or passed a milestone? Letting your customers know about the wins of the company can help produce an image of professionality and success to your customers before they have even spoken to you. If there are points you need to get across with a negative connotation, try and flip the perception. For example, “all our agents are busy at the moment…” becomes “we’re getting an agent ready for you…”  The message is the same but far more positive and personal.

Find information that isn’t easy to find themselves

Is there any interesting information that isn’t on your website? For example, an anecdote about how the company started or an interesting fact that helps put your businesses’ USP into context. If you can educate your customers and give them a factoid or two that they didn’t have before, their perception of your business will improve, helping to maintain a personal connection with your customers.

Know your enemy

Sun Tzu was right; knowing your competition can help find new solutions and ideas that you may not have thought of before. What do your competitor’s messages sound like? Is there anything you’d want to replicate or change? These can be great methods of inspiration – just make sure not to copy them so closely that your message loses its individuality.

If you’d like to see what other tips we have for your specific industry, look at our Toolkit.

Repetition

Is there a time of year you need to hammer a particular message home? For example, deadlines for a delivery service over a holiday? Repeating something at the start and finish will improve the chances of your caller remembering the information. This is where having several messages is vital; using repetition within a message is fine, but if you only have the one message, callers are soon going to get frustrated hearing the same information over and over … and over again.

Inform your customers about the call

Depending on your business, letting customers know where they are in your queue could be a good or bad idea. The deciding factor is usually decided by looking at your call volume/length and any customer feedback figures you have. If you find customers are getting frustrated, being on hold too long, this may help alleviate their frustrations as it keeps them informed and able to make their own decision as to whether to hang on the line. If you’ve only ever got 1 or two on hold and your call lengths tend to be long, this may be more detrimental as a caller may expect a quick answer. Look at it from your customer’s point of view and ask yourself what they would prefer.

Make it Memorable

Everyone sighs when they hear an automated message, why not try and add a bit of brevity? Alliteration, a pun, and interesting facts can all take what is generally viewed as a negative experience and ‘flip the script’.