OnHold

Companies with multiple locations face an interesting problem when implementing a large-scale on hold marketing promotion: how does one cost-effectively deliver and verify controlled marketing content to isolated systems at numerous remote locations? The question becomes particularly relevant when you consider the potential value of the on hold airtime of large, multi-location companies compared to the amount of time, energy and resources a company might spend deploying custom on hold messages. 

The qualified reach of the on hold airtime of a nation-wide company can be comparable to that of a nationally syndicated radio program, but at a fraction of the cost and with minimal human intervention. However, the medium is largely underutilized by these companies due to inherent difficulties and inefficiencies in managing large numbers of remote players. While a variety of systems have been developed attempting to address the issue, the technology available for on hold messaging systems has not historically lent itself to efficient content delivery, has required the use of disposable media to deliver content, and has required significant travel and/or delivery costs. 

CD, cassette, and other removable-media based systems are troublesome, time consuming, and wasteful to operate. Besides the tendency of mechanical devices to wear out over time, even solid-state devices are problematic. Any changes in message or music content require the creation and distribution of updates and disposal of out-of-date media. Once distributed, employees at some locations may not install the update, may lose the removable media, may install out-of-date content, or may substitute their favorite unlicensed music, which may expose the company to copyright infringement liability and may be offensive to your customers.

Remote upload systems that receive content updates through phone lines offer some advantages over removable media-based systems. However, remote upload systems are still complicated, inefficient, and require the use of relatively expensive and wasteful communications systems. Music and message updates take place in real-time (easily more than 10 minutes per location), occupy a phone or fax line during the upload, and have reduced sound quality due to use of an analog phone line for audio upload.

These deficiencies have led most multi-location companies to leave the selection of an on hold messaging service provider to the discretion of the individual locations. This hands-off approach allieves the burdens associated with centrally managing a large number of players, but leads to inconsistent message content across the organization, a loss of oversight and control, and are generally wasteful and inefficient. The net result is the gross underutilization of an important company asset and potential exposure to liability for any copyright infringement or compliance issues on any of the disparate systems playing throughout the organization.

The answer is a green system that can draw on the power and efficiency of the Internet. Internet based systems allow centralized control of program content and the deployment of custom messages to any number of remote locations anywhere in the world with Internet access, thus reducing the use of consumables in program deployment. Additionally, because of the flexibility of web-based management, players can easily be grouped and sub grouped to match virtually any organizational structure, such as geographic regions or business divisions, allowing players to be remotely managed and eliminating the need for delivering and installing physical recording media. Moreover, playlists can be automatically generated and loaded onto net-based players according to schedules. The result is a dramatic reduction in the resources used to manage on hold message content and delivery, where a single person can accomplish what would otherwise require hundreds or even thousands of people do with any other technology.

Such green systems are available today and are an invaluable tool for multi-location companies, and their use makes both economic and ecological sense. On hold airtime is a valuable asset of any company, but the qualified reach of large multi-location companies makes their cumulative airtime particularly important. Internet based on hold messaging is essential for any company with multiple locations, to allow for the integration of on hold messaging into the company’s overall marketing mix, as well as to reduce the consumption of resources required to manage older, less capable on hold messaging systems.

ompanies with multiple locations face an interesting problem when implementing a large-scale on hold marketing promotion: how does one cost-effectively deliver and verify controlled marketing content to isolated systems at numerous remote locations? The question becomes particularly relevant when you consider the potential value of the on hold airtime of large, multi-location companies compared to the amount of time, energy and resources a company might spend deploying custom on hold messages. 

The qualified reach of the on hold airtime of a nation-wide company can be comparable to that of a nationally syndicated radio program, but at a fraction of the cost and with minimal human intervention. However, the medium is largely underutilized by these companies due to inherent difficulties and inefficiencies in managing large numbers of remote players. While a variety of systems have been developed attempting to address the issue, the technology available for on hold messaging systems has not historically lent itself to efficient content delivery, has required the use of disposable media to deliver content, and has required significant travel and/or delivery costs. 

CD, cassette, and other removable-media based systems are troublesome, time consuming, and wasteful to operate. Besides the tendency of mechanical devices to wear out over time, even solid-state devices are problematic. Any changes in message or music content require the creation and distribution of updates and disposal of out-of-date media. Once distributed, employees at some locations may not install the update, may lose the removable media, may install out-of-date content, or may substitute their favorite unlicensed music, which may expose the company to copyright infringement liability and may be offensive to your customers.

Remote upload systems that receive content updates through phone lines offer some advantages over removable media-based systems. However, remote upload systems are still complicated, inefficient, and require the use of relatively expensive and wasteful communications systems. Music and message updates take place in real-time (easily more than 10 minutes per location), occupy a phone or fax line during the upload, and have reduced sound quality due to use of an analog phone line for audio upload.

These deficiencies have led most multi-location companies to leave the selection of an on hold messaging service provider to the discretion of the individual locations. This hands-off approach allieves the burdens associated with centrally managing a large number of players, but leads to inconsistent message content across the organization, a loss of oversight and control, and are generally wasteful and inefficient. The net result is the gross underutilization of an important company asset and potential exposure to liability for any copyright infringement or compliance issues on any of the disparate systems playing throughout the organization.

The answer is a green system that can draw on the power and efficiency of the Internet. Internet based systems allow centralized control of program content and the deployment of custom messages to any number of remote locations anywhere in the world with Internet access, thus reducing the use of consumables in program deployment. Additionally, because of the flexibility of web-based management, players can easily be grouped and sub grouped to match virtually any organizational structure, such as geographic regions or business divisions, allowing players to be remotely managed and eliminating the need for delivering and installing physical recording media. Moreover, playlists can be automatically generated and loaded onto net-based players according to schedules. The result is a dramatic reduction in the resources used to manage on hold message content and delivery, where a single person can accomplish what would otherwise require hundreds or even thousands of people do with any other technology.

Such green systems are available today and are an invaluable tool for multi-location companies, and their use makes both economic and ecological sense. On hold airtime is a valuable asset of any company, but the qualified reach of large multi-location companies makes their cumulative airtime particularly important. Internet based on hold messaging is essential for any company with multiple locations, to allow for the integration of on hold messaging into the company’s overall marketing mix, as well as to reduce the consumption of resources required to manage older, less capable on hold messaging systems.

An Ezine article

These two caller conditions are similar in concept but are different in reality. What these two conditions share in common is that the callers are in a waiting condition for somebody to continue or commence an actual conversation. Given the variables and properties associated with these two types of waiting callers, the content presented to these caller types should be designed differently if the phone system allows for differentiation between the two conditions. Let’s look at them independently in a bit of detail. 

• A Call on Hold can typically expect a short wait time. This condition occurs when a user places an existing call on hold by pressing a Hold or Park button on a telephone set. Callers can expect to be picked back up within one minute, typically. However, another common reason a call is put on hold is when an incoming call is answered by a party other than the intended party, such as a receptionist. If the caller is seeking an individual by name or perhaps by a skill (such as technical support), the caller is placed on hold until a proper party is engaged to ‘pick up’ the call off of hold.

  This caller may be on hold a bit longer, but usually not more than 1-2 minutes. In fact, most phone systems are programmed to remind the person that placed the call on hold if the caller has not been picked up off of hold. Most calls not picked up will ring back to the phone that placed the call on hold within 60-120 seconds. The caller profile for callers on hold is wide. They could be new customers, existing customers, partners, friends, family, or virtually anybody. The messaging content on hold should be reflective of this. Given the short wait time, short messages (20-25 seconds) with 7-15 seconds of music in between the messages is a good solution. A caller holding for 60 seconds or more should hear 1-2 messages.

• A Call in Queue can typically expect a longer wait time. A call in queue is almost always associated with a call center environment. And for the most part, call centers are designed with the knowledge that quite often, there are more callers than there are people or ‘agents’ to take their calls. The visual representation of a call center is a bank lobby. Customers ‘queue’ in one single line, waiting for an available teller. The length of the wait time is dependent upon just how much traffic is entering the lobby, and how many tellers are available. Therefore, the potential for the hold time to be longer is there. Call center managers target queue times to be acceptable within their industry.

  While a queue time of 2-3 minutes may seem long for some businesses, a queue time of 5-10 minutes is common in some areas of customer support and technical support. For the most part, a caller in queue has already been identified as to their need by what button they may have pressed on the automated attendant (such as pressing 4 for technical support) or perhaps a human transferred them to a call center group. Given that a call in queue can be longer that a call on hold, and that the caller profile has most likely been identified up front, the content of the on hold messaging program should take that into consideration. Messages can be slightly longer, but the music in between the messages should also be longer in an effort to not inundate the callers with too much information.

  Additionally, to the extent the phone system will allow, be sure to play the proper messaging to the type of caller holding. Callers holding within the ‘billing queue’ should be given information that will help their transactions run more smoothly and perhaps tips on where to find more information. Call center software allows for a myriad of design opportunities to handle calls in queue. There are ‘announcements’ played at strategic times within the queued call condition. This can certainly emulate a good on hold messaging program.

In summary, some telephone systems can easily address the above conditions from a technical perspective. Some aren’t quite as flexible as others. The important thing to note is that with either condition (hold vs. queue), your caller is a ‘captive audience’ on your telephone system. And while we naturally recommend that you take advantage of that time with your caller with an on hold messaging program, the method and style to how it is presented and deployed is very important and also very contingent on their expected wait time and their caller profile.

An Ezine article