How MoH keeps my customers loyal

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.