BBF062: Holding On to Your Customers with Kym Illman

Holding On to Your Customers with Kym Illman

What do your customers hear when you put them on hold? Awful music or valuable branding and product messages? Kym Illman is the founder of Messages On Hold, which helps businesses customize their hold messages to achieve results. He is an entrepreneur who turned his home-based business into a multi-million dollar international success story. Technology and advances in phone systems have made hold content much easier to utilize. Businesses need to make hold experiences more pleasant. They need to make a good impression to minimize any damage hold calls can do. Your hold messages should be a part of your branding and provide worthwhile information. Hold messaging can be a powerful and valuable marketing tool.

There are various guidelines to follow in order to create effective hold messages:

** Making changes based on what customers want

** Don’t use just one voice

** Don’t give a list of features

** Don’t have awful music

** Content should be interesting and customer centric

** Change messages every three to four months; keep them fresh

** Educate people about what is available from your company

** Use the same messages for different mediums

Also, there are common mistakes to avoid when it comes to hold messages:

** Bad background music

** No background music or sound

** Chimes - don’t bang a bell in customers’ ears!

** Don’t loop same music and messages over and over

** Care: Some businesses don’t care about what customers hear because they don’t have to listen to the messages

There are several benefits to having hold messages in your phone system. They can generate sales, reach new and existing customers, and promote your brand. Plus, if a hold message is a benefit to callers, then it is a winner!

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

** How “holds” have become a global market

** Available phone systems

** Important aspects of hold messages

** How to achieve business results

** Mistakes to avoid

** Lessons learned to be successful

** How to use hold messages as a marketing tool

Resources mentioned in this episode:

** Guy Kawasaki – Episode 60 (http://actioncoachanz.com/bbf-060-business-success-with-guy-kawasaki)

** Messages On Hold (http://www.messagesonhold.com.au/)

** 1-800-Messages

** Canity (www.canity.com)

** Kym Illman (www.kymillman.com)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/itunes)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/stitcher)

** Ben Fewtrell – Twitter (https://twitter.com/bfewtrell)

** Ben Fewtrell – Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/benfewtrell)

** Business Brain Food Facebook Group (facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood)

** Lancelin Western Australia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancelin,_Western_Australia)

** American Express (https://www.americanexpress.com/)

** TDK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TDK)

** Facebook (www.facebook.com)

** Twitter (www.twitter.com)

** National Geographic (http://www.nationalgeographic.de/0

** Canon Inc. (http://www.nationalgeographic.de/)

** The Photographer’s Ephermeris (http://photoephemeris.com/)

** Business Planning Template (www.actioncoachanz.com/062)

 

Are your customers tired of hearing awful elevator music while on hold?

Then use the information provided in this episode to improve your hold messages and make more sales. Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that! Until next time, have a profitable day. Cheers, Ben Fewtrell [phone]