THE FUTURE OF On Hold Messages
With the advent of new Hosted Voice services in Australia, the On Hold Messages providers need to find new ways to frame their services to meet this challenge.
Previously the service was regarded as a necessity by the technology people within a business that maintained the telephone system. By adjusting their service delivery and methods, some On Hold Messages providers are finding increased interest from a client’s marketing division as well.
Client’s marketing teams are also finding that the flexibility of new IP telephone systems are adding adjustable marketing messages to their welcome greetings. This allows for an immediate connection with product placement for callers. An example of this is in the restaurant chains where the welcome message asks callers whether they have made a
booking for an upcoming event – Mothers’ Day, Valentine’s Day and invites them to make a booking when their call is taken.
All the factors present huge challenges to the On Hold Messages suppliers in Australia and the On Hold Messages industry is not alone and disruption is common within many industries. The future flow of opportunities within the On Hold Messages industry and the Telecommunications sector are still there, being able to adapt is the key.
General and industry-specific responses include:
CLIENT SERVICE
- Make sure clients are super-serviced by anticipating message changes – holidays, industry events and other fresh content.
- Educate clients about the changes in the industry. They know something’s happening but they don’t know what and they appreciate you helping them.
- Move new and churning clients to a per-message offering, instead of a per-update. A message is a message, whether it’s welcome, or Message 3 of an OHM loop or an after-hours message to cover a holiday weekend.
ASSIST INDUSTRY
- Find what it takes to partner with Telcos and include the messaging service within the Telco’s service level offerings
- Make sure that Telco partners amortise the costs within their SLA to the client and do not place barriers to message uploading by charging per upload.
- Spot Telcos’ business models – be aware of the pressures on those protecting old models and partner with those who are hungry and looking for new clients in the revised technology space.
- Often existing clients are aware of the benefits of the new telephony regime. This especially applies to the larger organisations with internal IT managers – they know the cost savings to be made by the new Hosted Voice systems.
If you are losing revenue to technology disruption you are have not been agile enough to the changes and you will be left behind. Australian On Hold Messages providers need to be smart and strong enough to keep clients and Telco’s on side by adjusting to these new demands, technologies and services to meet the future needs of the Telco (and client) space.
