I hope you don’t have a mother, or for that matter an office equipment provider, like Joan Crawford aka “Mommie Dearest” or perhaps, more aptly, “Meet the biggest MOTHER of them all!” Everytime I watch Dunaway’s wire hangar rant from the campy flick “Mommie Dearest”, I get a chill down my spine. You might feel the same when your office equipment gets jammed with the unintended insertion of a errant wire hangar. A call to Modern Office Methods aka MOM! will certainly get you out of this jam.

Julie Italiano, Marketing Manager for MOM!, prepared the on hold script with Mind The Gap’s assistance which outlines a plethora of products and value added services provided by Modern Office Methods based in Cincinnati, OH. Julie wisely focuses her on hold content on how MOM! can improve the operational efficiencies of your office instead of their latest sales promotions. It includes messages about FleetCare, their trademarked software that evaluates the performance of your office equipment, as well as certifications of their service personnel for reputable product lines such as Canon and HP.

Have an errant wire hangar? Listen here and give MOM! a call.

I assure you. “Mommie Dearest” won’t show up at your front door.

Margaret Mary Community Hospital has been a Mind The Gap client since 2007. Providing valuable healthcare services to greater southeastern Indiana, Margaret Mary seeks to inform and educate their callers about the latest medical technologies, services and infrastructural improvements with on hold messaging.

Since Margaret Mary Community Hospital’s average on hold times are higher than the norm, they provide the following information to their callers:

1)   Contact information on medical professionals and their specialties practicing at their hospital
2)   Free medical services offered to the public
3)   Updates on new services, construction projects and other improvements to their facilities

Specifically, in their latest on hold program, they added a new medical procedure for acid reflux called Esophex, performed by Dr. Albers and Dr. Geer. For convenience, the message provides the doctors’ contact information as well.

“Is chronic heartburn or acid reflux affecting your life? Tired of the daily regimen of pill popping and having to be so concerned about what you eat and drink? Pills for reducing stomach acid treat only the symptoms of acid reflux, not the cause; and the relief from pills is only temporary.  But now there’s a new procedure that treats the cause of acid reflux. General surgeons Brian Albers and Jon Geers are the first doctors in the region to offer this new incisionless procedure called EsophyX. It could be the cure you’ve been hoping for. For more information, call Dr. Brian Albers at 812.933.1600 or Dr. Jon Geers at 812.934.9191 … or visit www.mmch.org.”

Margaret Mary also provides free medical screenings for those who qualify. In these challenging economic times when many go without healthcare, they offer mammograms to those who would not be able to afford it. These critical screenings are a great contribution to the welfare of their community.

“Getting an annual mammogram is still the best way to detect breast cancer in its early, most curable stages. That’s why Margaret Mary Community Hospital is committed to providing mammograms to all women, regardless of their ability to pay. If you are uninsured and have a financial need, you may qualify for a free mammogram. To learn more, ask to be connected to extension 5257.”

To hear their entire on hold messaging program, please visit www.wemindthegap.com/mmchospital.html

We recently produced a program for Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union from Houston, TX. They’ve been a Mind The Gap client since 2007. Their Marketing Director, April Jones, utilizes on hold messaging to augment Cy-Fair promotions and events advertised in other media.

Specifically in their recent on hold program, we created a message about Cy-Fair’s Annual Shred Day event. This event allows all Cy-Fair members and others to shred confidential documents for free. Its advertised in their brochures, on their website and all their retail locations. Since they have a significant amount of inbound calls, this message promotes a value added service to their members which results in customer retention and loyalty.

This on hold message also demonstrates a “synergistic” approach to advertising. Advertising is not just an outbound strategy, wherein you’re solely reaching “out” to prospects and customers. It’s an inbound and outbound synergy, maximizing marketing opportunities in both realms. You can read more about using on hold and in store messaging for inbound marketing here.

April has demonstrated an effective way to balance the two, depending on the opportunity. If your promotion or event is weighted towards your customers as opposed to prospects, then focus on inbound venues. Here is where your customers lie to appreciate the message and this Annual Shred Day message was perfectly placed!

Read the Annual Shred Day message below:

Cy-Fair’s Annual Community Shred Day is coming up on Saturday, July 24^th.  It’s your chance to safely dispose of any documents with your personal information.  You bring it.  We’ll shred it.  And you can bring up to ten file boxes of documents.  With identity theft so rampant today – and with so much at stake, it’s important to dispose of any documents safely.  Just bring them to Cy-Fair’s Annual Community Shred Day, at the Cy-Fair FCU Jones Road Branch, 9601 Jones Road in Houston … on Saturday, July 24^th from 9a.m. to 1p.m.

All advertising needs to be relevant to its audience. It needs to grab their attention, create some interest, and make it easy to remember the key message.

All advertising is an intrusion. Whether it’s interrupting a TV show, trying to stop someone as they flip through a newspaper or magazine, or just attempting to divert people’s attention as they go through their day. The point is no one is out there actively looking for ad messages. But they do expect to see advertising in all the usual places. However, most people don’t expect to encounter an advertising message when they make a phone call. They’re expecting to speak to someone or to leave a message. So when they get a recorded message while on hold instead of a real person, they’re usually a little annoyed. They don’t stop to think that if it weren’t for the on hold messages, they’d be listening to dead air or the incessant ringing of an unanswered phone.

I understand the mindset of the caller; and I write on hold messages accordingly. I probably don’t have their full attention, so I make the messages brief, interesting, and relevant to the caller, with information they can actually use. These days, many callers have a computer in front of them, and I’ve found that referring callers to the company’s web site is helpful to them and beneficial to Mind The Gap clients.

While it’s important to keep on hold messages brief and informative, I can still effectively weave branding messages in with the other information. Typically I suggest using the company tagline to be consistent with our client’s other advertising. Since everything a customer sees or hears from a company affects their impression of that company, voice talent and music are also important considerations. Music and voice selections should create an aural impression that’s consistent with the company’s image – or the image the company wants to project.

Finally, I tell our clients to avoid generic copy like “Thank you for holding” or “Your call is important to us.” Most callers would rather you show them that you appreciate their call by providing news or information. They’re too busy to waste time waiting on the phone.