On hold messages and auto-attendant announcements reach distributors and consumers from manufacturing and distribution facilities.

With a volume of daily phone calls that rivals the busiest call centers in the nation, Blue Linx Corporation keeps buyers up to date while they wait.

Blue Linx Corporation began in 1954 as the distribution division of Georgia-Pacific Corporation and today is the largest distributor of building products in the US. Blue Linx takes care of 11,500 customers in the USA, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. To keep those customers informed while they wait on-hold, Blue Linx depends on Easy On Hold.

Manufacturers and distributors may not be talking directly to the end-consumer, but “people buy from people” and in today’s drive-thru world, nobody likes to wait. People on hold means buyers on hold, and that gives manufacturers and distributors a chance to talk about new products, special promotions and company news.

This is a great topic, and there are certainly many variations, depending on your occupation, company, hours, etc. I am inspired to check all of the voice mail greetings in the building!

I have a few thoughts…

In current times it is understood that we are all busy and cannot babysit the phone, so an apology is not needed. Also, today’s callers are more skeptical than ever and will assume insincerity in hearing “sorry” or “your call is important”. (Really? You think every call is important? I don’t believe you.) A stronger position might be getting right to the point, telling the caller what to do such as, “Please leave a message.”

I don’t ask for your number, because today voice mail is so much more. We don’t have time to talk, so I expect the caller to say why he/she is calling. If they desire further correspondence, they will volunteer an email address or phone number.

Taking the issue further, I perused the Telephone Doctor website. Got some great ideas.

Please do NOT say:
“I am not at my desk” (Duh)
“I can’t come to the phone” (Obviously)
“I ‘m not here right now” (OK, I got that)
“I will return your call as soon as possible” (You mean you might call be back)

Here are some elements to consider:

1) Your Name: “Hi, this is Tim Brown”
2) Your Department (if applicable)
3) Tell the caller what to do: “Please leave a message.”
4) Reassure caller: “I do check messages often and calls will be returned.”
5) An alternative: “My email address is “tim at easy on hold dot com.”
6) Optional cheerful expression: “Thanks and have a great day.”