On-Hold Message updates are easier and faster with VoiceCentral

More information about Amazing Voice: https://amazingvoice.com/

I am always skeptical when I hear someone say, “we just need one” on-hold message recording. The business world moves too quickly. New promotions, new product introductions, and competitive moves happen fast. And the first time your customer hears about something new, or a key update to your products or services, is often during their first phone call to your company or organization.

As a result, Messages-On-Hold is now usually part of an integrated marketing approach in which multiple promotional and communication vehicles must be synchronized tightly – and often across and network of locations. This requires that on-hold messaging must be updated easily and quickly while following a process that is neither laden with unnecessary steps nor resource-intensive.

Amazing Voice has introduced a new on-hold message service that addresses this challenge.
It’s an Internet streaming offering in which these messages can be rapidly deployed directly over the web.

VoiceCentral

VoiceCentral is a new method for creating, updating, and managing on-hold messaging (MOH) in immediate response to developments in the market. In the past, MOH audio files were created, distributed, and refreshed in a manually-intensive process involving e-mail, FTP sites, thumb drives…with way too many people involved. A MOH user would have to open an e-mail, copy the file from an FTP site, copy it onto a thumb drive, walk it over to an MOH player, insert the drive, and copy the file onto the mp3 player. If you have multiple locations, you’d need to add the following steps:

• Forward the file to pre-designated individuals at each location
• Each resource replicates the same process
• Follow up to make sure it was done and done correctly.

With VoiceCentral, we manage your file on a central server, and once recording happens, the audio is automatically transmitted via the internet to special-purposed digital announcers at as many locations as you desire. The result: If you need to get a message quickly, you can get the word out without a lot of wasted motion…..for product introductions, special promotions, or customer education programs.

Let me illustrate the power and simplicity of VoiceCentral with an example:

The Fast-Moving Promotion

Say you’re managing a product rollout for a tire retailer in Florida with six locations. The boss wants to get the word out fast in response to a competitor’s product introduction, and in time for a newly announced state no-tax holiday. You’ve scrambled to get the signage, print ads, and radio spots scheduled just in time– and you’ve communicated the details to your store locations.

But all of your on-hold messages are talking about last quarter’s new featured products and promotions. It’s now the Friday before the long weekend. You’ve already had the new MOH recorded, but now you have to:

• Find the e-mail from your MOH provider (“I haven’t talked to that company for two years…what’s the rep’s name again?”).
• Send the script to the provider to record and remix the message into your existing set of MOH messages.
• Download the MOH onto a thumb drive (“Where’s that blasted thumb drive?”).
• Go to the closet where the MOH player is and load the file.
• Forward the file to your six locations and ask them to load the file on their digital players (“Let’s see, who does this for the Orlando office? Oh, Joe…didn’t he retire last year”)
• Follow up with all the locations to make sure they loaded the MOH file (“Wow, Jane’s e-mail bounced back… is she gone, too? Why doesn’t Rob in Jacksonville ever return my e-mails? What’s this…Larry doesn’t know where the phone closet is…”) And on and on and on.
• Remember to take out the MOH paragraph on the promotion one week later (“I can’t remember to take my blood pressure medication every day, let alone remember to do this…”)

Now imagine this scenario:

Ground Hog’s Day…it’s Friday before the long weekend again. Except for this time, you’re managing your MOH updates using VoiceCentral.

You need a one-paragraph promotional message for a new product to be put onto your MOH system, replacing the messaging talking about the product it’s replacing. Now, the process goes like this:

• Send to the provider the script to record.
• Tell Amazing Voice when the on-hold message should start and stop playing based on the promotion’s length
• Amazing Voice inserts the message into a message “slot” without having to remix. VoiceCentral automatically distributes the files to all six locations, and the messages play immediately.
• When the promotion is over, VoiceCentral automatically deactivates the message.

No excessive e-mails, sneaker-netting thumb drives, follow-up phone calls, or having to remember to replace or delete the new message in the future.

More importantly, you are able to get your on-hold message to the market faster, more flexibly, and with less hassle. You can take a more integrated approach to acquire and cross-sell to customers by synchronizing your on-hold messaging with the rest of your marketing programs and vehicles.