1. The Script and Audio Recording Are Not Yours
When a company writes your on hold marketing script they own the copyright in that script. This means that you cannot use it without their consent. Typically this happens with companies that charge you monthly and provide the audio recording and telephone system in the package. These companies will only let you use the audio and script while you are in a contract with them.
When you quit your contract you can no longer use their audio or script.
2. The Free Demo Is a Sales Ploy and Is Not Free
Some on hold marketing companies offer a free demo. While no money exchanges hands, the demo costs you in time as your details will be put into their sales funnel so that their sales team can get to work.
You have to give quite a lot of information to receive a free demo but do realise it is in exchange for your time.
It does cost them to produce it, but their business model of contracts and monthly payments for their services cover the cost; voice overs and producers don’t work for free.
3. You don’t need a professional to write your script
Okay, professional script writers are skilled people who can do all of the work for you, but the reality is you don’t need them to write your on hold messages. Often, client written scripts feel more authentic and are (in our experience) as effective as professional written ones.
You know your business and clients better than anyone. You know what they ask, what information they seek and what type of people they are. If you don’t need a script when you are speaking to them, you don’t need a script to put them on hold.
Yes, there are pointers and ways of writing a good script but the reality is, there are a limited number of ways to say things like… “Please hold” and many of the phrases used are tried and tested and quite standard.
Coming in future posts I will give you some guidance on what these stock phrases are and will also provide some template scripts. For now, see our on hold script writing guide.
4. Free Updates to the Audio Are Not Free
Some companies offer free updates. These are the companies that work on a contract basis and when you sign the contract it will be for a period of years. You will be offered perks like…”two free updates per year” but they are not free. The cost to produce your on hold marketing will be recouped in your first couple of monthly payments. The rest of the payments are so that you can keep using the audio. This is very lucrative and your updates are more than paid for in your ongoing payments. For example 36 monthly payments of £99 is £3564 which covers an awful lot of studio time.
As I said earlier, voice overs and producers don’t work for free and this “free” offering actually costs clients who are paying the contract.
5. Your Telephone System Needs a Maintenance Contract
Maybe decades ago this was true, but this is not really the case nowadays. There are many telephone system suppliers that can provide very reliable and robust systems that will give years of trouble free service. In addition there are many VoIP and online systems now that rely on software more than hardware. You don’t have to be tied into a single on hold marketing provider when you can get affordable telephone systems and services from a variety of places, and professionally voiced on hold audio for affordable one-time payments.
If you are considering our Pay-as-you-go on hold messaging service and are concerned about your telephone system we have a few contacts in our database that may be able to help, just get in touch.
Disclaimer:
If it works for you and you don’t mind being tied to a contract with on-going monthly payments, that is fine. This post is just to let you know some of the facts behind the sales speak.
We do not employ any of the above tactics. With the service we provide you retain the copyright in your script as we request that you write it.
Additionally, the audio we record and provide to you is royalty-free meaning you can use it as long as you like and you don’t have to pay any further royalties or copyright protection societies for playing the music and messages on your system.
Typically, our one-off charge for perpetual use of the audio we create is comparable to many other companies monthly fee.
