Sparked by: The Contact Center Blog

Music on hold has always been a controversial topic — not in the sense of whether something should exist, but what should be said to your customers while they wait for your call center to pick up. 

The definitive NO is simple: Don’t just have dead air.  This is annoying even when an agent has already picked up the phone and placed you on mute, much less when you’re about to wait for an indefinite period of time.

Whether to use it as marketing is a good question, but it also depends on the type of center.  A technical support center, for example, is probably not the best place to have advertising.  Know your customers and why they’re calling in.  When they’re calling for support, it is usually because they have a problem. If they have a problem, they’re already annoyed/upset and wanting to get something fixed.  If they’re in that state of mind, they are most likely NOT the right candidate for the next best thing that your company is offering.  At least get the customer’s current issue fixed before pitching an upgrade….

The safest best is to have music that helps soothe the customer.  The problem is finding what that might be …

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