Your Call is Important; On Hold Gold

When calling everything from airlines and hotels to hospitals and newspaper offices, holding the line is an oft-repeated reality. But the idle moments waiting to talk to someone in this time-is-money world don’t have to be a total loss. At least Chris Weeg doesn’t think so.

“They’re silly things that don’t necessarily have to do with marketing,” says Weeg, who fashions outside-the-box audio for the Medford advertising agency. “We’ve done some off-the-wall things and even had some people request to be put back on hold after we’ve wrapped up the situation.”

While humor may go a long way in calming callers, most clients want to simply inform their captive audience of services and products, even sales or monthly specials.

“That’s a pretty standard fare,” Weeg says.

In 1989, years before going to work for Radio Medford, talk show host Garth Harrington formed a company called Inpho to provide on-hold messages. He built a clientele of 250 over a seven-year period before selling to Robert Vigil.

“If people are sitting there on hold and don’t know that much about your company, it’s a great opportunity,” Harrington says. “A person can’t buy something from you, it they don’t know you have it.”

Maentz keeps voice talent — whose voices, if not faces, are familiar to Rogue Valley residents — on retainer.

Brad Douglas, who splits time between Palm Springs and Central Oregon, has a portable audio booth that allows him to quickly turn around a voice-over for the agency, Weeg says. “We can call him in the morning and he can give us what we need in a few hours.”

Traci Ann Swensgaard works out of her own in-house studio in Ashland.

Source: MailTribune.com