Yes, it’s still fall, but it’ll be the holiday season before you know it! What’s your plan for your holiday CX for callers?

Our partner, Easy On Hold (EOH), based in Kalamazoo, MI, provides streaming music and messages on a custom marketing schedule for contact centers, enterprise-level corporations and small-medium size businesses via their phones and overhead environments. The company creates effective message on hold productions, auto attendant and IVR greetings, overhead announcements, and overhead music solutions. And they’ve got some great guidance for what to play and when for your callers during the holidays.

Santa’s Coming

EOH believes it’s never too early to plan your holiday marketing following best practices for holiday CX. Holiday marketing starts as early as October these days, so they’re probably on to something.

Every year, your company updates hours on the website, promotes holiday sales specials, decorates the office…but the on-hold or overhead experiences you provide to your customers during the holiday season often get lost in the shuffle. So, EOH put together this helpful list of updates to make sure you and your customers are ready for all of it: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year’s.

November

By the 14th of November, you should have updated IVR hours letting customers know if you’ll be closed around Thanksgiving or you’ll have limited support hours during the holiday. You can start playing Christmas tunes on hold and/or overhead, and you should certainly start mentioning your Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday specials on hold.

This is the month to get info out in as many places as possible to help cut through the noise of post-thanksgiving marketing content.

December

By the first of December, if you didn’t start in November, it’s time to play Christmas music on hold and/or overhead. You should also be promoting any holiday specials. Shopping volume remains consistent all the way up until, and even past, Christmas day, so don’t miss out on last-minute shopping revenues.

As of December 14 you should update your IVR to let people know if you’ll be closed Christmas and/or New Year’s as well. Most people will assume you’re closed, so if that isn’t the case with your business, this part is especially important.

January

After Christmas and New Year’s Day, you’re likely back to your typical work schedule. You should stop playing holiday music and messages on the first Monday in January (think of this as your return to normal date). Don’t forget to revert to your standard auto attendant and/or IVR greetings either.

Created by a successful advertising and marketing team with extensive experience in branding, public relations, and audio production, EOH puts hold time and foot traffic visits to use as a strategic opportunity to achieve four marketing goals: (1) educating the customer, (2) brand positioning, (3) selling products and services and (4) providing stunning customer experiences.

EOH has an extensive library of holiday hold music, and the company’s overhead music channels feature holiday hits from everyone from Mariah Carey to Nat King Cole. Plus, you can easily add pre-recorded holiday greetings or custom messages to any of the music.

Whether you need a holiday Auto Attendant and/or IVR greeting or any of the aforementioned content, contact EOH at sales@easyonhold.com. And Happy Holidays, in advance, from Easy on Hold and Vodia.

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