Fonality has been acquired by NetFortis. See information here.
Be sure to discuss music on hold with your new VOIP phone system provider. You may be disappointed in what they aren’t telling you. Here’s a short story about a business that just switched to a “cloud” phone system (hosted PBX or hosted I.P.) and the problem that the new system poses with music on hold.
I just got off the phone with Dr. Simms, a cosmetic dentist and Easy On Hold client. Prior to switching phone providers, Dr. Simms enjoyed knowing that while his patients endured on-hold time, they were treated to professional-sounding greetings and announcements on a variety of relevant topics. Since the 4-minute on hold message production would rotate 24/7, Dr. Simms was sure that his patients would hear a different snippet of information every time they called and were placed on hold (ever so briefly).
Today Dr. Simms has traded his old phones for one of those snappy new “VOIP” systems, in this case a “cloud” or “hosted” system provided by Fonality. The doctor called Easy On Hold to find out how to plug in his on hold message player to his new phones, so that he could continue to utilize the hold music feature. We looked into Fonality for him. The Fonality website says, ” Music On Hold (MOH) is as simple as uploading MP3 files using the web-based administration panel. Use MOH creatively to highlight promotions for new customers, up sell current customers, or calm angry customers calling your support team.” Somehow, Dr. Simms was not informed that he would need to manually upload files, or what the format was. “That’s OK,” we told him, we can get you an .mp3 file for you to load–you just need to know how to log in and load the file to the system.
Then we asked, “Are you aware of whether the hold message file will play from the beginning each and every time the hold button is pressed, or whether the file will play in rotation as before?” No, the doctor did not know. We placed a call to Fonality to find out.
The “talk to an expert” line was picked up by the Fonality voice automation, which announced at the end of the menu that calls that are technical in nature must be placed to a different number. After giving the number, the automation said, “To hear this message again, press pound.” Having missed a few digits, I hit pound. “That is not a valid option, ” announced the voice automation. “Hmmm. I guess I’ll press one then.”
Pressing one gets you to a salesperson. Surely a sales expert will be able to answer my question. I stated who I was and why I was calling and asked whether the Fonality on hold message plays from the beginning each time the hold button is pressed. “That’s a technical question,” I was told. “Actually, no one has ever asked that before. I have no idea.”
To his credit, the salesperson was kind and spoke clearly. The gentleman offered to take my number and have a technician call me back. Sounds like a plan. Still, I can’t help wonder how or why the music on hold function is not discussed more completely between salespersons and their clients.
Yes, we will find out how the music on hold works at Fonality. Yes, we can help anyone with the proper audio file formats for VOIP hosted phone systems. No, we really don’t get why these providers leave their customers so uninformed. I’m hoping we can put something together with some leading VOIP hosted PBX providers so we can provide better service and more flexible and professional solutions.
Easy On Hold is not responsible for the performance, installation or operation of equipment we do not sell. Articles about equipment are for educational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of any make or brand. Easy On Hold makes no claims or warranties regarding telephone equipment of any kind.
