Voiced Messages On Hold

...make smaller companies sound big, and bigger companies sound friendly.

Let's build a better caller experience.

No one likes being on hold, and to make matters worse, most on-hold experiences are unpleasant. Easy On Hold^® has developed new best practices that are easy to implement and generate greater customer satisfaction.

The Best Messages On Hold Tips and Advice

What's happening now?

Think about the caller experience you now provide. Ask these questions:

How long is the average hold time?
Are calls handled through an IVR or automated attendant?
How does the IVR interact with the hold queue? Is the hold music interrupted by the IVR?
Is there a different listening experience during the transfer queue vs. the hold queue?
Are you migrating to a new phone system or platform? Many organizations don't realize that they have many creative "phone-on-hold" options. It's important to replace the default hold music on your system.
Are callers happy? Have you called and placed yourself on hold? How did it make you feel?
Do callers hear messages on hold now? Are they current? Relevant? Out-of-date? Would you say your organization is coming across as corporate or compassionate? As you've heard, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care!

Meet your callers' needs.

How well do you know your caller? Use everything you know about who is calling to improve caller satisfaction.

If "hold time" is longer than 4 minutes, consider playing popular music with announcements between the songs. This is an underutilized technique that is getting rave reviews at major call centers we work with.
If "hold time" is shorter than a minute or two, think in terms of brief, 50-word, single-idea announcements that add value to the time your caller is with you.
What is your call abandonment rate? Even if you don't have real numbers, take a moment to consider the cost of lost calls. If your messages on hold are helpful to the caller, you have a 75% chance of keeping that caller, rather than losing a sale to a competitor.
What information will interest your caller? 88% of callers to a business say they prefer information over silence or just music on hold.

How we set up your messages on hold.

We set up your message on hold system so that callers hear fresh content, your tech team works less, you save time and your customer satisfaction greatly improves. Find out if you can use hosted streaming content. This would allow you to control all of your content using an online control panel, where you can set up schedules and automate announcements.

Free Consultation. Talk to a Music On Hold Expert^™ about your communications platform (phone system) and your customers or callers. Talk about what issues you may be having, such as customer complaints about your music on hold, out-of-date messages, technical issues, etc.
Choose Your Style. Together, we determine style preferences. Traditional on hold messages combine voice and music. For a better, clearer sound on mobile devices (cell phones) we have Transitions, which uses voice without music, followed by brief "transitions" of music. It's a fresh, new idea that helps you stand out from other, typical messages on hold. For longer hold times, consider music by popular artists with announcements between the songs.
Technology. We will determine whether your communications platform (phone system) can use our Hosted Streaming Music On Hold Messages, which will automatically change which messages are heard based on time of day, day of the week and other scheduling preferences. We will find out if you will need a music on hold device (player) or not.

More Best Practices For Messages On Hold

Follow these easy tips. We can help.

Max 50 Words

How much can people remember in 20 or 30 seconds? Aim for 50 words per message (topic). Good script writers write for "the ear" not the eye. The key is to use no more than one idea per topic or paragraph.

Variety Wins

Today's callers crave variety. Gone are the days of one long, boring piece of music interrupted by voiced announcements. The new best practice is to build a library of short, self-contained single-topic recordings, each with its own unique music background.

Be Unpredictable

When callers can detect a pattern, they simply start counting the number of minutes that have gone by. Vary the length of each topic to create the unpredictability that makes hold time seem shorter than it actually is.

Randomized

Use the Easy On Hold® streaming messages on hold system to play topics in a random order. This adds to the uniqueness of the message on hold experience (unpredictability prevents premature hang-ups).

Unexpected

Greet visitors with, "good morning" and "good afternoon". Use simple greetings that reference the day of the week. It's a pleasant, unexpected experience that always makes callers extra-happy.

Timely

Studies confirm: "thank you for calling" greetings increase hang-ups. Project your brand as vibrant and up-to-date. Avoid generic or "general use" messages. Always use relevant, time-sensitive messages.

Prioritized

All topics are not of equal importance. Topics that are the most valuable, topics that are "right-now" important should play for often so every caller is sure to take notice.

Managed

How to stay organized? Scripts and recordings should be easily available online. Text and/or email reminders should alter you when time-sensitive topics are nearing end-dates.

Free Consultation.

On our FREE consultation (WebEx or Phone), a music on hold expert™ will discuss the following:

How the innovative hosted streaming music and messages integration improves caller satisfaction.
Which proven best practices that have worked for major brands can work with your caller experience.
The importance of knowing how long callers are waiting, and why they're calling.
How we work with your current technology (phone system or communications platform).

Get Your Free Consultation

Reach Customers When They Reach Out To You

The most preferred method of reaching a business is still the phone.

Imagine That!

The average person will spend 43 days of his/her life waiting on hold.

Steward Gandolf recommends messages on hold

Opportunity Is Knocking

Placing a caller on hold is a risk and an invaluable marketing opportunity.

Stewart Galdolf, "Healthcare Success"

Information, Please

88% of callers prefer to hear information while waiting.

Rapp & Collins

Important?

What people don’t want to hear when they call customer service is, “Your call is important to us".

W.P. Carey School of Business

Don't Remind Me

Commonly-used phrases such as, “please hold” and other reminders that the caller is in "hold-mode" can actually increase caller abandonment rates.

STYLE

Which style of messages on hold fits your brand and callers?

TRADITIONAL MUSIC ON HOLD MESSAGES

choose any style of music, add voiced announcements

We offer a traditional messages on hold sound, which blends custom scripted announcements over background music. Contact the music on hold experts^™ about custom scripts and the right music.

Ask The Experts

CLEARER SOUND

for callers on mobile devices

Our TRANSITIONS hold messages feature announcements with no music background. Short musical transitions are played between announcements. This greatly improves the sound quality for callers on mobile phones.

Transitions

POPULAR MUSIC

stream your favorite artists

We offer LOGO RADIO™, which positions your brand between popular songs for a "custom radio station" sound. Station IDs, daypart greetings and tag lines are featured. A great solution for longer hold times. You may also choose HIT MUSIC with any custom announcements between songs.

Hit Music

TECH

How do I get messages on hold to play on my phones?

ON PREMISE DEVICE

stream live or locally-stored audio

A phone system at your place of business may be able to use an audio connection from a device that plays a live stream of audio or locally-stored .mp3 files. Our 2-Channel Business Audio System device is also capable of providing a digital connection to CISCO CUCM and Genesys Pure Engage platforms.

On Premise Device

AUDIO FILES

for callers on mobile devices

Most VoIP (off-premise or hosted) phone services (platforms) and some on-premise platforms allow the use of .mp3 audio files. Use Easy On Hold^® scripting, voice, music and recording services to create the right audio file required by your platform. Follow the link below to learn about the new way to manage audio files for messages on hold.

VoIP Phone Music

LIVE STREAMING URL

stream your favorite artists

Easy On Hold^® developed live streaming audio for telephone systems back in 2013. We provide a custom URL stream for many phone platforms, including Avaya, FreePBX, FreeSWITCH, Asterisk, Bicom Systems, Fortinet, iPitomy and others. We offer a free "test stream" as a proof of concept for the telephony solution you're using.

Why Streaming

Easy On Hold^® works with all systems and platforms.