Choosing ‘On Hold’ for your organisation?

Things to consider...

The options are:

• Silence – silence is golden, but do your customers know they are still connected?
• Beeps – customers know they are connected, but not very informative.
• Music – useful for passing the time, but does what you play accurately reflect your business? and does it keep your customers happy?
• Radio – great entertainment, but radio stations are commercial operations themselves and will be advertising others peoples products and services....on your time!
• Messaging – by far the best solution for any business. Gives you the chance to talk to your customers and use this otherwise wasted time to inform and educate a captive audience!

The most effective tool in any On Hold Marketing plan is a professionally produced and recorded mix of message and music

Voice artist - choosing the right voice

The right sounding voice is essential, but make sure that it's a professional voice artist that does your talking. There are plenty of actors with nice voices but may not give the correct delivery. A young, go-ahead company requires a voice that reflects this: young vibrant voices are key. Maybe you need to deliver instructions? then a mature, authoratative voice would suit best.

Music - making the right choice

The music track must suit your business and your promotions, but has also to be acceptable to your customers. Personal taste should not be a consideration. All styles and genres are useable, but only when placed in the right context. As before, young upbeat music works well with young up-beat promotions. More restrained choices should be made for productions that must deliver more serious content.

PRS - Do I need a license?

Not if you employ the services of a well established On Hold company. Most will hold libraries of copyright free music which require no license at all. Commercial music and radio however do require licensing and this can be costly, especially if you have a large switchboard. If you copy music from CD to your telephone system you will also require an MCPS license in addition to the PRS license.

Production - the right tools and expertise

The production facility is of prime importance. All modern computers can record audio but there is much, much more to a professional production facility than a multimedia PC. It's all about quality, and it takes a long track record of professional experience to make an On Hold production stand out as something special. The production team must be experienced and fluent in a whole range of skills if your production is to have the right impact.

On Hold devices - which one is right for your business?

Playback devices fall into three main catagories

1. Mechanical devices

Once, tape machines were used...but these have been replaced by CD players. A few facts that need to be considered here are:

• CD players are not built to be "on-always" and consequently have problems coping with months of continuous playback.
• CD players cannot cope with power outs and will stop playing completely if thisoccurs
• They must be used in repeat mode, otherwise they stop after one play
• Portable CD players are often removed, 'borrowed' or even stolen!

2. Solid State digital announcers

Have many advantages over CD players such as automatic looping and an indifference to power loss. They come in many forms but the principal is always the same - the production is stored in memory and then plays out in a constant loop.

A number of systems are available, each with it's own specific pro's and con's

Tape load - uses tapes to load memory.

• Pro's: cheap, and easy to maintain.
• Con's: Requires user intervention. There are time delays in getting productions sent out on tape and only one production can be loaded from each side of the tape

Cd load - uses CD's to load memory.

• Pro's: Can load multiple tracks from the CD.
• Con's: Requires user intervention. There are time delays in getting productions sent out on CD

Memory module - uses memory chip. Programmes the announcer on insertion.

• Pro's: Instant playback and no download time. Pure solid state - no moving parts so no potential failure issues.
• Con's: Requires user intervention. Comparatively expensive. Memory module needs to be returned for updates.

Remote load - memory updated remotely.

• Pro's: No user intervention required, updates quickly achieved and managed remotely.
• Con's: Equipment requires connection to an outside line.

MP3 players are used occasionally though the drawbacks make them an unattractive option and should not really be used for this application.

PC Software Solutions - The future of On Hold Messaging?

Until recently software based systems have not proliferated due to cost and complexity. However, in recent years the costs of computer hardware has fallen substantially and this factor has led to an exponential increase in the demand for these very reliable and easily maintained systems for delivering On Hold content.

Two options are currently available: Those that require user intervention and those that do not. The latter are totally managed by remote access and require no maintenance whatsoever at the users location, and consequently there is very little waste of precious management time.

The remotely managed software systems offer businesses the most powerful and flexible solution of all. To learn more click here.