You’ve decided to take care of the “hold button problem”–you know, that silence or fuzzy radio that callers endure while waiting for someone to come back on the line. Now you need to choose a music on hold provider. Here are 5 quick tips–things to watch out for when shopping messages on hold.
1. CONTRACT OR NO CONTRACT?
There are services with ongoing contract payments and there are “buyout” message-on-hold providers. If you want to own your equipment and messages, mention this up front. If you simply want to pay a monthly fee for complete service (equipment, message changes, scripting) then remember that at the end of the contract you have silence on hold once again.
2. WHAT IS A MESSAGE?
Some companies call a short paragraph a “message” –then they say you’ll get 8 messages. This means you get one on hold production containing 8 paragraphs of copy. Often a “message” refers to a self-contained 4-minute production that will loop continuously. Ask about word count. How many words will I get in my script? How many unique scripts?
3. GET TO KNOW YOUR PHONE SYSTEM
First, do you need equipment? If you have had music-on-hold on your current phone system, state this to your prospective supplier; it may keep you from paying for unnecessary equipment. Your phone system may allow messages to be entered into an internal memory, in which case you may not need any equipment at all. You might have a 2 or 4 line phone you purchased at an office supply store. These types of phones cannot play music on hold without the help of a special adapter that allows music to be piped into the phone line.
4. HOW OFTEN WILL YOU CHANGE YOUR MESSAGE?
The on-hold message industry calls message changes “updates”. If you have a seasonal business, or if you hold monthly webinars, events and shows, you should ask for pricing on a package of custom hold messages. You may also find a plan that allows unlimited message changes over the course of a year. Easy On Hold offers an “Anytime Plan” for a flat annual fee of $850. This can cut the per-production cost considerably. If you plan to just use a place-holder as opposed to a marketing message, ask about a smaller package of 2 or 4 unique productions–but beware of time limits. Often you are forced to use all productions within a 12-month period. Easy On Hold offers packages of 2 to 4 on-hold productions that “roll over” like unused cell phone minutes that never expire. You could take 14, 28, or 100 months to use them up.
5. BEWARE OF UNNECESSARY INSTALLATION AND SETUP FEES
Chances are, you can plug the message on hold equipment in yourself. If you have never had music on hold playing on your phone system, you can place a call to your system installer and ask about the MOH INPUT, which may be as easy as plugging headphones into your iPod. Speaking of iPods, please don’t cheap out and try to use a consumer-grade audio player in place of a professional message on hold player. Lithium batteries should never be plugged in day after day. The idea of a message on hold player is that it repeats 24/7 so any time a caller is placed on hold, your message will play.
There are many other considerations, of course, such as whether the music is properly licensed, whether you can hear a custom made sample of a custom production made specifically for your company before purchasing, and how long the company has been in business (why not get references?). We’ll cover these in our next post!
