Ask Andy Manarchuck of Five Star Equipment about what callers hear on hold, and you’ll get an enthusiastic answer. Andy is the I.T. manager for the 8-location Deere dealer covering much of Pennsylvania, and he no longer needs to drive between each of the dealership locations to change the messages on hold, thanks to the Easy On Hold Anytime Plan.

Multi-Location Hold Messages Made Easy
The Anytime Plan provides a free-to-use Internet-connected messages on hold player, or “smart player” as Easy On Hold is fond of saying. Each location is able to receive time-sensitive message on hold updates automatically and play them on a specific schedule.

Deere Dealers Welcome Easy On Hold
After Smith Center, Kansas John Deere dealer Chris Cole signed up for messages on hold service from Easy on Hold several years ago, he was quick to recommend EOH to other dealers. As it turns out, Cole (from LandMark Equipment) was on the board of directors of the John Deere Users Group (JDUG), and invited Easy On Hold to visit with the group at a Chicago conference.

When customers call our dealership, they’re calling to do business with us. Any means of retaining these customers during on-hold time is money well spent. Furthermore, promoting your business while the customer is on hold is a great advertising method for selling your products and services to the customer. It’s just money well spent.

-Chris Cole, John Deere dealer in Smith Center, KS

Why Did Cole Recommend Easy On Hold to Other Dealers?
Cole points out that Easy On Hold offers professional, custom scripts available exclusively to John Deere Dealers and points out that the on hold message announcements speak directly to HIS callers about what is important to them.

Easy On Hold, an active vendor to several multi-site John Deere dealers throughout the USA, develops announcements that tie in with seasonal and in-store promotions. Dealers report higher caller retention rates during longer hold periods that might otherwise result in call abandonment.

Deere Dealers Relieved Of Music License Liability
Since Easy On Hold pays all music performance royalties on every production, Deere dealers can breathe easy, knowing they’re not liable for use of copyrighted material being broadcast on phone systems.

The Better Business Bureau of Western Michigan has notified Easy On Hold that it has not received any complaints during the past 12 months.

You and your staff should be proud that you have taken care of your customers so effectively.

- Better Business Bureau, in letter to Easy On Hold June 1, 2011

As an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau, Easy On Hold agrees to adhere to the BBB Code Of Business Practices.

Interalia products, widely regarded as among the most reliable in the industry, will extend its current 3 year (36 month) warranty policy for the iProMOH product family to 5 years (60 months). The warranty goes into effective immediately. All units with a ship date after April 15, 2011 will be supported under the new policy.

Easy On Hold has been the leading custom messaging provider integrating the iProMOH with marketing on hold plans. The iProMOH is a powerful music and message delivery device that connects to proprietary content management software over the Internet, providing fast updates and changes as well as remote functionality and reporting.

Easy On Hold has implemented iProMOH devices and programming at many mutli-location firms, such as Shaw Flooring, Norwegian Cruise Lines, BlueLinx and several medical and financial institutions. In many cases, Easy On Hold does not charge for use of the iProMOH, as it is part of an all-inclusive package known as “The Anytime Plan“.

Easy On Hold President Julie Cook has been describing the iProMOH as a “smart player” due to its ability to deliver targeted messages for specific days of the week, or even hours of the day. The goal is that Easy On Hold clients never play an out of date message on hold.

“We are very pleased to be able to support our partners with this enhanced warranty for iProMOH,” said John Tatton, Vice President of Sales, “this reduces the total cost of ownership for iProMOH over a typical 5 year lifecycle and underscores Interalia’s commitment to our MOH partners.

Interalia Inc, an ISO 9001:2008 company has been designing and manufacturing recorded messaging solutions for use in Telecom, On-Hold, Over-Head and RF messaging applications since 1975. Based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and with offices in the United Kingdom and USA, Interalia’s goal is to provide the most reliable, easy to use and configure, messaging solutions available in the marketplace.

Norwegian Cruise Lines USA has selected Easy On Hold to produce and deploy custom message on hold marketing at three US offices.

The new on-hold system will utilize  hold music message players by Interalia that connect to a server at the Easy On Hold studios, which manages messages and message schedules for locations in Mesa AZ, Miami FL and Ft. Lauderdale FL.

About Multi-site Hold Message Marketing
In the past, managing on-hold messaging at multiple sites meant shipping media (such as compact disc audio or cassette tape) and working with personnel at each location to load the audio into message players. With the current technology offered by Easy on Hold, multi-site deployment is managed directly to music on hold players via the Internet. Benefits to using remote hold message technology include:

• Changes can be made at any time across multiple sites without intervention by personnel
• Equipment checks in to studio twice per day with reports generated that monitor performance
• Frequent message changes are no longer a chore, as updates are automated
• Customized greetings for “morning” “afternoon” or “day of week” are possible
• Messages (announcements) can be produced well in advance for deployment on a specific schedule

NCL To Use Messages On Hold For Marketing
Norwegian Cruise Lines is aware that callers are inquiring about offers, schedules, accommodations, etc., and are in a position to hear NCL marketing messages. As a marketing tool, phone hold messages can be beneficial in many ways, including:

• Keeps callers from hanging up prematurely
• Target audience is available for 30 seconds to 2 minutes, during which time key marketing messages can be delivered
• Low cost method of deploying relevant marketing messages
• The telephone is an effective channel for branding

With this in mind, NCL is utilizing Easy On Hold’s experienced writers and production team to keep relevant, attractive marketing content in front of a very important audience.

Easy On Hold voice talent is ideal for use on automated phone systems for answering and routing calls and delivering information via IVR, Automated Attendant and Voicemail. Do the terms Automated Attendant and IVR mean the same thing? It depends on who you ask.

In traditional telecommunications, IVR refers only to systems that connect to a database, while Automated Attendant refers only to answering, routing and holding calls (functions that might be done by human attendants). More and more, however, we are hearing IVR as a term to identify any voice-recording and/or call-routing system.

Let’s take a look at the terms being used and sort out the differences. This will help you develop the right content for use by voiceovers (voice talent) when it is time for Easy On Hold to make your voice recordings.

IVR – Interactive Voice Response
(Read more at wikipedia) Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans using voice commands or tones from a telephone keypad (DTMF, or Dual Tone Multifrequency, the beeps your phone makes when you dial). Technically, IVR lets the caller enter an “ID” or account code, then provides access to a database. This is where the “interactive” part comes in. Banks and Credit Unions often have “phone bank” systems that allow you to conduct transactions. This is IVR.

ACD — Automatic Call Distribution
ACD Systems answer incoming calls and allow the caller to choose a menu, group of extensions or singular extension to which the call is routed. The term is used in large call centers to describe the system of organizing incoming calls into queues of callers waiting to speak with an operator or service person.

Automated Attendant
The term Automated attendant is essentially the same as ACD. The incoming call is answered automatically, then allows callers to choose where the call is routed. Automated Attendant is also called Auto-Attendant, AA or Virtual Receptionist. Typically a simple menu such as, “press 1 to speak with our parts department, press 2 for directions to our store…” is offered. Callers can be routed to an extension, an outside line or a recording. Some Auto Attendant Systems are a part of a business phone system, while many are “add-on” systems (sometimes part of the Voicemail System).

Voicemail
A Voicemail System is designed specifically for recording a message from the caller’s voice (leaving a message for the intended party). Voicemail Systems can be operated by simple devices such as answering machines, remotely operated as with your cell phone voicemail, or added to a business phone system. Examples are Nortel Call Pilot, Star Flash and various systems by Avaya, Cisco, 3com, Mitel and others. Such systems are often “add-ons” to a PBX system As more businesses move into I.P. telephony (hosted PBX solutions), Voicemail is likely part of a Unified Messaging System, which can combine cell phone, email, voicemail and other types of messaging.

CCR Tree
A Custom Call Routing (CCR) Tree refers to the part of a Voicemail, IVR or Automated Attendant system that designates the departments and extensions to which callers are routed. Callers are prompted at each stage in the routing process by a recorded voice. CCR Trees can contain multiple menus and sub-menus to allow callers to obtain more specific information. Often, business callers complain about being “trapped in a call center loop” or “voicemail hell”. This is what happens when a CCR Tree is not well planned. Frequently-used pathways should be considered, as well as the length of voiced prompts.  Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_ccr_tree#ixzz1BWTUmo6F

Tips
If you are considering setting up a voice response or voicemail system for your company, here are a few tips to consider:

• Consider the length of each message (callers can be impatient).
• Use consistent language (all department and extension names must be accurate in every menu).
• Take time to write out every word that you want callers to hear. Test it by speaking it aloud.
• Talk to your I.T. or telephony consultant to be sure you understand time/memory limits your system may have.
• Discuss call routing architecture with the equipment provider as well as your tech and marketing teams.
• Consider using professional voice talent with experience in voicemail and IVR recording. Your callers will notice the difference.

A custom music on hold message can make your company sound professional. Go a step further, however, and be sure to include trust-building statements that are backed up by facts.

What evidence does a decision-maker have that your company is a good choice? Making general claims such as, “We’re dedicated…” or, “No one beats our deals…” just won’t tip the scales in your favor any more. You need to provide proof.

Want to be credible? Be specific. As in numbers. In an effort to add real meat to the message on hold,  articulate specific, relevant facts. Here are some examples:

• Ten years in the business. Fifty-five parts professionals. Five-hundred-thousand parts in stock.
• This winter, four out of every ten homes will lose fifty dollars-worth of energy because of leaky windows.
• Last year we answered one-hundred percent of our service calls within five hours.
• One dealership offers free car washes for life. One dealership provides a one-hundred-thousand-mile warranty on every certified pre-owned vehicle.
• While many businesses are reducing staff, Omnicast increased our service staff by 25 percent in 2009.
• Our fourteen service vehicles cover all of northern Ohio, so you won’t have to wait when you need us.

Your hold music message is not a company brochure. It’s a golden opportunity to put forward facts and ideas that tell a potential buyer that they’ve made the right call.