Category Archives: on hold messages

Business Telephone Tips – Easy to Implement, Customer Pleasing, On Hold Messages

Ask any business what they’re investing in, and most will say their website. But even though internet sites and ecommerce are growing at an enormous rate, you may be surprised to know that “telemarketing” dwarfs the amount of sales generated by websites. That’s because consumers have generations of experience getting exactly what they want when they call a business. The phone is still faster that looking it up on Google and then trying to find the right answer on a website.

Right now, customer service provided by telephone is the dominant way for customers to reach businesses like yours. So before you invest everything in your website, consider how inexpensive it can be to increase sales and satisfaction with a few telephone tips for customer service representatives:

Answer the phone with a “live” person: “call centers” (especially the ones in India!) have an increasingly poor reputation. Just answering the phone with a live person starts you off on the right foot.

Don’t use a speaker phone! Pick up the receiver, or use a headset (they’re great for comfort and ease of use) and your caller gets a personal sound. We’ve all had our calls answered with a speaker phone: it sounds like they can’t be bothered, the audio quality is poor, and we end up shouting to be understood. Treat your caller like you’d like to be treated

Create a “phone answering script” that is personal and polite. Don’t try to say too much (Thank you for calling XYZ company, home of the widget. My name is Joe and I’m here to provide excellent service. How may I help you today?” Is that really any way to answer the phone?

If you use an automated answering system, limit the number of options: 3 or 4 should be plenty. And do you really need to have several levels of options? Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. They are the customer, right?

Train your customer service reps so they know more than the customer does! How many times have you called a call center to ask questions, and the rep has had to constantly “check their sources” for “additional information”? With just a little experience you can understand your “Frequently Asked Questions.” The 80/20 rule usually applies: 80% of your callers will ask the same questions covering just 20% of the information. Train, and test, your customer service reps. By the way: what are your customers’ biggest problems? If you don’t know, try working on the phones yourself. Then you’ll be able to train your reps better!

Staff your phones properly. We’ve all been told “We are experiencing a higher than normal volume of calls” way too many times. We all know that it’s not higher than “normal.” Great customer service builds great customer loyalty.

What if you do answer with an automated system, and your customers do have to wait (in a “queue” which is like waiting in line) for their call to be answered? What should your caller listen to? Some people like silence or music so they can do other things. I’ve had the experience of waiting in a queue for a few minutes and completely forgetting what I called for. Even when it was important. So consider giving your caller helpful information while on hold. Don’t make it a pushy radio commercial, and don’t try to record it yourself (it won’t sound professional).

Telephone Magic USB Message On Hold Player



A Message On Hold System can make all the difference in the world, as it plays CUSTOMIZED messages about YOUR business with appropriate background music. The latest digital On Hold Message player type utilizes USB Flash Media stick to easily transfer On Hold Messages from an emailed file. Telephone On Hold Messages will inform and entertain your clients when they have to wait On Hold for your business staff.

Try different recording for different groups of callers. For sales lines, feel free to talk about product features and benefits. “Cross marketing” can be very profitable (increasing you average order size) and helpful to the caller. Talk about product features, and educate your caller about how to understand the difference in features and what it means to them. Use the opportunity to show how you’re different (and better) than your competition. 

For customer service or tech support lines consider answering FAQ and offering advice on fixing the most common problems. Do you list this information on your website? Tell your caller exactly where to look. Don’t just assume they’ll hang up. They can just look while they’re waiting for help.

On Hold Messages from Telephone Magic are produced for your business phone system – why does your business need one?

Here’s 5 GREAT REASONS why you should MARKET YOUR BUSINESS and provide TELEPHONE CUSTOMER SERVICE with a MESSAGE ON HOLD system from Telephone Magic:

USB digital On Hold Message Player


1. Keep your customers informed

While waiting for your staff to pick up their call, On Hold Messages will inform your customers about the latest news, weather, and updates from your brand – new products, services, messages and more. This is achieved using pre-recorded messages on your message-on-hold system. It’s also a good way to make sure the customer doesn’t hang up during long wait periods. 

2. Keep them entertained

Some businesses playback jokes and social messages while customers are on hold; this helps entertain the customer and has a positive effect on your brand image. It also ensures that the customer won’t hesitate to call if they have an issue, because they know they will be entertained while waiting.

3. Keep them busy while they wait

Customers get impatient while waiting for staff to take a call – businesses can use this wait time to prompt the customer about pending tasks such as paying a bill or verifying an account – things like this engage the customer while they wait and portray your business as efficient and professional.

4. Promote your business

Message on hold systems are great for promoting your business – let the customer know about all the good things going on in your company – new products and services, new marketing ideas, events and promos. This provides engagement as well as marketing conversion value.

5. Create a big-business impression (small businesses)

Small businesses can also cash-in on the benefits of message-on-hold systems by creating a big-business impression, which helps portray a small business as professionally and credibly as possible.


To learn more about Telephone Magic’s cost-effective On Hold Message system hardware and customized message productions Call us TOLL-FREE @ 1.855.929.9199 for a complimentary quotation.

On Hold Messages Made Easy for Your Business

We get asked all the time for reliable digital hardware for our clients message on hold applications “Is there something out there that we can use and forget about in between message changes?” ~ In a nutshell, “Yes”.

Message On Hold productions come in a wide variery of forms and quality ~ Telephone Magic offers professional scripting, announcing, and studio engineering.

When it comes to hardware, it has come a long way from the early days of cassette tape decks with continuous loop tapes. Once the hardware went digital a cassette simply downloaded itself to the memory of the hardware and “voila” your message was up and running. These units are still in use today with few, if any, issues.

Now the convenience factor and the latest technology has created a USB key version On Hold Message digital announcer. This system allows you to get your message productions emailed to you. From there it’s a simple “drag and drop” of the file to your USB key and once you plug the key back into the unit at the phone system, everything is taken care of for you.

The USB 1100 is a digital message unit designed for continuous audio playback. Audio is stored on a removable USB Flash drive and plugged into the USB hub on the unit. The loading of the audio is easily done by “dragging and dropping” mp3 file(s) without the use of special software. Audio files can now be emailed to clients without the need to mail or ship physical media.

Features:
Standard MP3 Playback: MP3 audio is widely recognized as a popular audio compression format. You can use MP3 files with sampling rates from 32 to 256 kbps, depending on the quality you require. No additional software is required to load MP3 files to the USB flash drive. Select one of six tracks or “play all” by pressing the Play Mode button on the side of the unit.

Electronic Delivery – Very user friendly! – The process of receiving message on-hold updates is easy! Simply remove the USB flash drive from the unit, and plug into the USB port of a computer. Audio files are a “drag and drop” transfer from the computer into the USB flash drive. Plug the flash drive back into the USB 1100 for instant audio playback.

Your on hold message producer can simply e-mail you the files for your message-on-hold updates. Save the MP3 file to the USB flash drive and load it into the USB 1100 – quick and easy!

Commercial-Strenth Hardware: The USB 1100 is intended for use in business applications that include message-on-hold and in-store music / announcements.

The system has a constant power source and the solid-state memory will re-boot the audio playback automatically after a power outage. No more need to reset the unit when the power’s been out!

The durable aluminum case can withstand rugged phone room conditions and reduces possible RF interference. The compact design and visible flanges ensure an easy installation on the phone room system’s wall.

Volume & Tone Control: Two different outputs are designed to provide adequate volume for any phone system. You can also adjust desired bass and treble levels.

Technology and convenience in a compact easy to use format, all at a reasonable one-time price. Nothing could be easier… If you wish to gain some professional scripting and production assistance, don’t hesitate to call Telephone Magic @ 905.356.9199.

On Hold Message Adapter for Small / Home Offices

Finally! Now your small business can sound like “the big boys!”

We recently found a great little item that allows small and home offices with single-line and two-line phones to add a professional Message On Hold. This MOH adaptor gives you the ability to place people on hold directly by pressing the “1” and “2” buttons (for lines 1 and 2 respectively).

Virtually all Small Office / Home Office Phones have no ability to add a MOH (music on hold) input. They have what is known as “electronic hold”. This means when the Hold button is pressed on the phone, people are placed on hold but hear… absolutely NOTHING. That can prove to be deadly as people tend to hang up after a very short while in these situations, either believing they may have been hung up on or just feel they can spend their time more wisely and re-connect with you again later. Later may never come as they might find someone that will deal with them immediately at another supplier!

The Message On Hold adapter is placed between the wall jack and your 1-2 line phone and all you need to do is add a Message On Hold system player with a custom message production and “voila” your callers will be listening to useful information about your business instead of silence.

Telephone Magic offers a great start-up package which includes a USB Message On Hold unit and a fully customized message production about your company. The best part is there is currently introductory offer with a “recession buster” discount to get you up and running as easily and einexpensively as possible. This offer applies to all businesses, and small office / home office clients need only add the Message On Hold adapter to complete the package.

On Hold Adapter Features:

  • RCA input for MOH device
  • Modular connections
  • Place up to 2 callers on-hold
  • Large easy-to-push buttons
  • Blue LED status indicators
  • Durable high-impact plastic case
  • All cables included
  • Designed and manufactured in the USA
  • 5-year parts and labor warranty
  • View large MOH Adapter Image

Installation of the Message On Hold adapter is a snap – instructions are on the product page of the Telephone Magic website – and don’t worry about figuring out what to say on your message as the production team at Telephone Magic has been assisting it’s customers with scripting for over 20 years.