Play Anything You Want With Your Music on Hold Channel

Play Anything You Want With Your Music on Hold Channel

Music on Hold is among the most exciting features that VoIP solutions providers offer to their clients. Music on Hold provides businesses with an opportunity to inform callers of the organization’s products or services.

What is Music on Hold?
Music on Hold refers to a feature that plays a recorded music file when a caller is put on Hold, awaiting further action or service to be rendered. Hold music automatically starts to play when a caller waits on the line.

You can include a wide range of audio messages on your recorded call-waiting music such as informing callers your business hour, on-going special promotions, or informing them to wait as all callers are currently basis.

Going Back in Time, How it all started

Music hold was discovered accidentally by Alfred Levy. Alfred Levy was both an inventor and an entrepreneur. In 1962, while at his factory and communicating with callers, callers told him that they heard some audio while they were on Hold.

He later discovered that this was caused by a loose wire that was touching a metal girder that was amplifying a broadcast signal coming from a radio stationed next door. Four years later, he patented his work and music on Hold become a regular feature on phone systems.

Let’s Look At The Numbers

A study by AT&T found that over 70% of business calls get placed on Hold for an average of 45 seconds each. 60% of the callers put on Hold hang up, and 30% of those callers that had hang up never bothered to call back.

The sad thing is that 94% of businesses advertising budgets are spent on attracting callers, but only 6% of that budget gets spent on handling the caller once they call comes in.

North American Telecom also did a research on music on Hold and found out 90% of callers who experienced silence while on Hold abandoned their calls in less than a minute.

Also, callers with music on Hold stayed at least thirty seconds longer on the line as opposed to those who experienced silence. In contrast, callers who encountered audio messages remained on the line for three minutes longer.
A Telemarketing magazine survey brought up some interesting insights on music on Hold. In one of their studies, they found out that 1 in 5 respondents had made a purchase or decision based on information they had heard while on Hold during a call.

How Music on Hold Works

In the past, telephone systems required to be connected to a playback device .i.e. Cassette or CD player to play music or recorded messages while a caller was on Hold.

Nowadays, VoIP solution providers offer the on-hold music feature to businesses as a standard feature among their pricing packages. Companies have the option of selecting music, recorded announcements, or customizing a caller’s experience.

Benefits of Using Music on Hold

The music on Hold feature in business phone systems can provide your business with a wide range of benefits geared towards improving your bottom line.

Here are some key benefits of using this feature:

Reduce Call Abandonment Rate

It is estimated that at least 30% of callers who hang up due to a silent on hold session. Therefore, it makes sense to engage your callers with audio messages of offers, tips, or announcements.

Highly Customizable

Music on Hold allows you to customize the messaging depending on the time zone or based on the caller’s ID information. This enables you to deliver a highly effective message that provides you with better chances of converting leads into sales.

Greater Brand Visibility and Recognition

This feature allows you to advertise promotional offers that build your brand and has the potential to increase your sales. It also gives your brand a professional image.

Best practices of Music on Hold for Businesses

Here are some of the best practices of music on Hold that your business should follow to get the maximum benefits of this feature.

Choose Appropriate Content

Regardless of the music on hold format, you choose .i.e. music or recorded messages, the messaging must be relevant and useful to your intended audience.

For example:

Should you decide to go with music, make sure you get royalty-free music compositions to avoid copyright infringement issues. Also, the music should be soothing and relaxing.
For recorded messages, make sure the information is relevant and communicated n a clear and coherent manner.

Regularly change and rotate music and messages

Always make it a habit to periodically change between music and messages, as callers get bored of hearing the same messaging every time they call your company, as they did many months ago.

Automate the Process of managing Music on Hold

The biggest drawback of changing and rotating music and recorded messages used in the music on Hold feature is lack of time for those responsible. Automate the Process of changing the music and recorded messages for more effectiveness.

Music on Hold is a must-have feature

With over 30% of callers who hang up, not bothering to call your business back places music on Hold among the top phone features that your business phone solution should have.

Phone.com Music on Hold solutions is managed by a team of experts that will set up and manage your entire on-hold message strategy. We undertake the whole music on hold process, which includes installation, content creation, and management.

Click HERE to learn more about our music on Hold feature and see your business grow