Phone Systems with T1 Lines Pose New Challenge for On-Hold Messages

With the advent of T1 lines and more offices going to phone systems with T1 lines, the question invariably comes up, "How will an on-hold system work with this new technology?"  Many multi-location businesses and practices especially are switching to T1 lines, where there is one central phone system shared by multiple offices.  Calls can be transferred from one office to another, making this type of system ideal in many cases.

Fear not!  On-hold messaging is still possible and doable with these systems.  As a matter of fact, most of these systems make it easier, because they have the ability to upload a .wav or .mp3 file onto the system, which eliminates the need for a digital player.  But there is one issue - often times, these systems always play the on-hold message from the beginning for every call placed on-hold.  This defeats the purpose of having a script with several paragrpahs, since most callers only hear the beginning every time they call.

There is a workaround: first, inquire whether the system can play the messages on a loop rather than from the beginning - some of the systems have the ability to do so.  Second - ask if an external digital player can be used with the system.  Even though the system doesn't need a player, having one keeps the message looping, and Watt Media provides the player at no cost, making this an easy option.

If neither of these options is possible, then briefer messages updated more often is the way to go.  Rather than make one recording that is 5 or 6 minutes long, we can make 5 or6  recordings that are one minute long each, that can be swapped weekly or every other week.  This way, the message is changed often enough so that people hear different things every once in a while.

So as technology changes, the fact is that on-hold messaging is still a powerful marketing tool, one which can still be acommodated with any phone system.