Understanding On-Hold Lingo

When you purchased your phone system, you probably got a rundown of all he features…on-hold greetings, automated attendant, voicemail, but what does it all mean? Over the years, we’ve heard this question a lot from our Please Hold clients. So we’ve put together some short descriptions, so you can understand how your phone system operates, and how we can make it work for you.

Automated Attendant:
Call any bank, major corporation or utilities company and there’s a good chance your call will be answered by an Auto Attendant. This system answers calls, provides prompts for the various departments/extensions and routes calls to the appropriate party. So when you hear “Thank you for calling ____ Corporation. Please Press 1 for our Sales Department, 2 for Customer Service, etc.” That is the Auto Attendant System.

Voice Mail:
Whether it’s your cell phone or fancy business phone system, most voicemail works the same. When a call isn’t picked up by a live person, the voicemail system answers the call, plays a short greeting “Thanks for calling ____ Corporation. Sorry we missed your call…” and allows the caller to leave a message.

On-Hold Message:
A customer calls your business, your receptionist answers the phone, but needs to put the caller on-hold while they answer another call, search for info, or locate another associate…that’s where the on-hold message comes in. While your caller is on-hold, they will hear your custom Please Hold Message, highlighting your achievements, introducing new services, and sharing important company information. They will continue to hear the message until someone takes them off hold.

Each of these systems operates independently of the others, and a recording done for your on-hold message will only be heard when a caller is placed on hold. While our Please Hold equipment only provides On-Hold Messages, we are also equipped to provide professional recordings for your Automated Attendant and Voice Mail, should your phone system have those capabilities. We’ll be happy to tell you more about how Please Hold can give you a professional image for all your phone system needs. Contact us for more details!