On hold music or music on hold (MOH) is the music used in on hold marketing. Phone advertising, as the term suggests, is advertising done while callers are on hold. MOH systems are integrated into telephone systems that are designed for businesses via audio jacks on the telephone equipment that are labeled ‘MOH’. The music is important because it will pass a message about your company across (such as reminding your clients about available referral programs and cross-promoting the products/services on offer) and because it will keep callers glued to the phone until someone is available to serve them.
The on hold music could be customized. The customized music could promote new product lines, it could motivate customers to act, it could highlight your strengths and specialties (such as awards and accreditations), it could promote your website and its special features, and it could thank the callers for holding and assure them that someone will serve them soon.
The on hold music could come from the radio. You could play music from your local radio station through the MOH jack. You however need to know that re-broadcasting radio music is illegal and you could pay a fine of as much as $1,500. The greatest demerit of radio on hold music is that there is no control over the music that will be played. Some of the music played could be offensive to the callers, it will be interrupted by commercial breaks, and you could even have ads that promote your competitors.
You could get your on hold marketing music from commercial CDs and MP3s. This source of music is advantageous in that you will have control over what is played, but you first need to get permission to play the songs from the mechanical copyright owner and the title copyright owner.
You could use stock MOH CDs for your phone messages. These could come with or without voice-overs such as ‘your call is important to us’. Music from such CDs is advantageous in that you will pass a message across, but it is often generic since it is not customized for individual businesses. You could get custom-designed MOH from companies involved in on hold marketing. This type of music is advantageous in that you get to control the music genre and content, you could include your message in the music, and you will not have copyright issues. Yet another option is online on hold. All that you need to do is hook up to the Internet and get automatic content updates.
