Frequently Asked Questions

MOH is a creative means that keeps your clients occupied and informed while they wait on hold. It is a marketing tool that you cannot afford to do without!

Here's what it does:

• Reduces hang up rates
• Educates clients
• Increases Traffic to your website
• Polishes your professional image

If you’re spending your marketing budget on generating inbound calls, MOH allows your budget to professionally handle those calls.

Through branding, communication and strong customer care. Research shows that approximately 16% of callers make purchases based on information they heard while on hold, and that professional on hold messages complete with voice overs are shown to keep callers on the line 3 times longer than just silence or radio on hold.

On Air offers many customized message on hold packages, making it easy for you to choose which MOH is beneficial for your telephone system. Click here to view our packages page.

A Service Check is a little something special that we do at On Air for our clients. It’s a monthly phone call that we make to ensure your IVR or message on hold is working properly. We call, ask to be put on hold and listen to the message playing. If there’s an issue; volume is too low, too high; sounds distorted; or there is silence, we will contact you right away and walk you through the process of getting your on hold up and running as quickly as possible.

You will often hear the creative writers at On Air refer to your on hold message as the “script”. This is your on hold message in its entirety. (See below for more details)

A prompt is a paragraph that focuses on one or two things you’d like to talk about in your message. For instance, the first prompt will have your address and hours of operation. If you have 10 prompts, in its entirety, we refer to it as your script.

Not sure what to say? No problem! On Air provides in house professional writers who will work with you to make your MOH professional, informative, and sometimes even funny! A script never goes into production until you have approved it.

The producers at On Air wouldn’t choose a soft female read for a construction site, just like we wouldn’t choose a hard sell male voice read for a relaxing spa. At On Air, we work with our voice talent bank on a regular basis and know which voice is best for which on hold message. The professional voice announcers at On Air are engaging, versatile and multilingual. From soft touch to hard sell; funny or serious, On Air can guide you to choosing a male, female talent or both to read your on hold message.

On Air has thousands of hours of licensed music, in a myriad of styles from classical to hard rock. If you are in the market for a little music on hold you can even hear a few of our samples, you pick, we’ll play. Click here.

Send your jingle to us in any format and On Air will seamlessly incorporate your company jingle, sound signature or even your radio ads into your MOH.

Whether you’re one location, or a one hundred location company, On Air provides tailor made on hold, industry specific MOH, anywhere in North America. It’s called multi location programming; Click here for a quote and to see which other multi location clients we work with!

We live in a digital age, so your website is one of your most effective sales tools, and websites are easier to memorize than phone numbers. By mentioning your web address just a few times in your on hold message, you can increase awareness, and offer your client another way to find out more about you.

Of course! On Air offers multi language on hold messages and IVR (Phone Tree)

• Need an IVR voice over in Punjabi?
• Your power point presentation translated into Chinese?
• How about some website audio in German?

You request, and we create, it’s that simple! Precise translations, the best in international voice talent and high end audio will make sure your company can communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime in the world. Click here to hear our multi language demo

On Air provides high tech players to deliver and play your message on hold in different digital formats depending on the compatibility with your phone system. Click here to view our players.

If your caller hears beeps, bells or some other tone while on hold, this indicates that you have the MOH compatible feature but it has not been programmed. A local telephone service provider can come in and program your system's M.O.H. port and at the same time install a message on hold system. If callers hear only silence when on hold and you’re not sure if you have an MOH capable phone system, you will need to go and look where you have your phone system's main central unit housed. You should be able to see a box or "punch down blocks" with visible wires. Names that you can look for on the box include Norstar, Nortel, Meridian, Mitel, NEC, Panasonic and Toshiba.

If you can’t identify any kind of phone system on your premises you may have Plain Old Telephone Service ("POTS"), also referred to as analog. Some phone systems to look for are GE, Radioshack, Sony and Phonemate . These phones were likely purchased at office supply or electronics stores and have no more than 4 lines. Although your handsets may have a hold button if you do not have a central system or "punch down blocks" located in your phone room, unfortunately you do not have a compatible phone system for MOH.

Still not sure if your system is compatible with message on hold? Give us a call (Toll Free 1-888 88ONAIR) or contact us and let us know which system you currently own, and we can guide you from there!