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Something is sometimes better than nothing, but not always. Take the case of free hold music, or any kind of free onhold messaging your company or organization might be considering. Sure, its fair to say that, in theory, its far better to have something playing for your callers who are on hold ” some kind of music, or verbal message, or combination of the two. Almost anything but dead silence. No question. Statistics and common sense back this up.

Its easy to imagine exceptions to this generality, however. For example, if the quality of your audio is bad it can project an unprofessional, even fly-by-night image. As organizations with unprofessional, low-quality onhold messaging or music become more rare, the detrimental imaging suffered by those who have not yet modernized their callers onhold experience becomes potentially that much greater. I know that when I find myself on hold nowadays and subjected to bad audio, and/or cheesy music, and/or poorly written announcements, the experience seems anachronistic, and, even more comical than it used to twenty or thirty years ago! (Search for worst hold music ever at YouTube for a humorous response to one particularly egregious example of cheesy hold music.)

True, you might save a few bucks on the front end by doing your on hold music or message on the cheap, but as with all of your other marketing and imaging tools, you get what you pay for. Especially in an economy like this one, when it comes to your ability to compete and survive, your image really is everything, and your image is potentially threatened by any weak links in the chain. Bottom line, if you do decide to find some source of free music to play on hold, or to write and produce your own on hold messages, you had better be prepared to put the time, effort, and energy into the research and education necessary to ensure that you are not shooting yourself in the foot.

A better, more cost-effective option might be to avail yourself of a service who specializes in on hold music and messaging and who has the expertise and experience to deal with technical and equipment issues, writing and production, and regularly scheduled refreshing and updating of your messages, as well as covering all legal and copyright infringement bases.

Don’t underestimate the importance of quality hold music and messaging. It could be the difference between sales and just leads.

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