For businesses in Connecticut Message on hold equipment makes it possible to play the informative marketing messages that reach your best prospects: everyone who calls you. But do you really need this equipment? Will it work with your phones? What’s the easiest way to start using on hold messages?
Connecticut Message on hold equipment options
Buying equipment is the easiest part of using on hold advertising. With just a few clicks you can spend your money. No brains required.
But hold on for a moment. Before you even think about purchasing an on hold system to play your messages, you’ve got to consider your phone system.
What kind of phones do you have?
There are lots of types of phones: you might have a 3- or 4-line phone from a big box store like the Staples in Stamford, CT, or from Best Buy in Norwalk, Connecticut. These phones have convenient features and are cheap. But they’re not “business phone systems” and they won’t play telephone on hold messages. Sure, there are adaptors you can try (the biggest name in the industry is Skutch) but we’ve never had much luck with them.
Traditional PBX phone systems were the first to make music on hold (or on hold messages) easy to install. If you have a PBX…even a 25 year old phone system…you’ve got a good chance. PBX systems have a “box on the wall,” usually hidden in a closet or back room. You’ll usually find them surrounded by lots of wires, and probably other electronic equipment (modems, alarm systems, etc.).
Today, lots of Connecticut businesses are moving to hosted telephone service or VoIP service. These let you have the features of a real business phone system, like Music on hold (MOH) ability, without having to invest in a whole phone system. You just pay a monthly fee for each phone in your office. They actually play your telephone hold messages “in the cloud” so don’t bother buying an on hold player. You don’t need one.
If you’re in Connecticut Message on hold equipment is easy
You’ll need a player for your PBX phone system. They plug into a special “jack” on the system that’s the “input” for your phone message recording.
On hold systems keep evolving with the times: gone are the days of “tape cartridges,” “cassettes,” and “CD’s.” All of them had moving parts, so they wore out quickly. Today’s technology usually plays a files and has no moving parts. They’re all high quality, and last for years. The best known brands are Intellitouch and Nel Tech. They’re very similar. We choose Nel Tech because we like to reliability, and because they’re “Made in the USA.”
Connecticut Message on hold equipment can be free
About 50% of business phone systems are PBX, and will need an on hold system to play your marketing messages. The other 50% are either “big box” phones (that can’t take recordings on hold) or are VoIP/Hosted systems (that play your messages in the cloud).
When you’re considering on hold advertising, some suppliers try to sell you an expensive digital player. The Informer, here in Connecticut, doesn’t: with any of our full service options, we supply a Nel Tech Messager (now made by Pica) for free. We also offer “one time recordings” and offer the optional purchase of a Messager player.
Other phone system options in Connecticut that use message on hold equipment
There are new systems, such as Xblue, AT&T’s SynJ, and VTech (some of their models) are designed to be able to play messages on hold with an on hold player, but they can be tricky, so call us to discuss.
Deciding about Message on hold equipment in Connecticut is easy.
Call The Informer and let’s talk about your phones. We’ll help you understand what you can do with them, and if you can use marketing messages on hold. Our headquarters is local to Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, New Canaan, Norwalk and Bridgeport clients, but we work with businesses in Hartford, Danbury, throughout Connecticut and Nationwide. Call us for a free 15-Minute Discovery session, and we’ll show you how to get started.
In Connecticut call (203) 655-3920. Nationwide call (800) 862-8896.
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