Cell phones rarely provide on hold messaging as clear to the listener as do landline phones.  It all has to do with the fact that signals heading to a cell phone are compressed at some point in their traverse of the ether and then decompressed when they get to the cell phone.  The compression and decompression affects the clarity of the signal, more often than not distorting it just enough that the person listening on his cell phone wonders why the on hold messaging is scratchy, laced with static, or just plain difficult to hear.  It is very likely not the fault of the On Hold Messaging announcer, the unit that plays the on hold messages, but the fault of the technology that allows us to communicate by cell phone.

"I'm sure glad you put me on hold to hear your on hold messaging.  I learned that you can take care of a problem that has been bugging me for far too long."  How would you like to have a caller tell you that when you return to his or her call?  Or what if he says, "I was planning to call Brand X as soon as I hung up talking with you, but your on hold messaging reminded me that you have the product for which I was going to call Brand X."  How does that sound after the umpteenth call of the day?  Just as you were ready to toss in the towel? Use On Hold Messaging to remind people of things they may have forgotten or even those things that they never knew about your produts and services,

On Hold Messaging may just be what you need to encourage an existing client to purchase more goods and services from you rather than clicking on the web site of Brand X.  Is it not so that it is far easier to expand service offerings to existing customers than it is to find brand new customers and get them to purchase?  Make it easier for your sales force and easier for your existing customers by telling customers who are on hold about products and services that they may not know you provide or about which they may have forgotten.

Be sure to direct callers on hold to your web site.  Use on hold messaging to do that.  The caller may well go to your web site while on hold.  When you return to the line you will probably be asked a question about something the caller saw on the web site or heard while s/he was on hold.  Wouldn’t it be rewarding to have the caller tell you, “I’m glad I learned about your service while I was on hold.  I was planning to call Brand X as soon as I was finished with this call to you.”