In order to have music and messaging playing on one’s telephone system, the telephone system must have the parts and circuits to support message-on-hold.   The telephone industry refers to this feature as “MOH”.  Usually MOH support is found when the telephones are part of a “telephone system”…meaning that there is a central “brain” …or KSU (for Key Service Unit).

What is a KSU?

A KSU is a box about the size of a briefcase, usually hanging on the wall in a room with the routers, servers, telephone wires, water heater or even in a closet.  KSU stands for Key Service Unit.  It’ll say the name of the telephone system on the KSU. (e.g.: Avaya, Panasonic, etc)  The KSU is where all the telephone lines are connected.  The job of the KSU is to provide support for the many features we enjoy in today’s telephone system such as multi-line use, intercom, hold, paging, as well as input capabilities for background music and messages-on-hold.  The KSU is also the device that monitors which lines are on hold and makes sure the On Hold audio is only heard on those lines that are On Hold.

If you can locate the KSU, now it’s necessary to verify that it supports MOH.  This can be determined from the owner’s manual or by calling the local telephone dealer that services your KSU.  Some KSU’s have a music-ready jack on the outside, others have them hidden, and still others need to have the jack installed by a qualified telephone technician for a fee.

If there is no KSU to be found, the phones probably operate without a KSU.  This is known as a KSU-less phone system.  These systems have plenty of great features; however they do not support MOH.  (KSU-less phones are made by companies including AT&T, GE, Panasonic, RCA and others.)

Or, it is possible that you have subscribed to a “cloud based” or “hosted” service, whereby the operating software running your phones is off-site at a service provider or carrier site.   In this case, we would need to know the name of your provider and a contact phone number of your sales or technical rep.  

In any case, it’s always fine to call us with the make and model number of your telephone system and we’ll do the research for you.

Today I was asked how the newer VoIP telephone systems made a difference in the way we help businesses and practices with messages On Hold.  It’s a good question and because we’re receiving more and more calls about service for VoIP, we dedicate significant on-going training and study to keeping up with this and other emerging telephone system technologies.

The short answer is that VoIP technology doesn’t hinder us at all.  Increasingly, VoIP telephone systems have the traditional built-in “music-in” jack where an external digital On Hold player can be plugged in.  In other cases, the customer has access to a web-based GUI (Graphical User Interface) that allows them to upload On Hold files.  Both technologies allow the end user to make changes to their On Hold message at their convenience.

Then, there are many VoIP customers that simply want us to e-mail their On Hold production to them as a .wav sound file.  This type of system can introduce the need to have I.T. staff involved in loading the sound file to the server as well as variables as to the way the server “manages the sound file”. 

Here’s what we mean by “manages the sound file”…

It's preferable for the server to play the audio file in a continuous loop so that callers hear a different message every time they're placed On Hold, but not all systems allow this, instead causing the audio file to play from the beginning every time.  Even then, there are often work-arounds we can suggest. Playing the On Hold message from the beginning for every On Hold call means the caller hears that 1st message every time they go On Hold.  The other messages, 2 through 10, may never be heard depending on the hold time. A short chat with the I.T. staff usually gives us the information we need to design a production that enhances the callers experience with varied messages.

What makes us the right choice for VoIP systems?  As a marketing company (that just happens to have two digital audio workstations and music libraries in-house) our main focus is creating productions that deliver an enhanced customer or patient On Hold experience.  The technology is simply how it happens.