On Hold Company Finds Asterisk-Based VoIP Platforms the Key to On-Hold Loop Issues

The everyday customer service experience has helped customers become accustomed to hearing on-hold music and repetitive ads during wait-time for a live agent. But a lot of hard work and effort goes into creating an effective ad loop, as evidenced by On Hold Company’s newest solution.

A Shreveport, La.-based provider of on-hold campaigns, On Hold Company has built an innovative solution for delivering on-hold messages in a loop on Asterisk (News - Alert)-based VoIP telephone systems.

While traditional on-hold messages are played in a loop so that callers entering the rotation have more of a chance of hearing different ads, On Hold Company observed a loophole still existed in its newly installed VoIP system: Callers were still hearing the message start from the beginning after being transferred or from the exact some point they left when placed on hold by an auto attendant or customer service representative.

The resolution was soon found in Asterisk-based VoIP platforms, which boast the ability to play music on hold, whether it’s .wav or .mps files, or even .mp3 streams.

“To get this working, we simply hooked up a Barix Instreamer 100 to one of our on-hold players and connected the Instreamer to our LAN,” On Hold Company CEO Bryant Wilson explained in a statement. “Then we created a new music source in Elastix (News - Alert) and input the address of the stream from the Instreamer and, voila, looping music on hold.”

This solution, according to Wilson, is certainly a reflection of an ongoing industry trend.

“There’s no doubt that today’s greatest telecommunications buzz word is ‘VoIP,’” said Wilson. “Every in-the-know business either has made or is considering the jump to VoIP for its telephony needs.”

As indicated by On Hold Company’s problem-solving with the new solution, the company is used to providing this type of service to its customers daily, and has done so in the form of on-hold marketing services for more than 10,000 businesses throughout North America.

“This is just one example of the creative solutions our team delivers daily at On Hold Company,” said Wilson.

Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet web editor. She covers a wide range of topics, including IP communications and information technology. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell