Nobody enjoys being put on hold, but on hold messages decide what happens next: the caller settles in for a minute, or hangs up and dials your competitor. Dead air and default beeps quietly cost businesses calls every single day, and the fix costs less than most companies spend on coffee. Here is how to get your on hold audio right: what to say, which voice to choose, and the music licensing detail that catches businesses out.
Why On Hold Messages Matter
Hold time is the only advertising slot where your audience is guaranteed to be listening, alone, with their phone to their ear. Silence tells them nothing is happening. A looping beep tells them to give up. A well-produced message tells them they are in the right place, their call is moving, and, while they wait, here is something useful about your business. It reassures first and sells second, in that order.
What to Say: Script Templates That Work
Good on hold audio is a rotation of three to five short messages, each around 20 to 30 seconds, mixing reassurance with genuinely useful information. Three templates you can adapt today:
- The reassurance: "Thanks for calling [business]. We know your time matters, and one of the team will be with you shortly. If it is easier, you can also reach us at [website], where most bookings take under a minute."
- The service highlight: "Did you know [business] also offers [service]? Ask the team when we pick up, or find the details at [website]."
- The practical one: "We are open [hours], and you can find directions, parking and everything else you need at [website]."
Write the way you speak, keep each message to one idea, and retire anything seasonal the moment the season ends. And skip the phrase "your call is important to us"; callers have heard it enough times to hear the opposite.
Choosing the Right Voice
The voice on hold is your front-of-house. Calm and warm suits healthcare, finance and professional services; bright and friendly suits retail and hospitality. It should also match the rest of your audio: if your ads and phone menu use one voice and your hold messages another, the brand blurs. Three of our most-booked voices for business phone audio:
Every artist in our voiceover collection has demos you can play before booking, so you can hear your front-of-house before you hire it.
The Music (and the Licensing Trap)
Here is the detail that catches businesses out: playing commercial music to callers on hold is a public performance in most countries, and it generally needs a licence from the local collecting societies. The chart hits playing in your head are not free to play down a phone line. The simple, safe route is a properly licensed royalty free music bed under your messages: one payment, no annual collecting-society paperwork for that audio, and it is mixed to sit under a voice rather than fight it.
How to Order On Hold Messages
The fastest route is our ready-made package: On Hold Messages For Business includes up to 40 words of script, a professional voiceover of your choice, the licence and full post-production, with an instant quote online. Send your scripts (or ask us to polish them; we write phone audio every week), tell us what phone system you use, and your messages arrive produced, mixed with licensed music and formatted for your system, including the mono, telephone-ready file formats most VoIP and PBX platforms expect.
On hold audio is also one piece of a bigger sound. Our business and commercial audio services cover everything from phone systems to radio, TV and online ads, so your brand sounds the same everywhere a customer hears it.
Your hold queue is talking to customers right now. Make sure it is saying something worth hearing.
