Hold This
877-HOLD-THIS (465-3844)
www.ephoneman.com

Customers calling a company with two or more phone lines spend an average of one minute "on hold." If greeted with silence, callers often hang up, but piping in music from the radio is illegal unless fees are paid, and businesses may be fined thousands of dollars. Hold This has studios and offices in San Diego and produces custom-tailored messages, voice-mail systems, and recording/playback equipment. Hold This can assist you with everything from basic scriptwriting through installation of entire systems. The monthly plan costs $87.95 for 12 greetings per year, whenever and however you want them, with a minimum commitment of one year's worth of service. For $162.95 per quarter, businesses receive four greetings per year, updated whenever you choose. A single one-time message is $216.95, with no strings or contracts attached, and the one-time charge for the required digital message player is $339.95. Voice prompts such as "Please hold while we try that extension," or "You have made an invalid entry, please try again" cost $60 per minute of finished copy, with a three-minute minimum charge. Other services include web audio content in WAV and MPEG formats and voice-overs for radio and TV commercials.