Give callers something useful to hear while they wait
Replace silence with clear on-hold messages and music that sound right for your business.
Why use Chrome On-Hold Marketing?
Chrome can help plan the content, arrange the recording and add it to your business phone system.
Use your on-hold messages to share opening hours, answer common questions and tell callers about services that may help them, rather than leaving them listening to silence or a ring tone.
Helpful information
Give callers useful details while they wait or are transferred.
The right sound
Choose a voice, pace and on hold music style that suits your customers.
Easy to update
Replace messages when your opening hours, services or priorities change.
What do callers hear when you put them on hold?
Silence can leave people wondering whether the call has ended, or worse, whether they have been cut off.
A short recording reassures them that they are still connected. It can also give them information that may help before someone answers, which turns waiting time into something more useful than dead air.
The message should be useful. It should not feel like a long advert the caller cannot avoid. Short sentences, relevant information and natural language usually work best.
Chrome will help you decide what is worth including and what is better left out.
What can your messages include?
Remind callers when departments are open and explain what happens outside those times. You can also add temporary messages for bank holidays, Christmas or company events.
Other ways to get help
Tell callers when they can complete a task online, send an email or use a customer portal. This may help with simple requests that do not need a telephone conversation.
Answers to common questions
Share short answers to questions your team receives regularly. More involved information is usually better handled by a person or a website page.
Products and services
A caller may know your business for one service but be unaware of another that could help them. Keep these messages brief and relevant to the people listening.
Company updates
Share useful changes such as a new location, revised opening hours or an upcoming event. Time-sensitive recordings should be removed when the information is no longer current.
Use the same voice across your phone system
Recorded audio can help at several points in the call.
Welcome greetings let callers know they have reached the right business. Call-menu prompts explain the available options and help people choose the correct department, and short menus manage best. Queue messages reassure callers that they are still connected and explain other ways to contact you. Out-of-hours messages tell people when you will reopen and what to do if their enquiry cannot wait. Voicemail greetings, whether a general business voicemail greeting or a professional voicemail greeting written for a specific person, explain what the caller should leave and when to expect a response.
Using the same voice and wording across these recordings gives callers a more consistent experience. The features themselves, call menus, queues and routing, are covered in full on our phone system features page.
Welcome greetings
The first thing a caller hears when they reach your business.
Menu options
Clear prompts that send people to the right department first time.
On-hold messages
Useful information while a caller waits or is transferred.
Out-of-hours messages
Tell callers when you are open and what to do in the meantime.
Messages written to be heard
Website copy and spoken messages are not the same.
Long sentences are harder to follow over the telephone, and the message needs to make sense even when someone joins partway through.
We’ll help keep the wording short and easy to understand, useful to the person waiting, consistent with the way your business speaks, free from unnecessary technical language, suitable for the time callers usually wait, and easy to change later.
The aim is to help the caller, not fill every available second.
Choose a voice and music style
The voice should suit your customers and the information being shared.
Some businesses prefer a warm, conversational delivery. Others need something calmer or more formal.
Music also changes how the recording feels. On hold music should sit behind the message without making the words difficult to hear.
We’ll explain the available options and help you choose a combination that feels natural for your business.
Keep your messages up to date
An old recording can confuse callers and create more work for your team.
Review your messages when you change your opening hours, add or remove a service, open another location, run a time-limited promotion, change how customers contact you, or update your phone menus.
Someone within the business should be responsible for checking the content regularly. Chrome can help replace recordings when the information changes.
On-hold marketing and ChromeX
On-hold messages work best as part of a phone setup that has been planned around the caller.
Welcome greetings, call menus, queues, opening hours, call routes, out-of-hours messages and voicemail all sit within your wider ChromeX setup, covered in full on our phone system features page. Chrome can review the full call experience, rather than looking at one recording on its own.
This gives you one team to call when your messages or phone setup need attention.
How the recording process works
Good on-hold audio starts with knowing who calls your business and why. This is how we work through it with you.
We understand the call
We prepare the script
The recording is produced
We help put it in place
On-hold messages that callers actually notice
Customer reviews are one of the clearest measures of the service we provide.
Read what customers say about Chrome’s communication, support and the people behind the service in our reviews.
On-hold marketing FAQs
Common questions about on-hold marketing: what it is, how long a recording should be, and whether messages can be changed later.
What is on-hold marketing?
On-hold marketing uses recorded speech and music while someone waits or is transferred. Messages can include opening hours, useful information, contact options and details about relevant services.
Is on-hold advertising the only use for it?
No. Good recordings often focus on helping the caller first. Promotional content can be included, but it should stay short and relevant rather than turning into a long advert.
How long should a recording be?
There is no single length that suits every business. It depends on how long callers usually wait, how many messages are needed and where the recording will be used.
Can we choose the voice and music?
The available choices depend on the service agreed. We’ll talk you through the options before the recording is produced.
Can messages be changed later?
Yes, subject to the agreed service. Recordings should be reviewed when opening hours, services or other important information change.
Will it work with our current phone system?
That depends on the system and how calls are managed. Chrome can check your setup and explain what is possible before recommending any changes.
Make every part of the call feel considered
The time someone spends waiting is still part of their experience with your business.
Chrome can help you plan clear on-hold messages, choose the right sound and add the finished recordings to your phone system.