MOH, AA, OGM – The Three Telephony Musketeers!
MOH, AA, OGM – three completely different features, but often thought to be the same thing by most business phone users!
So who are these three musketeers? Let’s find out and get a better understanding. If you are already using a basic plain vanilla phone system then you will have at some point wished that your phone system would sound more professional when handling calls.
«We don’t have a professional recording answering our calls, no music playing when we hold the line and ask callers to wait in queue.»
«Our phone system just rings all the phones till we pick up and that’s it!! Nothing else.»
Well your system has neither MOH, nor AA nor OGM. You may need at least one or all of them.
You need to know what each of these musketeers do, in order to separate your wants from your needs!
Just like any other White Box sold to you, there are options and add-ons which cost extra.
A plain vanilla phone system will merely work to switch all your multi-lines to each phone in your office so that you answer calls coming in on any line, and make calls from any free line.
Here comes our first musketeer
MOH
MOH or Music On Hold, as the term indicates is any music source that is connected to the PBX so that it plays music when the caller is kept on hold.
Most PBX systems do have a Headphone/Bix port allow a radio, stereo or MP3 or CD player to be connected and feed continuous music or audio.
Depending on the location of your PBX system, a radio may not be a great choice if the reception is no good. There will be noise and static and you will need to keep fine tuning and changing the position of the antenna.
A stereo/mp3/cd player provides clearer audio and is generally a better choice. Ensure that the CD/ MP3 is in repeat mode for continuous playback.
But beware… it is illegal to play pre-recorded music, and radio due to copyright laws. And you may be liable depending on how much you are worth to a prospective plaintiff !!
There are commercial MOH devices made for professional PBX use. An example would be the On-Hold Plus, and my all time favorite is the OHP7000. It has licensed pre-recorded audio which sounds really professional and they offer to add your company name for free.
There are professional outfits that will record customized on hold music for you. And update it every week or month with all your specials!
So the MOH is just that, it is audio that will continuously play when your callers are kept on hold. They are not in a queue, please note, they are simply on hold and you will have to get back to them by picking up that Line that is flashing on your phone!
Our Second Musketeer
AA – Auto Attendant
Most phone systems have an add-on module which may be installed in the PBX control unit , or connected separately. This add-on is commonly known as the Voice Processing System or Voice-mail System.
The Voice Processing System provides AA Greetings, Custom Menus to route calls to different extensions or departments, and individual mailboxes for each user.
All your company greetings, custom menus, mailbox greetings, voice-mails are stored in this system.
For example: «Thank you for calling Metro Communications, if you know the extension number of the person you would like to reach, please enter it at any time. For Sales press 2. For Service press3. For our Company Information press 8. For our Staff Directory press 9. Press 0 or stay on the line for immediate assistance.»
When callers press 8 or 9 they will be routed to another greeting that plays the relevant information.
AA simply means Automatic Reception i.e. No Live Operator. All calls are answered by the AA Greetings and based on the menu, calls can be routed effectively without the need for a live operator.
Now please note that your Music On hold device is not doing AA. Sometimes MOH is a professional customized recording, and may have a same voice over, but that does not mean that the AA device works as the MOH device.
You will need both these musketeers to have a good professional phone system that handles calls and puts callers on hold professionally.
The third musketeer: OGM
OGM or Out Going Message
OGMs are recorded on another option card, that is needed to setup a call queue for a group of phones. So if you are not completely satisfied with the MOH and the AA upgrades, and you still need to avoid putting callers on hold manually, then you should consider throwing in another hardware upgrade which has call queuing functionality.
This is how it will work…
Calls get answered by the AA, and gets transferred to your customer service department. Now if all your agents in the group are busy, then the caller hears the OGM 1 message » please hold , all our agents are currently busy attending other customers, you may wish to stay on the line or press 1 to leave a message»,
followed by the MOH or music-on-hold, for a specified time interval
after which you will hear another OGM 2 message «thank you for your patience, your call is really very important to us. Please stay on the line»
follow by the MOH , then again OGM1. This sequence can be made to continue till an agent is available and you will be put through to that agent.
A MOH with a customized marketing message, and the AA are all you need.
In fact, Clients often realize that what they want is maybe just the MOH, they dont need the AA or the Call Queuing OGM card. And if they see the light, then that is money saved!
Unfortunately, some misled customers do end up buying the complete bundle without being explained what is what ! And learn this the hard way.
Fortunately, most IP PBX phone systems have all these three hardware components already included at no extra charge. Now that’s value!
That’s the story of the three telecom musketeers!