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Call Queues: Intro Prompts and Music on Hold

telis

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In 3CX call queues the "Play Intro Prompt" feature mixes in the "Music on Hold" at a low volume so that the caller hears the hold music under the Intro Prompt. This is a nice feature but in some use cases it would be good if it could be disabled.

Many customers actually want a ringing or "Progress Tone" rather than music in a queue and this does not sound good in the background the Intro Prompt.

You can't even create wav files with silence at the beginning to use as the Music on Hold since the recording loops.

(As an aside it would also be good if the Progress Tones all regions were included in the 3CX install).
 
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I've been keeping a list of all the Consumer to Business calls I make (I'm in the UK) and whether they use hold music or ringback in queues. My customer is not unusual in requesting ringback instead of hold music.


Ringback


Direct Line
Barclays
Zen Internet
Vodafone


Hold Music

Virgin Broadband
Nationwide (Mortgage)
 
What do customers do who need to tell their callers that calls are recorded with out having the MOH playing in the back ground?
 
The only work around I have found is to not use the MOH feature at all and then use audacity to add a ringback tone after the greeting/"Play Intro Prompt". You need to make the added ringback last until at the end of the queue time.

Horrible hack.

Of course if you do this you then lose the ability to ensure the whole of the intro prompt is played before the call alerts, meaning anything you need the caller here for regulatory reasons, such as that their call may be recorded, can't be guaranteed to have been heard by the caller.
 
The only work around I have found is to not use the MOH feature at all and then use audacity to add a ringback tone after the greeting/"Play Intro Prompt". You need to make the added ringback last until at the end of the queue time.

Horrible hack.

Of course if you do this you then lose the ability to ensure the whole of the intro prompt is played before the call alerts, meaning anything you need the caller here for regulatory reasons, such as that their call may be recorded, can't be guaranteed to have been heard by the caller.
Thanks for this. I considered this but as you say for regulatory reasons we need to ensure the whole message is heard.

I've tried using digital receptionist and then a call queue but this then transfers and played our other MHO options!
 
What do customers do who need to tell their callers that calls are recorded with out having the MOH playing in the back ground?

We use an IVR ("digital receptionist") with no options and a timeout of 1 second to play the intro message. After that timeout, it goes to a queue with no message.
 
Any update in this, this function is requested in more then 1 idea but still not implented.
It should be so simple to do this.
 
We use an IVR ("digital receptionist") with no options and a timeout of 1 second to play the intro message. After that timeout, it goes to a queue with no message.
Thanks for your reply. Does the transfer to the queue then use the ring tone wav setup within the queue?
 
Thanks for your reply. Does the transfer to the queue then use the ring tone wav setup within the queue?
Sorry for the delay! If I understand you correctly, yes. The IVR plays, then waits one second, then transfers to the queue, which starts playing, in our case, the queue's hold music. The customer hears: "Thank you for calling blah blah calls may be recorded etc.", then a beep (I replaced the "Please hold while I transfer your call" sound file), then the queue's hold music.
 
The digital receptionist work around does not work very well for me. When I try I get:-

1. The DR greeting message without anything playing in the background. Hurray!
2. A 1 second silent pause whilst the DR waits for an input.
3. A 0.5 second pause for the 0.5 second silent wav I have replaced thr "please wait while we transfer your call message" from the prompt set, which is annoying in itself.
4. A 1 second blast of hold music from the system that I cannot get rid of (WTF?)
5. Another inexplicable pause of a second of two.
6. The ringback tone I have set as the hold music for the queue, with an initial quiet period before the volume ramps up.

In short it's a complete dogs breakfast.
 
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The digital receptionist work around does not work very well for me. When I try I get:-

1. The DR greeting message without anything playing in the background. Hurray!
2. A 1 second silent pause whilst the DR waits for an input.
3. A 0.5 second pause for the 0.5 second silent wav I have replaced thr "please wait while we transfer your call message" from the prompt set, which is annoying in itself.
4. A 1 second blast of hold music from the system that I cannot get rid of (WTF?)
5. Another inexplicable pause of a second of two.
6. The ringback tone I have set as the hold music for the queue, with an initial quiet period before the volume ramps up.

In short it's a complete dogs breakfast.

There is indeed a bit of delay while the call is moved from the IVR to the queue. This hasn't been a huge deal for us, as far as I'm aware, but I can see it being problematic. I don't know what to do about it, though.

About number 4, I've been thinking about adding a second or two of silence to the beginning of each MoH track in order to prevent that silly, silly blip of music. It would also be nice if we could just transfer in silence, dangit.
 
Has anyone found a better work around or a full solution for this? I have just occurred a 3CX solution from a wholesaler and so far it is not living up to the dream. We have issues with the transferring taking 1-1.5seconds even with the silence. The on hold music playing in the background of the prompt which is "your call will be recorded for training...etc". I don't think a phone system should have to take 4 different IVR/Queues just to have a required prompt and transfer in silence feature enabled.....
 
Sadly I at least haven't come up with a better workaround.

3CX has all the nice extra features but suffers from some poor execution of the basics.
 
Thanks, lets hope they add these basic features in a new update....
 
Elsewhere on the forum, we are told that this behavior is normal. I've never experienced hold music playing underneath a prompt... ever. Well, until 3CX.
 
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What do customers do who need to tell their callers that calls are recorded with out having the MOH playing in the back ground?
This announcement should be given in the greeting...to ensure that all callers her it. That's the way we do it for our clients when we create professional greetings and prompts.
 
Elsewhere on the forum, we are told that this behavior is normal. I've never experienced hold music playing underneath a prompt... ever. Well, until 3CX.
In many cases, for many large enterprise, you call, you reach an ivr.. then queue with MOH, and then just before someone become available to take your call, you hear the progress tone. which sound nice.
 
+1 for this. There should be an option to allow message to play before going to MOH.

I would also like see the option to play the intro message before offering the call to agents.
 

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