MOH, AA, OGM - The Three Telephony Musketeers!

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