What Callers Hear While They Wait Is a Choice — Make It Deliberately

Most UK SMEs have never sat down and chosen what callers hear while they wait. It's whatever the system came with: a tinny loop of generic smooth jazz, a recorded apology from a version of the business that no longer exists, or — more often than anyone admits — plain silence.

That's an odd gap. A caller on hold is one of the few genuinely captive audiences a small firm gets. They've already decided they want to talk to you. Those thirty to ninety seconds either steady their nerves or slowly undo their confidence.

This isn't a music review. It's a small operational and legal question that most SMEs answer by accident.

Silence is a message too

People tolerate waiting far better when they know they haven't been cut off. Dead air does the opposite — it makes a normal queue feel like a dropped call, and a fair few people hang up rather than risk it. A simple, quiet loop with an occasional reassurance message does more work than most firms realise.

It also sets the tone. A crackling loop of unrecognisable lift music says 'we haven't looked at this since 2018'. A clear, calm voice saying 'you're third in the queue, we'll be with you shortly' says something rather better.

The licensing bit, in plain English

Music coming down a phone line to a caller counts as a public performance, not a private listen. In the UK, commercial recorded music needs two separate rights cleared: the composition (PRS for Music) and the recording itself (PPL). PPL PRS Ltd sells a combined licence — TheMusicLicence — that covers both for most business uses.

A few practical points worth knowing:

• Small premises exemptions don't stretch to phone lines. The lighter-touch rules that apply to a tiny shop playing the radio don't automatically cover music played to callers. Treat on-hold audio as its own thing.
• Bundled audio needs its paperwork checked. Many providers include hold music as part of the package. Ask which licence sits behind it and whether it covers an organisation of your size and type. A decent provider will tell you without flinching.
• The office radio near a speakerphone is not a solution. It sounds dreadful, and it isn't licensed for the line either.

If you'd rather avoid the whole question, there are two clean routes: buy music from a library whose licence explicitly covers telephony and business use, or use audio supplied under your provider's own licence. Either is defensible. Guessing isn't.

Royalty-free is not the same as licence-free

Production music libraries are a sensible option for a small firm — you pay once, you get a track, you loop it. But read the licence, not the marketing. Some standard library licences cover video and web use and quietly exclude broadcast or telephony. Others are fine for personal projects only.

What you want in writing is something like: 'licensed for public performance and on-hold telephony use by the purchasing organisation'. If that sentence isn't there, ask. It's a two-minute email that saves an awkward conversation later.

If you're layering your own recorded greeting over a music bed, the bed still needs to be cleared. Recording your own voice doesn't license the track underneath it.

Listen to your own line — properly

The single most useful thing any SME can do this month is ring its own main number from a mobile, put the phone on speaker, and sit through the whole experience as a customer would. Most people who do this find at least one of the following:

• A loop that clicks or jumps audibly at the join
• Volume that's noticeably louder than the person who eventually answers
• A message promising a callback option that no longer exists
• A hold message that runs for three minutes before repeating
• Nothing at all — just a hiss

Record it on your phone while you're at it. It's much easier to be honest about a recording than about a memory.

The words matter as much as the tune

A few things worth saying on a loop, in plain English: the current wait, an alternative route (callback request, email, web chat), and your opening hours. A few things worth avoiding: 'your call is important to us' with no evidence, dated promotions, and voiceovers recorded by someone who has since left.

Keep each message short — under twenty seconds — and space them out. A loop that talks at the caller non-stop is nearly as bad as silence. If your system supports it, offer a callback rather than making people wait; it's kinder, and it frees up the queue.

Also think about clarity. Some callers are hard of hearing, some are calling from a noisy van, and plenty are on a hands-free kit in a car. Slow, clear speech and a clean music bed beat atmospheric production every time.

A short checklist for your next renewal

Run this before you sign a new contract, change provider, or move to a new phone system — it takes about half an hour.

1. Ring your own number and listen end to end. Note the wait before the first message.
2. Confirm what's actually playing: provider-supplied, library track, your own recording, or nothing.
3. Ask for the licence behind it in writing, and check it covers telephony and business use.
4. Check the technical quality: volume, loop point, distortion, dead air.
5. Update the content: opening hours, callback options, current promotions (or none).
6. Write down who owns the audio files and where they live — not on a departed colleague's laptop.
7. Decide who reviews it next and when. Once a year is plenty; never is too often.
8. Note it in your telecoms contract file so the next person doesn't have to guess.

None of this is glamorous. But the voice on hold is often the first human impression a caller gets of your business — and it's the only one you can rehearse. It's worth half an hour and a proper decision.