MOH, AA, GMO – The three musketeers of telephony!

MOH, AA, OGM – three completely different features, but most business phone users often think they are the same thing!

So who are these three musketeers? Let’s find out and understand better. If you’re already using a simple, basic phone system, at some point you may have wanted your phone system to sound more professional when handling calls.

“We don’t have professional recording answering our calls, no music playing when we queue and asking callers to wait in line.”

“Our phone system just rings all the phones until we answer and that’s it! Nothing more.”

Well, their system is MOH-free, AA-free, and GMO-free. You may need at least one or all of them.

You need to know what each of these Musketeers does to separate your wants from your needs!

Just like any other white box sold to you, there are options and add-ons that cost extra.

A simple phone system will simply work to switch all your multiple lines to every phone in your office so you can answer incoming calls on any line and make calls from any free line.

Here comes our first musketeer

medical officer

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 have a headset/Bix port that allows you to connect a radio, stereo, MP3 or CD player and stream music or audio.

Depending on the location of your PBX system, a radio may not be a good choice if reception is poor. There will be noise and static and you will need to keep adjusting and changing the position of the antenna.

A stereo/mp3/cd player provides clearer audio and is generally a better choice. Make sure 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 potential 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. They have licensed pre-recorded audio that sounds really professional and they offer to add your company name for free.

There are professional teams that will record personalized hold music for you. And update it every week or month with all your special offers!

So the MOH is just that, it is audio that will play continuously when callers are on hold. They are not in a queue, please note that they are simply on hold and you will need to call them back by picking up the flashing line on your phone.

our second musketeer

AA – Auto Attendant

Most phone systems have an add-on module that can be installed in the PBX control unit or connected separately. This plugin is commonly known as Voice Processing System or Voicemail System.

The voice processing system provides AA greetings, personalized menus to route calls to different extensions or departments, and individual mailboxes for each user.

All your company greetings, personalized menus, mailbox greetings, voicemails are stored in this system.

For example: “Thank you for calling Metro Communications, if you know the extension number of the person you want to reach, please enter it at any time. For Sales, press 2. For Service, press 3. 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 stands for Auto Receive, meaning no live operator. All calls are answered by AA Greetings, and depending on the menu, calls can be effectively routed without the need for a live operator.

Now note that your music on hold device is not doing AA. Sometimes the MOH is a custom professional recording and may have the same voiceover, but that doesn’t mean the AA device works like the MOH device.

You will need these two musketeers to have a good professional phone system that handles calls and puts callers on hold in a professional manner.

The Third Musketeer: GMO

GMO or outgoing message

OGMs are recorded on another optional card, which is needed to set up a call queue for a group of phones. So if you are not completely satisfied with the MOH and AA updates, and still need to avoid putting callers on hold manually, then you should consider adding another hardware update that has the call queue feature.

This is how it will work…

The AA answers the calls and transfers them to their customer service department. Now if all of your agents in the group are busy, the caller hears OGM 1 “please wait, all of our agents are currently busy servicing other customers, you may want 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 through the MOH, then again OGM1. This sequence can be made to continue until an agent becomes available and you will be connected to that agent.

An MOH with a personalized marketing message and the AA are all you need.

In fact, customers often find that what they want is perhaps just the MOH, they don’t need the AA or Call Queuing OGM card. And if they see the light, that’s money saved!

Unfortunately, some misled customers end up buying the entire package without being told what’s what. And learn this the hard way.

Fortunately, most IP PBX phone systems have all three of these hardware components already included at no additional charge. Now that is value!

That is the story of the three musketeers of telecommunications!