Configure hold audio and queue greetings

The Queue Experience tab controls what callers hear while they wait in any of this number’s queues — silence, music, or a ring tone — and the greeting that plays when the agent first connects.

Before you start

• At least one call queue set up. The queue experience settings apply to all queues on the phone number.
• (Optional) An audio file ready to upload if you want custom hold music. MP3 is the typical format.

Steps

Set the hold audio

1. Open Settings → Voice.
2. Select your phone number in the sidebar, then go to the Queue Experience tab.
3. Under Hold Audio, pick a mode:
   Silence — no audio. Callers hear nothing while they wait.
   Music — Atender’s default hold music, or a custom track you upload.
   Ringing — a continuous ringing tone, as if the call were still trying to connect.
4. If you picked Music, choose between the default track and uploading your own. To upload, click the audio upload field and pick an MP3.
5. Save.

Configure the customer-first greeting

The customer-first greeting plays once an agent answers, before they speak. It’s the “Hi, thanks for waiting — connecting you now” moment.

1. On the same Queue Experience tab, find the Customer-first greeting section.
2. Enable it.
3. Pick how the greeting is generated:
   Text-to-speech — type the message, and Atender speaks it in the configured voice. See Configure TTS voices for the voice selection.
   Audio file — upload a pre-recorded greeting if you want a specific voice or tone.
4. (Optional) Configure the trigger — by queue position, by wait time, or both. The greeting plays when the customer has hit the threshold.
5. Save.

Verify it worked

Dial your number, walk through the IVR to the queue, and listen:

• The hold mode you picked should play immediately on entering the queue.
• When an agent picks up, the customer-first greeting should play before the agent speaks.

When to use what

• Silence — Internal helpdesks where short waits are expected and silence is fine.
• Music — Most consumer support lines. Reduces hang-ups versus silence.
• Ringing — When you want callers to feel like they’re still actively connecting, not parked. Effective for very short waits; uncomfortable for long ones.
• TTS customer-first greeting — When you change the message often or want it in multiple languages from a single configuration.
• Audio file customer-first greeting — When you want a specific brand voice or a professionally recorded greeting.

Troubleshooting

• Symptom: Hold music plays at the wrong volume, or sounds distorted. Fix: Telephony compresses audio heavily. Re-export the source MP3 at a lower bitrate (96–128 kbps) and re-upload. Mastered-for-music files often clip in the telephony pipeline.

• Symptom: Customer-first greeting plays for the agent, not the customer. Fix: The greeting is meant for the customer side only. If the agent hears it, check that the connection mode is set correctly. Reach out to support if it persists.

• Symptom: TTS voice on the greeting doesn’t match the language of the caller. Fix: The customer-first greeting uses the channel’s TTS voice configuration, not per-caller language. See Configure TTS voices for setting language-specific voices.

See also

• Set up a call queue
• Configure TTS voices
• Configure callback