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Service Untitled has a great post titled "Thank you for calling. Please hold." which offers some tips to avoid the "Please Hold" answer.  Here's a condensed version of his post.  Read his entire post here...

Have more receptionists- The easiest way to avoid the “Please hold” answer is to have more receptionists.

What are the questions? - see if you can make an “information only” extension in your PBX system that gives directions, states offices hours, etc.

Have others pitch in - If the phones get busy at completely random times, make other people pitch in and help answer the phone.

Don’t be afraid of voicemail - Just state in the recording that if you aren’t available during normal business hours, it means that there is no one available to take your call and that you will call them back within 2 business hours.

Apologize - (enough said)

Have a hold queue. You can also have a wait queue.