">
TechMoran
  • About Us
  • Deals
  • Jobs
  • Motoring
    • Money
  • Pitch Your Startup
  • Submit Your Post
  • Freelance Gigs
  • Travel
  • Men’s Corner
  • Dating
Monday, January 18, 2021
  • Startups
  • Reviews
  • Insider
    • Obituaries
  • Business
  • Women
  • Blockchain
  • Columnists
  • Hacks & Facts
    • How To
  • Editions
    • US Edition
    • India Edition
    • MENA Edition
    • Asia Edition
    • Europe Edition
    • International Edition
No Result
View All Result
TechMoran
">
Home Tech

The art and science of on-hold music – let’s face it everyone hates it

Sam Amira by Sam Amira
10 months ago
in Tech
14 min read
0

Silence is golden. Until it’s not.

When you keep your clients on hold at the end of the phone line, silence is anything else but golden. In the business world, silence is the sound of a lost client. The worst-case scenario is a client to call their insurance company or utility services provider and hear silence after the warm greeting message. Thank you for calling ABC Plumbing, our representatives are all on the line with other clients. Someone will be with you shortly. (blank) (silence) (creepy silence). 

Music was created to fill the space. It works like a time killer. It mitigates the unpleasant no-man land of waiting for a friendly voice to pick up the phone and offer help. Or at least this is what it should be. But you can view on-hold music like an opportunity to engage your public. And prevent them from hanging up. Yes, at the start, on-hold music was a way to decrease the perceived waiting time, and get rid of awkward silence, but now companies use it to convey messages and connect with the public. 

Why use on-hold music?

The traditional on-hold music is a flat instrumental track that plays on and on, until the customer gets sick of waiting and ends the call. The stereotypical tunes most companies use sound similar to musical wallpaper played in elevators. Muzak was the first company to cover popular songs using instruments only. Over the years, all workplaces and hotels played background mood music. But people became tired with wallpaper music and it wasn’t long until it faced backlash. 

Even nowadays, hold music still has a negative connotation when companies opt for the same old instrumental tunes. 

Dean Olsher, a New-York based music therapist ,states that hold music can negatively impact mental health because repetitive sounds have similar results to torture. Think about this the next time you visit a Sephora or Starbucks store because they have a short playlist they repeat over and over again. The poor employees. 

READ  Google Acquires Boston Dynamics, the Eighth Robotic Firm to Join its Fold

But only because some companies fail miserably at using on-hold music, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use it. The right tracks can calm people as they wait for one of your representatives to answer the phone. Engaging music can even encourage them to stay on the line for longer. 

Related posts

A salesman checks a customer's iPhone at a mobile phone store in New Delhi, India, July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

How To Measure How Much You Walk On Your iPhone

January 17, 2021
0

History of Binance: The Success and Failure of One of the Most Popular Cryptocurrency Exchange

January 15, 2021
0

How to fuliza by Safaricom guide

January 15, 2021
0

ASUS debuts new ZenBook Duo | Pro Duo, VivoBook, ExpertBook and Chromebook laptops at CES 2021

January 15, 2021
0

Don’t you dare play the same song one more time

Music has a highly personal nature, and it’s difficult for a company to pick the right tune for the hold time. It should be an innocent sound, but it has the power to provoke a strong emotion and response in the caller. Let’s picture the following scenario. One of your clients has to get in touch with your customer service daily, 7 days a week, 30 days a month. You play the same song for the hold time. It has 3 minutes, and the average client waits for 7 minutes. Sooner or later everyone will snap because they spend hours of their life listening to the same old tune. They’ll even start to hear it in their sleep. 

But when choosing diverse, high-quality songs, you get another answer. You get them wanting to hear that song again. Have you ever get stuck with a melody in your mind, and you couldn’t wait to grab your phone and play it on YouTube? This is the response you should try to achieve in your clients. 

READ  Jumia J-Force program aim to create 20,000 jobs for Kenyan youths by year-end

Often, the problem with the on-hold music isn’t the sound itself, but the amount of time, people listen to it. The average individual spends 40 days of their life in a customer service phone queue. Should they listen to the same tune everyone plays? Or are you ready to bring something new and break the wheel? 

Providing high-quality customer service is already hard enough without the agonising hold songs. How can you make it easy? Create a varied playlist with mesmerising on-hold songs royalty free websites offer. Your role is to shorten the waiting time, or at least create the impression it’s shorter. 

I want thoughtful on-hold music

What music would you like to listen to when you wait for a call-canter operator to answer? 

I want thoughtful songs. 

Get creative with the on-hold music and embrace it as an opportunity to make your clients smile from the moment, they dial the number. Did you know that Ikea plays Abba songs, Admiral has a Star Wars soundtrack, and the Jamaican High Commission plays Bob Marley’s songs?

Listen to the sings before adding them to your hold playlist because you may end up with Elton John’s Rocket Man and “I think it’s going to be a long, long time…”. And you can bet your customers will immediately hang up the phone because no one wants to hear that they need to wait for minutes before someone answers their call. 

And don’t interrupt the song with lines like Someone will be with you shortly. Let them emerge into listening to music. 

READ  SMEs in Kenya urged to take advantage of Sage Business Cloud Payroll services

Play it right

When you create the on-hold message, consider some aspects. Determine how frequently your clients need customer service, how long they’re put on hold, the caller demographic, and their gender. Bearing these things in mind, develop a plan to create an engaging experience. When the average waiting time is 6 minutes, it’s not ideal playing a 2 minutes tune on repeat. 

Check the sound quality over the phone because not even Beyoncé sounds good on an old phone. 

Some studies show that jazz and classical music relaxes people. Research also reveals that rap can fight depression, and pop music increases performance when exercising. But the truth is that the effect the musical genre has on the caller depends on their personal taste. 

It’s wise to stay away from songs whose lyrics, people can interpret sarcastically or ironically. You may like Taylor Swift, but she isn’t the right artist to play in your clients’ ears when they wait for a plumber to fix their leaky pipes. 

The bottom line is that on-hold music can calm your clients when picked right. But it requires extensive research and trial, to understand what tunes get the best response. 

Readers 1,626

Share

  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Sam Amira

Sam Amira

Related Posts

A salesman checks a customer's iPhone at a mobile phone store in New Delhi, India, July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Mobile

How To Measure How Much You Walk On Your iPhone

January 17, 2021
0
cryptocurrencies

History of Binance: The Success and Failure of One of the Most Popular Cryptocurrency Exchange

January 15, 2021
0
How To

How to fuliza by Safaricom guide

January 15, 2021
0
Tech

ASUS debuts new ZenBook Duo | Pro Duo, VivoBook, ExpertBook and Chromebook laptops at CES 2021

January 15, 2021
0
signal-apps
Tech

Is Signal That Different From WhatsApp? Here Are 5 Ways It May Be Different

January 15, 2021
0
Tech

Are Cheap TikTok Likes Inferior To Expensive Ones? Read Our Experts’ Discussion

January 15, 2021
0
Tech

Between WhatsApp, Facebook And Signal Which Platform Collects More Personal Data?

January 15, 2021
0
Tech

HTML5 Tech Takes Over from Flash to Advance E-Sports Industry

January 15, 2021
0

https://bit.ly/2VOxuoBhttps://bit.ly/2VOxuoBhttps://bit.ly/2VOxuoB
ADVERTISEMENT

Join our Mailing List

Loading

Recent Posts

A salesman checks a customer's iPhone at a mobile phone store in New Delhi, India, July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

How To Measure How Much You Walk On Your iPhone

January 17, 2021

How To Scan and Sign Documents Directly From Your iPhone

January 17, 2021

realme to release more phones in 2021 to grow its smartphone market share

January 16, 2021

What You Need To Know To Manage Your Network Effectively

January 16, 2021

Baidu establishes an Intelligent electric vehicle arm to bring autonomous cars on a road near you

January 15, 2021
">
">

Follow Us

">

There are many sites out there focused on blowing off some steam, from funny entertainment to thrilling experiences like playing online, in some cases online gaming could grant you the chance to win extra money. We came across rocketpot.io while browsing for a good btc casino online and it left us a very good impression with their wide variety of games and crypto offering.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

© 2019 Moran Media Group - All rights reserved TechMoran.

No Result
View All Result
  • Startups
  • Reviews
  • Insider
    • Obituaries
  • Business
  • Women
  • Blockchain
  • Columnists
  • Hacks & Facts
    • How To
  • Editions
    • US Edition
    • India Edition
    • MENA Edition
    • Asia Edition
    • Europe Edition
    • International Edition

© 2019 Moran Media Group - All rights reserved TechMoran.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
%d bloggers like this: