Have you ever found yourself humming a tune whilst strolling through the aisles of a supermarket only to realise that the very tune you are humming is playing throughout the store? While the genre of music playing may differ from store to store, the motive behind its playing remains constant … to condition you to buy.
The effects of music on mood are well documented. In our day-to-day lives, people use music for all types of reasons—from relaxing, working out and studying to sleeping, setting a mood, and even performing surgery—so it is no surprise that businesses all over the world use music to influence the way customers interact with their brand. Why do you think Chinese restaurants play Chinese music during service? It is because hearing Chinese music at a Chinese restaurant is going to make you want to eat more Chinese food. It is the same reason I just about cover myself in guacamole every time I hear a maraca.
A Texas Tech University study, comparing the influence of classical music versus Top-40 music in a wine store, found that customers spent more money when classical music was played in the background. It might not surprise you that fancy music might make people feel more fancy and more willing to spend their hard-earned cash on fancy things, but it goes to show just how powerful music can be in influencing the decisions we make.
Background music, however, is not only effective in the physical world. Just look at how a little editing and some new music transformed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from a dark drama into a light-hearted teen comedy.
So what about on the phone? Let’s face it: no one likes being placed on hold, but that does not mean it has to be a painful, unproductive experience. Just because being placed on hold is not the nicest experience in the world, it does not mean you should give up your waiting customers.
More often than not, being placed on hold is a frustrating experience. So how can we improve it? How do we change the way our customers feel during and after coming off hold? If it is not glaringly obvious already, one solution is high-quality music.
Quality Counts
While a great piece of music has the ability to have a positive impact on mood, if that same piece of music is played or recorded at a low quality, the impact can be quite negative. Playing low-quality audio recordings over the phone or as background music has the potential to send customers running in the opposite direction desperately looking for something to block their ears with. Imagine buying a ticket to see your favourite band in concert but, when you arrive on the night, you realise you accidentally bought tickets to see a cover band. Yeah, imagine.
Luckily, Messages On Hold boasts a library of over 1,000 license-free tracks, perfect for your phone system, restaurant, corporate video or presentation. Take a listen for yourself right here. On the off chance you don’t find anything you like, we even produce custom tracks in our state-of-the-art studios!
And if you would like some help training your staff in customer service, why not head over to canity.com for some short, sharp, and fun training videos?