How to choose on hold music that fosters positive attitude rather than irritates your clients
Are you running a client oriented business? Do you provide support or other services over the phone? If your answer is yes then then next big question you need to ask yourself is:
Is your on hold music turning off your customers?
Nobody likes being on hold!
Take a quick look at Twitter, a common place for everyone to vent their frustration and to share their experience. I think these two Tweets sum it up real good:
Best solution? No hold time at all!
Speaking strictly from the clients perspective, the best solution is no hold time at all. Granted, this may not be a realistic scenario in many cases, so let’s see how we can choose the music that at least won’t be annoying your clients.
Is on hold music required?
Yet again, let’s look at Tweeter to see what the clients think. Generally, I don’t think anyone would appreciate dead silence on the other end of the line.
Here’s another perspective. Giving your clients good music may be motivating enough for them to praise you publicly. Take a note of the likes and re-tweets on that post and think what it can do for your business, especially if the client decides to mention your company by name.
Choosing good music.. Sounds easy?
Selecting on hold music for your corporate telephone system or call center may look like a trivial task. Just round up a small collection of mellow new age tunes that ‘everyone loves’ and you’re done!
Adding music is a good first step but just the fact that you’re playing some music will not necessarily guarantee any positive experience for your clients.
As with many business decisions you need to be strategic about your on hold music selection.
Our main goal is to take the unavoidable and potentially irritating process of waiting on hold and to turn it into a painless and (ultimately) positive experience for your callers.
You can’t please everybody
It’s unrealistic to think that any particular genre or style of music will satisfy 100% of your customers. That is why I generally would not recommend using generic sounding ‘elevator music’. This may be a workable ‘vanilla’ solution but it will hardly excite your clients or motivate them to mention your company on Tweeter. Let’s see if we can do better.
Some ideas to try in your call center
Let your clients choose the music
This may require making some adjustments to your system but that will certainly help your clients feel more upbeat while waiting for ‘the next available representative’. Apple already does it and it seems it’s working well for them.
Set the mood and build anticipation
Are you selling vacation packages? Then how about using happy easy-going music to help your callers anticipate their vacations. Sporting goods vendors may want to consider choosing some energetic and upbeat music. Spa salons or wellness services providers can use relaxing and ambient music to go along with their products. Financial consultants can pick confident corporate music and real estate agencies can benefit from using positive and comforting background music.
Know your customer
If your company offers a wide range of products or services that make it difficult to pinpoint a single theme, you can look at your customers demographics instead. The most common demographic characteristics include gender, age, and occupation. You can segment your callers further based on your customer data or a marketing research. Try to select music that would appeal to (or at least won’t annoy) your target audience.
Is it possible to use popular commercial music as on hold music?
Depending on the artist and recording label, it may be possible, however the licensing may get complicated and prohibitively expensive.
Safe Music List offers a simple and affordable alternative by providing professional instrumental music created specifically for commercial business use. The royalty free licensing is straightforward and allows for using our music in many business applications from promotional and training video to call center telephony systems. Here are few examples of what we can offer:
Motivational corporate music
More motivational corporate instrumental music
Positive and happy music
More positive and happy instrumental music
Energetic upbeat music
More upbeat energetic instrumental music
Calm Hi-Tech Electronic Music
More calm electronic instrumental music
Need more music?
Listen to top 10 best on hold music tracks.
Related: How to format WAV files to work with any on-hold phone system
Takeaway
Make on hold wait times a part of positive customer experience by choosing music that supports your brand and resonates with your audience.
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It was interesting to learn that there are options to allow the customers choose the hold music they listen to. My husband has been thinking about opening up a call center. I’ll let him know that he should look into allowing the customers to pick the hold music so that there’s a more pleasant customer service feel.