Appropriate Music for Callers 'On Hold'? 339
RiBread asks: "I work at a startup, and as such wear many hats. Right now I'm trying to make sure our phone system is useful. One of everyone's biggest complaints is the cheesy music that plays when someone calls in and is put on hold. The stunning MIDI rendition of 'Home on the Range' they hear vies only with the ice cream truck and 'It's a Small World' for its ability to infuriate. I found out we can hook up a CD player to the phone system to alleviate this, but the real question is now: what do we want to play? What's the best 'on hold' music you've heard?
(comments with links to samples of music will be most appreciated)"
If you can use a CD Player... (Score:2, Insightful)
On a side note- muzak is intended to be calming for everyone. Instead it's annoying. All other music is written for a specific audience, so no matter what you play, someone won't like it. i say load the iPod with some of everything.
Something that is easy to ignore (Score:3, Insightful)
Why specifically Music? (Score:5, Insightful)
(a) the exchange does not terminate the call thinking that there is no activity
(b) the listener doesnt get pissed off listening to some (great?) music played over a crap 3KHz bandwidth phone line
Re:Local Public Radio (Score:3, Insightful)
Depends on what you want to achieve... (Score:3, Insightful)
Get them humming, at least for a time - Abba
Entertain them for a half hour (or more) on hold - radio comedy shows from the 40's and 50's
Remind them of a time before computers - 101 strings playing "hits" of the 60's and 70's
Get them to forget they're on hold if they're over age 40 - up-tempo orchestral classics - Brahms, Beethoven, Thaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussagorsky, etc.
But whatever you play, run it through an audio compressor so the dynamic range is minimal - and then check the actual volume from another phone so you neither blast them out nor make them strain to hear.
Einstein (Score:1, Insightful)
The caller will either be intrigued or annoyed beyond all repair.
Seriously, don't keep saying "your call is important to us", don't play some top 40 crap. Do give the caller an estimate of the time they'll have to wait to talk to someone (better to overestimate a bit than underestimate), do let them know if there is a website they can use.
Re:Some of my customers... (Score:2, Insightful)
This is something that really annoys me. If I'm at work, and calling a vendor, supplier, whatever, and end up on hold, I tend to put the phone on speaker, low volume, so I can keep working. Everytime I hear speaking, I have to stop and listen to see if someone has actually answered my call.
A better idea would be to allow the caller to leave a brief message including name and number. My ISP does this, which is wonderful. I don't have to wait on hold, yet I usually get a call back within 10 to 15 minutes.
If you are going to play hold music, as others have suggested, something light and relaxing. Customers are not happy being on hold, so anything with too much excitement is not going to make dealing with them easier. Also, avoid interrupting the music too often with a message like "Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line as it is faster than redialing". I've been on hold where they repeat this every 30 seconds, and it annoys the hell out of me. If you have the ability, having a status of the phone queue is a good idea. "There are currently x callers ahead of you. Please stay on the line". If you're going to add time estimates, make sure they are not underestimated. Nothing worse than hearing your call should be answered in 5 minutes, and waiting another 10. In any case, any interrupts like this should be no more than once every minute or two.
Re:Why put on hold at all? (Score:1, Insightful)
Rant in list form: Phone etiquette for companies (Score:5, Insightful)
You asked about what on-hold music to use. I'm going to pretend you said, "Give me input on phone-related stuff for my company."
1) NEVER blame "unusual call volume" for hold times. God, that makes me sick. It's a sneaky way of saying "It's not our fault you're on hold." Yeah, it is.
2) When the caller has finished their business, NEVER ask "Is there anything else I can help you with blah blah blah?". "No." "Okay then, thank you for calling Ultrablather Systems Software Systems Incorporated." STFU and say goodbye like any normal polite person and let me get off the goddamn phone.
3) NEVER have a phone system that constantly reminds me every 30 seconds that your sorry I'm holding and blah blah blah. If you're not gonna have enough people to eliminate the wait, at least let me wait in peace.
4) If your phone system requires me to punch numbers in, you better be sure your system rewards my effort. Being asked for the info I just punched in makes me want punch in your face.
5) Make sure the hold music is QUIET.
6) Play Dixieland music, simply because nobody does. Added bonus: It uses banjos.
classical music. mozart. (Score:4, Insightful)
2) no RIAA bugging you
but please make it longer than the usual 30seconds.. and it would be nice to "beep" loud when someone answers the phone, in case the on-hold time will take longer than 2 minutes.
Re:Bebop (Score:3, Insightful)
Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool.
It brought us constant compliments - it's quite possibly the perfect on-hold music. (Sorry Miles!)
Re:Rant in list form: Phone etiquette for companie (Score:2, Insightful)
8) Don't recommend going to your website to find the solution. I'm ringing because your website is rubbish and doesn't do what I want it to.
9) have a menu system that covers everything, or at least has a category for "all other enquiries", I hate trying to force what I want into categories that don't quite fit (although I have a sneaky suspicion that I end up talking to the same person, whatever buttons I push)
Re:Why put on hold at all? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you do have to put people on hold, one thing i'd really like to see on is some indication of call progression, eg 'You are currently position 7 in our queue. Given our current call rate your call will be answered in 10 minutes'. That way I can make a decision on if I want to hang around or maybe call back later. Market research must indicate that this doesn't encourage people to stay on hold though as I have never encountered it.
To actually go on topic, if you have to put customers on hold, give them something useful to listen to, something to make their time on hold not a complete waste of time. Some ideas I can think of are:
. Word definitions. Improve the vocabulary of your customers.
. Fun Facts.
. Movie reviews.
. Book reviews.
. TV guide (only useful if most callers are local)
Finally, depending on your phone system, it would be cool if customers could 'change the channel', or at least turn off the on hold noise if they do as I do and call such numbers on a speaker phone while I'm doing other things. In that case I would prefer silence.
Re:Britney Spears (Score:3, Insightful)
A not-bad compromise is one where I can leave a message, and I get called back when it's my turn. However that kind of system can be abused so that callbacks happen rarely, and it doesn't scale well since the operators may always be busy with callers who wait.
Hmm... not soft beeps, please (Score:4, Insightful)
The hold music used by the Macaroni Grill (Italian restaurant chain) -- and what they play in the bathrooms in the restaurants -- is an interesting alternative; it's a "learn Italian" CD, teaching you common phrases in Italian.
You might think it'd be annoying... but the voices are soothing (and Italian in general is a very musical language), there's some subtle music in the background, and it really worked for me.
I'm not sure what an equivalent would be for tech support, though... listening to some adenoidal geek stuttering through technical term definitions somehow wouldn't be the same.
Re:Classical music is good (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Rant in list form: Phone etiquette for companie (Score:4, Insightful)
Ever tried making sure hundreds of support agents are in the right place at the right time to answer the right amount of calls? It's not easy. Especially if there are multiple centers and/or there is something happening (virus, network outtage, 9/11, etc) that's causing increased volumes. Tech support is a loss leader for companies, they don't want to pay any more for it than they have to because it costs a *TON* of money. Quite frankly it may even cost more than losing a few customers for a lot of companies.
2) When the caller has finished their business, NEVER ask "Is there anything else I can help you with blah blah blah?". "No." "Okay then, thank you for calling Ultrablather Systems Software Systems Incorporated." STFU and say goodbye like any normal polite person and let me get off the goddamn phone.
People usually remember the first and last things about a call and not the middle. Most people *like* it when the agent seems to genuinely want to help. You're not going to get rid of this one anytime soon, management wants the companies name said at the end of the call so people will remember it.
As for the rest of your suggestions, I only have an issue with #6, I hate dixieland music...
Re:Startup? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'd work on your priorities.
Re:I'd suggest downtempo electronica / acid jazz (Score:3, Insightful)