TELEPHONE MUSIC ON HOLD, at one time, was a blast. Having the technology to create music on the phone was a novel idea at the time. I am not referring to the phonograph music to listen to, offered to subscribers in 1901, but to the music we listen to when we wait for customer service or technical support. Do you mean that the technology for streaming music over the phone is over 100 years old? I was quite surprised, but we are very creative. The idea in 1901 was for entertainment purposes and was a subscription service chosen by the customer. The custom that is the focus of this article is initiated by the merchant without the customer’s permission.
MISTAKES.
1. Marketers know that people participating in an activity are less likely to hang up while on hold and will maintain acceptance of the modern custom of playing music during hold time. Providing customers with music to listen to while they wait assumes that people are sheep. This is the first mistake. We are not sheep. We have different tastes, different values of our own time, different ways of working and being. Any merchant who wishes to play music in order to fulfill the mission of keeping us engaged during wait times must respect us as individuals and consider our rights when playing unsolicited music.
2. The next mistake is hiding how inappropriate it is to force music on hold. If a company put a radio in your washing machine that only played one song with no way to adjust the volume, song, duration, or style; you wouldn’t buy it. Right? Unless it was the only option. Yes, I am used to the freedom of choice given to me in my country, so I am not happy when a choice is blatantly removed, like when music is on hold. It is inappropriate and resembles a mild form of bondage. Before I do business with a merchant, do I have to check what wonderful or abusive music I will be subjected to when I need customer service or technical support? Who needs a new item to consider in the purchase process?
3. The choice of musical style is the next mistake. We have no choice. With the exception of one merchant, GoDaddy.com, who is to be commended for leading the effort in giving the customer the option to turn off the music and remain silent, we get what we get when we call customer service. And, customer service and tech support agents, all over the world, are saying, “Do you mind if I put you on hold?” not realizing that they are subjecting the customer to a barrage of no choice.
OPPORTUNITIES.
1. From the mistake comes a great opportunity. New technology arises from necessity. So here we are, people. The time is now.
1. We are going to create a phone system that is not astronomically priced where we all have the option to give our beloved customers the choice of music or silence. Many of us work on hold, so this opportunity for silence should be standard.
2. We are going to create a non-astronomically priced phone system where we can connect our favorite Pandora station to anyone’s standby phone system. When we provide our personal information or credit card information, there may be an additional field where we enter a Pandora station or a specific genre of music, if we are not using this established radio system. Right next to the dropdown box that asks if you’re using American Express, Visa, Mastercard (which is an unnecessary field because the first digit of each card number indicates what type of card it is) we can have a genre box for music preference including silence.
3. We seem to have lost sight of how personal music is to each of us. As a music therapist, I can discuss how the subtleties of rhythm, melody, tempo, genre, social proof, etc. They permeate us and affect us. Let’s create a technology whose telephone software is based on the emotional state of the customer. There would be an additional layer of the familiar voice menu, common to phone systems before putting the customer on hold, asking the customer to rate their mood, such as potpourri of motivation, thoughtful or exhausted, welcome silence. Option 1 would tell the software to play music that motivates, which might fail most of the time since our motivations are different. Thoughtful or exhausted I would play spa music; and the silence would allow the customer to continue working, creating, doing what he was doing before the customer service/tech support phone call.
4. Finally, we were able to create a productive and creative program that would allow us to do karaoke while we waited. We would be given a choice of 3 songs in the genre that the company knew we liked from the personal information field provided in 2. The system would sing a line from the song and then play music for just that line so the customer could sing while is on standby The software would then sing the next line and repeat this line with only music so the client could continue learning and singing. The process would continue in this way. The customer could repeat the process with the same song until the customer service or technical support person came. Email and other electronic delivery options may be available to send the lyrics or a main score (score with melody, rhythm and chord changes) to the customer prior to the call or as a supplement during the waiting process.
CONCLUSION. Progress is a wonderful thing. Our inventions are based on our inspired ideas. We all have them. However, it is our responsibility to appreciate our fundamental principles, those of freedom of choice, expression and creativity. Our duty to not lose sight of our personal values and to protect our personal time and space.
So let’s create phone software that stops abuse and is much more effective for each merchant’s marketing team than forced music on hold has ever been. Let’s build our brand by taking care of our customer base, respecting the fundamental right to choose. The element of music or the absence of music affects our purchasing decisions. But, the choice to have or not have music on hold should be up to the customer.