Everyone knows drill: Dial the number, then wait. Then wait a little longer, when an unobtrusive but vaguely tuned audio drone is turned on. If customer surveys were to be believed, many people would spend all day listening in limbo, repeating the same song over and over, hearing promises that their call was important and the representative The next representative will be with them shortly.
During the pandemic, wait times for customer service calls have only gotten worse as the world tries to grapple with a logistical nightmare. Some have chosen to make the most of boredom, staging TikTok dances to fill the time. But for those with normal levels of activity, more timeout means more minutes to find the abyss.
No one called customer service to chat. In most cases, people call to report a problem or ask for support — this is the time of a busy day. However, poorly kept music feels like a wasted opportunity. If it creates the right atmosphere, callers may be less likely to hang up, or at least be in a more generous mood towards the operator who unfortunately picks up the call.
Background music is a proven tool in marketing, used to influence consumer behavior in stores and restaurants. Certain variations in volume, tempo, pitch, and texture have a subconscious effect on our mood, Center for arousing joy in the brain. Music activates “happy hormones,” like dopamine and serotonin, which relax customers, who are then more likely to order more drinks or toss another item in their basket.
So where has kept the music, vanilla most commonly of the genre, gone in the wrong place? When experts have spent decades making jingle sounds to soothe us, why is our blood still boiling? The answer is not so simple. Although designed to be inexpensive, the sound you hear while waiting for support still meets the requirements that music producers deem necessary to satisfy customers. But unfortunately, the psychological torture of waiting means that even the best holdout music has the potential to excite you.
Katherine O’Neill, a music psychologist at York University, says a lot of the dislike for holding on to music is a “conditioned response”. We were frustrated by being forced to watch and we stood in the street expecting to be annoyed by whatever we heard. Simply put, “we get annoyed with waiting, but this feeling is tied to music,” says O’Neill.
But music affects how we perceive our waiting time. “Music is more effective than silence in reducing the estimate of elapsed time,” says O’Neill. “Overall, the presence of updates or music has a positive effect on satisfaction when compared to just a ringing of the bell.” Of course, it cannot completely erase the elapsed time.
But why does it have to be so bland? According to Danny Turner, head of creative programming at Mood Media, a longtime purveyor of archival music, it’s important that “music stays in sync with the brand or business standards.” Hard rock or techno won’t be a soothing choice for the doctor’s office, nor will classical music inspire people who call to the gym. If there’s vocals in the mix, Turner warns that the lyrics should be “fit for the business”—not clear or loaded. Also, if the music is too exciting, it can backfire. “If we like the music, we pay more attention to it and then feel like we’ve kept it longer,” says O’Neill. “Brands use beige music because it helps time pass more than silence, but in theory we pay less attention to it.” Result? Lots of mid-way tunes when you call your cable provider.
