Telephone Hold Music - The Psychological Impact

Telephone hold music - We've been discussing theterminate the experiment prematurely as the mice
importance of appealing to the range of people andexposed to the heavy metal music all killed one
personality types calling your business or organization.another. Could there be a lesson here to learn for
We'll now zero in on some of the specific factorsyou in picking your telephone hold music?
that play into your choice of telephone hold music -Statistically, it appears that music types such as
and its emotional and psychological impact on yourclassical, soft jazz, piano, and harp may be the
callers. This is important for the simple reason thatoptimum choice for engendering a positive mindset in
your telephone hold music may actually have anyour callers as they wait on hold. It seems that, as a
influence on your bottom line!general rule, the harder-edged the music the more
What criteria should you consider in choosing yournegative the emotional and psychological impact on
telephone hold music? Your own personal preferencethose exposed to it. (By the way, violent and
may or may not be the best point of reference. Ofnegative lyrics can also have adverse effects on
course, you may want to be guided in part by thelisteners, and this would tend to compound the
tastes of your clientele who are calling, however,problems with music such as hard rock, however, for
that may or may not be the best way to pick yourtelephone hold music it is generally better to use
on-hold music either. The effects of various types ofinstrumental music anyway. More on this topic in a
music, from classical to country to rock to rap, onfuture post.)
humans, animals, and even plants have been studiedReal estate agents are known to employ the positive
for years and become subjects of popular discussion.psychological and emotional affect of the smell of
While researching for this blog I came across anfresh-baked bread or chocolate chip cookies wafting
article (at "Suite101", a library of online articles on athrough the air to help create positive feelings about
range of topics) describing one such study in whicha house they are showing. Perhaps the right choice in
one group of mice listened to classical musicyour telephone hold music could have a similar impact
twenty-four hours a day while a second groupon your callers' ears! It may be only a subtle effect,
listened to heavy metal. The researcher then timedbut if it favorably disposes them toward doing
the mice as they ran through mazes to see if thebusiness with you, even if only slightly, it would be
music affected their speed of learning. According toworth it.
the article, the researcher unfortunately had to