Music To Your Ears

The reasons any one piece of music can move us to tears or make us shout for joy remain, reassuringly, unique to each one of us. It’s why the world’s greatest composers and songwriters remain artists, and not scientists.

Despite this, when it comes to choosing the music your callers will hear, you’ll be pleased to know that there are factors you can consider. Here are four to get you started:

I Don’t Like It!

You and I will like different music. There might be some overlap, but we’re going to disagree at some point (probably when I declare ‘The One and Only’ by Chesney Hawkes to be the greatest pop song of all time). The same is true of your callers. Realise up front that you need to move beyond a personal ‘I don’t like it’ when picking tracks for your phone system.

Major Label Baggage

Major label music is recognisable, popular and a safe bet right? Well… not all the time. Before you take that step, think about these:

First up, cost. In the UK you’ll need ‘The Music Licence’ through PPL or PRS before you can play licenced music. And either your own dubbing licence, or a licenced supplier. For big contact centres it can really add up.

Next, is recognisable really a good thing? Play the same track to 10 different people and you’ll get 10 different reactions. You’re triggering different personal associations and memories, and you can’t guarantee they’re positive.

You Do Have a Brand, Right?

Your organisation has an identity. In your mind and in the minds of your callers. The music you choose should reflect that. You’re looking for positive associations here, so music you’re already using in your marketing (if correctly licenced) can be an option. That can have a very limited shelf life though, so a better path is often to select other tracks which accord with your brand. At the simplest level: Are you a positive, fitness brand? Go upbeat. A Smooth Jazz club? Well, you shouldn’t have dubstep on your phone system.

Why Are They Calling?

We’ve just said that your brand is important. But you also need to consider why someone is calling. That positive fitness brand I mentioned might need to moderate their pumping upbeat number if a caller has selected an option indicating they want to leave. Here, it helps a lot if your system will let you have more than one stream of in-queue music. This way, you can select tracks with a different pace and feel, for different queues, further personalising your caller’s journey.

There’s a lot more I could get into on this topic, and I totally did just that in our Good CX guide (Which is packed with all sorts of excellent Contact Centre advice). It doesn’t stop there either: We’re passionate about improving every aspect of the Contact Centre experience, so whatever your CX question, get in touch and let’s see what we can do together.

If you would like to read more, check out our 'Music to your ears' article or many other great reads in The Good CX Guide or give us a call at Premier CX.