Nowadays, it is common to be placed on terminal hold when calling any company. I don't understand why they play such bad, irritating "music" while you're on hold? It makes you less likely to deal with that company again and by the time you reach a human voice, you're totally annoyed by the cloying sounds that just bombarded for X minutes. Does anyone have any suggestions for a way to avoid the background sound during a lengthy hold? I turn on speaker phone at the lowest volume but still can here the poor excuse for music Vanguard Investments is the worst. I have had to call them several times recently and they play this electronically generated sound loop that repeats every 10 seconds. I'd rather eat barbed wire than listen to phone hold background sound.
Why Is Hold Music Uniformly Awful?
- Thread starter TinyTim
- Start date
Corporate passive aggressiveness. They don't want to take your call because it costs them money. They'd much rather you gave up, even if you are annoyed. They know you'll be back as a customer at some point, because they run the numbers on these scenarios. And even if you fall into the small percentage that do leave for good, your loss is smaller than the cost of listening to you.
I would rather listen to some dreck on speakerphone, than be reminded every 20 seconds that my call is very important to them! If my call is so important why can't they employ more people to answer the phones?
They play the music because dead silence makes people uncomfortable. They just want to fill the void, even if the music is terrible.
They play the music because dead silence makes people uncomfortable. They just want to fill the void, even if the music is terrible.
Timely thread! I had to call my insurance company today. They put me on hold, and played some Classical Music. I was actually enjoying it, probably because as was stated by @NorthernSoul , no one was lying to me, telling me how important I am. Funny thing is, my wife hated the music!
Good music is subject to copyright.
Like @silverlifter said, they want you to hang up. How bout some comedy routines instead?
I'm available anytime. My wife would love to keep me busy!
I'll just leave this here...
gimletmedia.com
#6 This Proves Everything + The Best Hold Music in the World | Reply All
Keith Calder is known in some circles for his wor…
Rhody
I'm a Lumberjack.
This! Ascap/bmi fee avoidance. They go the cheapest route. Some places give you the option of having them call you back. Places with the endless phone trees are also equally annoying. Cvs for example. Push 1 for this 9 for that. Getting to a human house as endless.
- Thread starter
- #10
My preference would be for real music, say Mozart or Miles Davis, but since that seems out of the scope of most company hold programs, I prefer dead silence.
@FarmerTan thank you so nicely for adding me on to your life insurance policy and adding that extra zero at the end. My name is spelled Christopher O....
In all seriousness if I don't pick up the phone at work it rings five times and then it goes to corporate you press three buttons and you get to speak somebody but they are in bangladesh. They can handle 90% of the requests.
On the flip side if I put you on hold there is no music. Nothing. You sit with your thoughts and for most people, measuring their patience and to sit in their own head is more terrifying than hold music. They usually hang up within 30 seconds of being on hold. Immediately call back and a loop continues. I think for most of them it's a three-prong bayonet. Lack of paitence, non-native English speaker, no hold music. For the people who do stay on hold they aren't on hold long. If the hold is really long at 5 minutes you go to voicemail.
Open a stick of ARKO and forget about the music.
There's nothing, I mean nothing that a company can do to please the incredibly diverse tastes of people who call and get put on hold.
Play music type X, and people who hate music type X will complain.
Play corny jokes and people will complain that there's no music.
Play advertisements, and people will complain they are a captive audience.
Play an audio book and people will complain it isn't something they're interested in.
Play a voice talking in a conversational tone, and people will complain that they don't know when the hold has ended.
In the end, people who need to speak to someone will either stay on the line, or hang up and call back another time, or do their business on-line.
As no matter what they do, a large number of people won't like it, so it just becomes a matter of what is inexpensive for the company to use while people are waiting.
Call backs are great, more companies should use that option.
Play music type X, and people who hate music type X will complain.
Play corny jokes and people will complain that there's no music.
Play advertisements, and people will complain they are a captive audience.
Play an audio book and people will complain it isn't something they're interested in.
Play a voice talking in a conversational tone, and people will complain that they don't know when the hold has ended.
In the end, people who need to speak to someone will either stay on the line, or hang up and call back another time, or do their business on-line.
As no matter what they do, a large number of people won't like it, so it just becomes a matter of what is inexpensive for the company to use while people are waiting.
Call backs are great, more companies should use that option.
If it's not 14 seconds of pathetic drivel repeated ad nauseam it's something lovely - played at a level of digital distortion designed to make you tear your ears clean off your head.
I love it when I’m prompted for a bunch of information. When I finally get a person they ask me the same questions I just provided the answers to.
Yep, I like the call back option. I can go back to my episode of Gunsmoke or Perry Mason.
Yep, I like the call back option. I can go back to my episode of Gunsmoke or Perry Mason.
It's like ordering from a Fast Food Restaurant. They are programmed to ask specific questions in a specific way, often from a script in front of them.
Order taker: What can I get you?
Me: A large Hamburger, large fries, and a large coke.
Order taker: A large hamburger (punches key with picture of hamburger on it), would you like fries?
Me: Yes, large fries, and a large coke.
Order taker: Large fries (punches key with picture of fries on it), would you like something to drink?
Me: (sigh) Yes, a large coke.
Or when the order taker asks me what I’d like and then turns away when I tell him.
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I don't want to know what our hold music would sound like!
Am I the only one who gets even more annoyed when the crappy hold music is interrupted by a reminder that I'm still on hold? I mean, can we just let the music get to it's natural stopping point for that reminder? It's not like I need to be reminded why I'm hearing it in the first place...
