Using radio to keep your callers entertained while they wait on hold? Run, don’t walk, and rip the cord out of the wall. Your next sale could depend on it.

Way back in the 90′s, I decided to start Easy On Hold after a chance experience with a local restaurant. One evening, I called up a popular eating establishment to make a reservation, but was promptly placed on hold. While waiting, I heard a radio station playing a commercial for another restaurant across town.

You can probably guess what happened next. I promptly hung up, phoned in a reservation at that other restaurant and enjoyed a fabulous meal. Meanwhile, I couldn’t stop thinking about how downright dumb a business owner would have to be to run content on their hold button over which they had no control whatsoever.

With that, welcome to Easy On Hold, officially launched in 1997, to help businesses understand the importance of giving their callers a great on-hold experience.

So what happens? Typically, the telephone system installer offers to do a favor by plugging a 24/7 audio source (radio) into the music on hold port before signing off on the job. This demonstrates that the on hold port is active and working, but it is also dangerous. In addition to ads for their competitors being heard, rebroadcasting a radio signal on your phone system is not legal. In an article by attorney Mike Wilson, the downside of sidestepping proper music licensing for on-hold use is steep.

Actual damages as well as statutory damages of up to $20,000 can be awarded for each copyrighted song performed without a license. The damages can be up to $100,000 if the infringement is willful. And those who willfully infringe on a copyright for commercial advantage or private gain can be fined up to $25,000, be sentenced to jail time of up to a year,
or both.

Wait, don’t radio stations pay the royalties?

Most people using radio on hold probably are not aware that they’re in violation of any laws, in that they assume the radio station has already covered all licensing costs on their end.  It’s true that radio broadcast stations are licensed to perform the music they carry on their airwaves, but your phone system is technically creating a RE-broadcast. Radio phone on hold music is considered an unlicensed, separate performance under the copyright law. The spirit of the law is that responsibility falls to the end-user, so your re-use of a radio station is therefore subject to fees. Read more: Easy On Hold Whitepaper: Is It Legal To Use Radio On Hold?

Control what your callers hear.

A well-written on-hold program will communicate helpful information about your products, services and other aspects of your company that make you unique–and that affirm in your caller’s mind that, yes, I made the right decision contacting this company.

That misguided restaurant could have maintained the loyalty of a customer that night had it approached its on hold messaging seriously. Then again, maybe we wouldn’t be here today.

Music On Hold by Easy On Hold offers custom messages, hold systems, voice mail and in store music – quickly and easily. Created by a successful advertising and marketing team with extensive experience in branding, public relations and audio production, Easy On Hold puts hold time to use as a strategic opportunity to achieve three marketing goals: educating the customer, brand positioning, and selling products and services. Savvy companies today view on-hold messaging as a legitimate extension of their marketing program and turn to Easy On Hold for scripts that are written, announced and produced with precision and purpose. Easy On Hold is a certified woman-owned business with over 15 years of growth and thousands of customers worldwide, including several of the Fortune 100.

If you’ve ever thought that your choice of “on hold” content wasn’t important, consider this exchange from the Comcast customer forum. The point here is, people ARE listening! What are they saying about your company?

ANNOYING MUSIC ON HOLD
10-05-2011 04:41 PM

The music that Comcast plays while on hold is the most annoying music i have ever heard period!  It is a short annoying jingle that is irritating because it plays over and over and over and over again. And we all know how long we are on hold.  It’s almost like they do it so you’ll hang up!  Think about that one!  Who agrees with me?

Re: ANNOYING MUSIC ON HOLD
10-05-2011 11:48 PM

The techs have to listen to that same horrible music. Imagine doing it for several hours every single day. The “tune” is still stuck in my head. blah.

Re: ANNOYING MUSIC ON HOLD
10-06-2011 09:54 AM

so what universe do you live in?

Re: ANNOYING MUSIC ON HOLD
10-06-2011 09:55 AM

So why doesn’t someone get it changed ?

Re: ANNOYING MUSIC ON HOLD
10-06-2011 11:40 AM

They could turn the music off and you listen to nothing…no matter what music they pick, no matter what ads they run on hold someone will complain about it.  Six in one and half a dozen in the other…

Re: ANNOYING MUSIC ON HOLD
10-06-2011 12:01 PM

Not true…..didn’t you ever hear the saying , “silence is golden”.

Re: ANNOYING MUSIC ON HOLD
10-06-2011 12:49 PM

The thing about silence is you wonder if you are still connected. At least with the music or blurbs for other services or Comcast features you know that Comcast hasn’t disconnected the call. I’ve listened to silence on hold before and a few times did get disconnected and not know it.

So, what do you think… do people who call your company care about–or even notice–the music on hold?

While folks are waiting, they’re listening. Sometimes really bad music on hold becomes a source of ridicule for a company. For example, the music on hold at the web hosting firm One and One’s tech help line is so weird, a caller posted it on YouTube: http://cpanel.tv/reviews/1and1/strange-music-on-hold/

A comment to the posting says they were once on hold and heard John Mayer’s song “Say What You Need To Say”. Funny.

Blogger Ian Trigillis presents this account:

Because I’m in the process of moving, I’ve been spending a fair amount of time on the telephone, listening to the isn’t-it-a-wonderful-thing-to-be-on-hold music at various furniture stores, credit card companies, and public utilities. Today I had to listen to Jingle Bell Rock for seven agonizing minutes.

Yes, people are listening to what you’ve got on hold. In fact, studies show that what people hear while on hold makes a difference when it comes to perceptions about your business.

A 2006 Washington Post story (music on hold study) reveals details of a study conducted by two Georgia State University professors. It turns out that good music makes hold times seem shorter.  Long wait times typically lead callers to a more negative attitude toward the company they’ve called.  The most convincing piece of evidence in the study shows that there’s a big difference between hearing silence on hold versus music on hold:

Some of the respondents said they liked to hear the music because they knew they were still connected to the company; no music made them wonder if they were still on hold.

The professors also concluded that companies should not let their music choice get stale.

And firms should try to change the songs because customers get tired of listening to same, old music every time they call in.

The phrase “hold music” conjures up images of the “100 Strings Orchestra” playing some droning version of a pop song, however, and many companies are afraid to dip their toe into that cesspool. There’s even an ode written by humorist Phil Nelson (to the tune “Hold On My Heart” by Phil Collins)…

On hold music
Now I’m doing many other things
Finally, when they come back
Break my concentration

On hold music
Used by companies
And some smart people who
Have too many calling

Yeah, on hold music
Difficult to be patient
‘Cause they’re just wasting my time

The bottom line is that callers do notice and care about what they hear while waiting. Work with professionals who know the difference between Muzak and effective music and messages on hold. Callers will believe that their hold times are shorter than they actually are, while developing a more positive impression of your company.

It is a universal understanding: on-hold music is bad music.  But I know why. I also know how to correct the situation.

First, here’s a post dedicated to why music on hold has such a bad reputation. 5 reasons most music on hold is awful:

1. Continuous Audio. Callers need to know that they are still connected, so music is piped in to create a continuous flow of audio. I suppose it could be all speaking, but music seems like a harmless idea (at first).
2. Licensing Required. Now that we’ve decided to use music in the hold queue, we can’t just put on our favorite CD. Music on the hold button is considered a ‘re-broadcast’ of that tune, which requires a performance license. To solve this problem, “royalty-free” music is produced by home-grown musicians with a keyboard and a Mac. This explains some of the cheap-sounding instrumentation and sampled loops. Bad.
3. The Tech Guy Did It. Is the music on hold a function of I.T. or Marketing? We say marketing, but many a tech-person has been asked to connect a music thing-a-ma-job up to the phone system and keep it on the cheap. Hey, you can’t blame the tech department, whose proposal for a multi-channel acoustic music feed got shot down. Some phone systems have an internal music loop, which is always bad. It was just a place-holder, folks. It was meant to be replaced with something better.
4. Bad Equipment. Why does music on hold sound like it is running on an old cassette machine? Because it’s running on an old cassette machine. There is a pile of old equipment out there, most of which has been neglected.
5. Decision-makers Are Unaware. I guess it’s been a long time since the CEO called and was placed on-hold. Music on hold is forgotten.

There are other reasons, such as bandwidth restrictions, cell phone signals, and… well, just bad taste. For a real-world view of bad music on hold, check out this great post: http://www.neatorama.com/2010/04/12/11-recordings-of-terrible-hold-music/

Here’s some chatter from the blogosphere that should make corporate marketing managers think about what their callers are saying after they hang up from a bad “on hold” experience.

“After hearing Fur Elise go through its little 30 second clip about 50 times it makes me want to hang the d*** phone up….maybe that is their plan. To wear me down?”

“Most of the time the music clarity is not there or the loop of music is poorly done or I am told fifty thousand times I am on hold….. couldn’t someone just do this right?”

“I called the toll-free number on the ‘Collections  Notice.’ I was referred to another toll-free number by a recorded message. I was placed on hold for over 10 minutes of the WORST and LOWEST FIDELITY hold music I have ever had to experience.”

I have no further comment.