How often do you call your cable company, or your credit card company and either have to listen to a zillion annoying little prompts to get to where you want to go, or you wait on the line for what feels like eternity only to listen to their hold music?
I can adamantly say that I have never once said to anyone: “Oh, xxxx company has the most amazing hold music.” Why is that? Why is waiting on hold to be helped so excruciatingly painful? Do they hope that most of us will hang up the phone out of boredom, anguish, and insanity and instead go online and send them an email? I try to do that as much as possible, but there are just certain things that need to be handled by a live person. I will give you a few examples:
_When your cable company (ahem, Comcast) continues to screw up your bill every month since you moved in 10 months ago. No email will ever be able to truly shed light on your true frustration, only duking it out with a live person will hopefully grant you the discounts and offers you deserve.
_Anything having to do with financial information, credit cards, and bank accounts should be handled online. Yes I am old school. I prefer a live person to mess up my account, then a live person behind an email. At least I can ask for my phone call to be escalated, and hopefully my phone call was “recorded for quality purposes.”
_You enjoy connecting with other people, making their day, and generally being the world’s nicest customer. I know a few people who fit that description, and they are the cream of the crop. If only we could have their patience.
I digress. This all started out being about hold music. I still do not understand why they have not invented hold music that connects you to Pandora or Spotify and lets you jam to your current selection. Maybe customer service representatives will find their customers happier, more patient, and generally not going insane by hearing the same song for the 37 minutes they waited on hold. Of course that song was interspersed with a few ads for lower interest rates, or how you could be saved money, with the additional message of how many other customers are in front of you in the queue.
#needmorepatience4holdmusic
random olio 
You have an awesome idea. I would run with it. Coming up with a way to listen to your Pandora station while on hold would be so cool! Although I fear that when the person actually came on the phone to talk to me, I would (a) forget what I wanted to ask them about or (b) ask them to put me back on hold so I could finish listening to my favorite song 😉
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Yes, I totally know what you mean!
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It’s not always true that music that we listen on hold diverts our mind. It gives us diversion from our monotony and refreshes our mind. It gives us energy to start and end every task in the best possible manner.
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I can totally see that! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
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It depends on the type of hold music. I would honestly prefer to be given professional on hold messages that somehow provide the steps or solutions regarding the concern I may have. That way waiting on the line becomes less painful. I guess that’s a win-win situation for both parties. Don’t you agree?
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Yes, I totally know what you mean.
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Yes, as long as it is helpful to me, when the professional message and voice does not understand my voice, it can get frustrating.
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From a consumer/customer: Whenever I am holding I use that time for whatever – but I am severely hampered by having to hear music on hold or constant marketing speak. It is always a negative and unpleasant experience. Here’s what would be a pleasant experience – to hear a short (very short) announcement that while holding every 2 minutes I will hear “Please continue to hold”. If you believe that some want to hear music or offers or …, ONLY do that if you provide an opt out selection (press 1 for example).
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That is a great idea. Thank you for sharing!
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