Music & Message
On Hold Research

Why use messages?

• An estimated 70% of business callers are put on-hold, of which 60% hang up. 30% do not call back!
  
• A staggering 84% of callers prefer on-hold messaging to other options!
  
• 90% of callers with silence on-hold hang up within 40 seconds. Music on-hold adds another 30 seconds to the hold time.
  
• Callers with information and music on-hold stay on-line up to three minutes longer!
  
• 15 to 35% of callers purchased additional items or services as a result of something they heard on-hold.
  

Research is from AT&T, North American Telecommunications Association, US West, Nationwide Insurance, and Maximarketing Studies, compiled by Marc Lyman of Flashpoint Solutions.

What kind of music?

From an article written by Bruce Hedlam and published in the New York Times on 4/22/99:

• People over-estimate the amount of time they spend on hold.

• Men reacted most favorably to classical music and estimated the wait as the shortest.

• Women perceived the classical music wait to be the longest.

• Women preferred light jazz, estimating that wait as the shortest.

• Baby boomers did not like listening to rock oldies while on hold.

According to researcher James Kellaris, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati, familiarity may breed contempt. ''The women may have been more familiar with the classical music,'' he suggested. ''When people hear part of a piece of music they know, they infer the whole piece. So they think that they were on hold longer.''

Dr. Kellaris joked that companies might offer music choices: ''If you are male, please press 1. If you are female, please press 2.''