Sky Hold Music is Changing
We live in a time where we can access information almost instantly, so being put on hold is like Netflix buffering: we just want to rage quit. That's why companies rolled out on-hold music; designed to fill the silence, on-hold music is a genre, it'd be fair to say, is one that'll never top the charts. It seems almost purposefully invented to get on your nerves. All it really does is say, "don't hang up".
A 2009 study published in the Journal of Services Marketing showed that people placed on-hold with music, unless they can choose that music, will believe they've been waiting longer than they have. And if that estimation goes up, the satisfaction of the customer plummets. Imagine you're on-hold to the solicitors listening to Madonna sing, "Time goes by, so slowly" when suddenly the music stops, and just when you think you're about to get through to an agent, you hear, "Get 20% off all Johnson & Smith's consultations when you fill out our phone survey!"
So how do we know what to give each individual? And should we be throwing ads at customers who have urgent business to discuss?
Introducing: Sky Jukebox
The Sky Jukebox provides you, the customer, with a personalised in-queue experience. We acknowledge that being on hold is the most negative part of your contact experience. Therefore, we aim to improve it by giving you a choice over the music you hear while on-hold.
"This is an exciting project to be part of, as its sole focus is on improving the customer experience in a way that few other companies have done. It’s taking an area of the contact journey that often gets overlooked and spending time to research how we could make it better, using customer feedback to help guide us" - Ruth Atkinson, Product Owner
Multiple research surveys have been carried out to understand what customers want when they contact a company over the phone. From these surveys, we discovered an important part of the journey is the on-hold music. Ruth Atkinson collaborated with Mazaru, UKIS and internal Sky teams to build the Jukebox from scratch. The project didn't cost a penny, and was made from people equally focussed to improve customer experience without operational benefits.
So, what's it like?
If you ever need to call us, you'll be offered the chance to pick your preferred choice of music from the following top 5 genres:
-
Pop - featuring artists like: Camila Cabello, Coldplay, The Weeknd.
-
Dance - featuring artists like: Diplo, David Guetta, Jax Jones.
-
RnB - featuring artists like: Chakha Khan, Beyonce, Luther Vandross
-
Rock - featuring artists like: Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Bryan Adams
-
Easy Listening - featuring artists like: Nina Simone, Dusty Springfield, Frank Sinatra
Once you enter the queue and begin to hear this music, it will be uninterrupted until the call is answered by one of our agents. That means no ads, no announcements, and no deflections to our website. Sky’s passion to do right by the customer helped us to focus on delivering this new music experience, and we sincerely hope it improves your on-hold experience.
Note: If your call is expected to have a wait time of 2 minutes or less, or we know you are making contact about a bereavement, you'll hear updated, uninterrupted instrumental experience.
What's your genre of choice?
Follow @SkyHelpTeam for more updates!
Leave a comment