Every Friday morning our copy team listens to Radio 1′s ‘Golden Hour’ – a selection of hits from a mystery year. Invariably, the person to guess the year correctly is usually someone with a story that relates to one of the featured songs. Whether it’s a song that got you the girl or boy you’d been lusting after at the school disco, a memorable holiday or something your Nan played while she cooked a Sunday breakfast, music is intrinsically linked with memories and experiences.

Happy shoppers

Along a similar vein, research suggests that music can subliminally affect the way we behave and the decisions we make. Major department stores and high-street chains use popular music to entertain customers and encourage footfall through their doors. By association, upbeat, happy music helps to create a positive relationship between the person and their shopping experience. In turn, a good experience will become a good memory which lends itself to customer loyalty and brand awareness.

Fresh new in-store sounds

At PH Media Group we’re very aware of the powerful and positive effect music can have on customers and sales. That’s why we’re currently working hard on some new and exciting developments within our PH Radio division, and although we can’t quite spill the beans yet, keep checking this blog and the PH Media Group website to be first to hear the latest on PH Radio.

And, just for fun, we thought we’d share this video that turned viral this week – proof of the positive effect music can have on us all!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZrEWwbjMK4

We think this is a brilliant piece of Audio Branding by Coca-Cola. Thanks to Sound Lounge for publishing the full story –  read it here .

Photo credit: Kevin H @ Flickr

You’ve no doubt heard it before – when it comes to promoting your business, place your main focus on the benefits (not the features) of your product or service. But this advice so often gets overlooked.

After pouring hard work, creativity and countless resources into your business, you deserve to sing its praises. But without a meaningful connection and a tangible list of benefits that separate you from your competitors, phrases like “our service is really friendly” just won’t get the results you want.

Now, I know that when you said “We’ve doubled our profits in the last year, because we are the best at what we do,” you really thought your customers would care. But think about it. Why would I be interested in how much profit you’ve made, when what really impresses me is your next-day delivery service on the products I need, at a much cheaper price than the manufacturer?

When you try to sell the features of your product, your customer has to do all the work to figure out why they want it. It’s in the seller’s best interest to draw the connection for them. But to do that, you have to know the results yourself.

Identifying the benefits

Of course, it’s easy for a copywriter to instantly identify the unique selling points and benefits of the business they’re writing for. But if you’re not used to tackling your own business copy for brochures or e-shots for example, see if these simple steps won’t give you inspiration (examples in brackets refer to an audio marketing service):

1. List the features of each product or service (E.g. bespoke audio productions; professional scriptwriting; cutting-edge remote access technology)

2. Next, think of and try to identify your customers’ needs and desires. (Finding affordable ways to promote their business; improve their brand; increase revenue)

3. Then, ask yourself why your customers should care about your product’s features. (Enhances corporate image; reduces caller ‘hang ups’; improves client retention)

4. Once you’ve identified the key, say five or ten benefits of your service – focus your marketing content (your website, leaflets etc) around them.

Brian Clark, founding editor of Copyblogger, and co-founder of Teaching Sells and Lateral Action, says: “Look, if you own a company and you want to market based on your personal preferences without regard for what works best with your prospects, that’s your prerogative. As long as you accept personal responsibility for lower revenues and profits when you miss the mark, no one can say a thing.”

And we tend to agree. When we approach our customers’ On-Hold Marketing scripts, we write for the intended listener, always aiming to find a happy split between benefits and features. Work that method into the rest of your marketing literature and you’re on to a giant WIN.

If you’d like advice on how to ensure your On-Hold Marketing production is benefit-led, feel free to drop us a line.

What’s the first voice your callers hear? Interactive Voice Response (IVR) – also known as auto attendant messaging – is a popular feature with busy businesses operating a number of departments. The IVR technology quickly connects calls, offering a number of pre-recorded options for the caller to choose from. It then recognises keypad or voice instructions to direct calls to desired departments efficiently with minimum disruption to callers and staff. But that’s not the only benefit…

The benefits of an IVR

Cost: As well as reducing hold time for callers, IVR also greatly reduces support staff costs. This is because businesses no longer require that ‘first-point-of-contact’ team member to answer and transfer calls because it does that for you – 24 hours a day! This is particularly useful for organisations with a global presence.

Communication: Improvements in efficiency are always going to be popular with customers, but when those improvements mean less waiting time on hold and faster, more streamlined services, you can expect to benefit from an increase in customer satisfaction levels, retention rates and new business.  (Research carried out by CRM Today and Articlebase)

Brand perception: If you already use On-Hold Marketing, you can have your IVR / auto attendant message recorded by the same voiceover artist; thus creating a consistent audio brand across your telecommunications.

Research carried out by eCustomerServiceWorld.com states that IVR is now commonplace globally because of its proven success rates. QVC – the home shopping channel – is now managing over 38% of incoming calls with automated call handling technology. Pretty impressive when you consider that the majority of their sales are generated through incoming telephone calls.

Getting it right

You must be careful to keep information, clear, concise and to-the-point. The Genesys Global Consumer Survey recorded that 57% of customers greeted with an IVR with too many options became frustrated. This can result in lost calls – so make sure you avoid overcomplicating your IVR / auto attendant message.

Many telephone systems offer businesses the chance to record their IVR / auto attendant message but the results often sound tinny, sub-standard and amateur. Sandra the receptionist might have a lovely telephone voice, but you have to consider brand perception.

A professionally recorded IVR / auto attendant message says you’re organised, efficient and ready to do business.

Most importantly, an IVR shows callers that you’re committed to making the most of their time – not wasting it. You’re taking the initiative to direct their calls quickly and efficiently while reducing hold time.

Just remember to keep your options transparent and succinct and your IVR / auto attendant will make your callers’ lives a lot easier.

Listen again to this Radio 4 programme last broadcast in the UK on Saturday, at 15:30. Sue Perkins explores audio branding and how composers capture an entire brand in a few musical notes.

With contributions from Professor John Deathridge, one of the world’s leading musicologists, the programme is an interesting listen – but you must be quick – you only have five days left to listen again.

Click here to visit the BBC website and listen again.

Hold messages have a bad rep in some quarters. When you listen to the worst examples of music on hold, you can see why.

Sound quality. Music choice. Voice choice. All of these things can make or break an on-hold experience. But something that’s sometimes overlooked is the script. And more specifically, clichés.

In this post, we’re looking at how an overused phrase with good intentions can actually have the wrong effect.

Heard that before?

Clichés are the phrases we know and often hate. They’re the phrases that run a fine line between functional (everybody understands them) and irritating (nobody wants to hear them).

Clichés started out as great phrases that turned hackneyed when everybody started using them. They fast become cheesy, too. Like bad jokes, the worst clichés make you groan and wince.

And if you think of being on hold – of all the times you’ve ever tapped your foot to some anonymous lounge jazz – you’ll be able think of one in particular:

Your call is important to us.

Are you sure it is?

See, the company you’re calling is passionate about customer service. They want to reassure you and keep your business. After all, that’s why they’ve installed hold messages to start with: your call IS important. But because the company’s heard so many hold messages before – and because they think it’s the done thing – they’ll request that their script says:

Your call’s important to us.

And you think, hearing that cliché, that cheese; a phrase that’s well-intentioned but kind of hollow, Well, it can’t be that important.

So at PH Audio, our scriptwriters have found better ways to say it.

Sounding sincere is crucial

You know when you apologise to someone, and they want actions, not words? It’s the same on hold. A company can say sorry all they like, but if you’re waiting on hold for twenty minutes, it’s probably not an apology you want – it’s an operator.

That’s why it’s a good idea to avoid the cheese. Take out the fluff and the stuff your callers have heard a million times over from a million other companies.

Instead of making a call a negative experience, make it a positive one. Tell your callers what you can do for them. Speak to your callers in a way they’ll appreciate. Talk to your callers about things you know will benefit them.

In clichéd terms, add more value to the time your callers are on hold. That way, they’ll know their call really is important.

Where television and online advertising offer layers of stimulus – colour, sound, movement, logos – a telephone advert engages with fewer senses, but is no less complex.

In this post we’re looking at the impact of an on-brand audio voiceover; one that embodies your business and its beliefs perfectly.

Sounds familiar

In recent years, famous actors and television personalities have become synonymous with big brands. Ricky Gervais’ wing-man, Stephen Merchant, now voices Barclays’ advertising campaign, his dulcet Bristol tones bringing a laid-back approach to a multi-national name. Lesser-known actor Simon Greenall, better recognised as Geordie Michael from I’m Alan Partridge, has been revealed as one of the biggest voiceover hits with his Aleksandr the Meerkat voice for comparethemarket.com. While famous names and branding are not a new pairing, in today’s advertising the stress seems to be on the voice as much as it is on the face; possibly even more so.

Celebrity and recognisable voiceovers create a ‘voice brand’ which serves to show just how important voices are becoming to modern business advertising.

The professional pitch

Ensuring your hold messages, auto attendants and answer phone messages all seamlessly reflect your brand is essential for an appropriate and consistent service delivery. Without visuals, far more emphasis is placed on voice, the words your voiceover speaks and how they say them. And while it may seem like Brenda on reception can give your business a ‘personal touch’, as we’ve discussed previously in Mark Griffiths’ breathless post, natural speech utterances rarely sound professional.

Finding your voice

At PH Audio, we recommend clients carefully consider the voice they want to use for their production, making sure that it blends with existing campaigns and additional services like Web Audio. So, if you’re looking to find the right voiceover for your on-hold production, here are some points worth considering:

Appropriateness – does the voice suit your business?

Consistency – is it in keeping with your established advertising and brand values?

Credibility – is the voice believable and professional?

Audience – what do they want and how will that personality translate vocally?

Competitors – what’s already out there and how will your voice be heard above these?

Audio branding for business

There’s a lot to consider when choosing your voiceover and every business has different requirements. Male Corporate would never work for a ladies beauty salon, but could work perfectly for an insurance group or law firm where his voice can instil confidence and trust. Because callers can’t see the person speaking (at least not until technology is developed further), the imagination becomes a key player. Your voice’s personality has to shine through their speech, so the correct levels of conviction have to be employed and different voices will immediately conjure images in your caller’s mind. For many people, Male Corporate will be a successful middle-aged chap in a navy pin-striped suit, while Female Northern Bubbly is a blonde, buxom lass brimming with friendly charm – or maybe that’s just the way we see them?

The audio cream of the crop

At PH Audio, all our voiceovers are familiar voices from TV and radio. They deliver speech for a living so you can be sure that every rhythm, pitch and intonation is carefully considered and produced to your exacting criteria. Working alongside our scriptwriters, our audio production team will help you match the right words to the right voice, so your On-Hold Marketing is always on-brand.

Having a bad day at work and tempted to tell callers exactly what’s on your mind? For many people, indulging in a spot of under-the-breath mumbling is enough to relieve tension, but for one school in Australia, their infuriation at pupil absences and lack of parental support was eloquently spat all over their answering machine. In fact, a whole auto attendant message was dedicated to making their feelings very clear!

Did I hear that correctly?

With no fewer than 10 auto attendant choices, parents were encouraged to press a number most suited to their enquiry – covering everything from lying about a child’s absence or inability to do their homework to swearing at staff and complaining about lunches. It certainly makes for an entertaining listen – check it out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwghabw4N80

Office on meltdown or just a clever hoax?

If this is a real recording, we’re led to believe that the message had disastrous consequences for the school.  Well, such a courageous (or stupid) message would! So make sure your day goes a little easier by keeping customers informed with clear, concise and direct On Hold Marketing and auto attendant messages. And if you’re feeling a little close to the edge, just write down an imaginary auto attendant list. It’ll make you feel better… and it’s much more amusing than counting to ten!

Finding the right song for that great weather just got a little easier. We’ve recently stumbled across Musicovery.com, a clever site that allows you to find and listen to music based on its era, genre and tempo — and most importantly, your mood.

Musicovery is simple to use, too: just log on to the site and use the search panel to browse artists and songs by their sound. So, if you’re feeling calm, Musicovery will find the tracks to complement a laid-back mood. If you’re feeling a bit more downbeat, try something from the darker side of the spectrum.

Like Spotify, Musicovery is useful because it provides a large song library that plays exactly what you want it to. And, just as Spotify is redefining how and when listeners want to enjoy their music, Musicovery provides another way for listeners to find new tunes without much effort.

A kind of audio branding tool?

What we find really interesting about Musicovery is that beyond personal use, it also hints at a number of future possibilities for commercial users — particularly those who are interested in creating a soundtrack for their retail environment. As we’ve covered before, matching the right music to a visual brand is now a serious marketing consideration. It’s becoming more and more important to define what your audience, and potential customers, will respond to best.

With a system like Musicovery, you’re looking at a kind of flexibility a pre-determined playlist just can’t offer. And because it’s possible to plug the program into existing players like iTunes, it could mean that your already specific playlist can be tailored further to the time of day; the weather; the day of the week — even the look of customers in your shop right there and then. For instance, let’s say you’re a fashion retailer operating in a city centre. You might want to find the energetic, feel-good music in your playlist. By simply clicking ‘energetic’, or even by setting the tempo you want, Musicovery will filter the right tunes from your personal library, and you’ll be able to create the right mood without the hassle.

Time isn’t an issue, either — the tool will select the music for you, which means you won’t have to spend an age seperating your catalogue manually.

Agree with us? Have a look and take a few minutes to play with Musicovery at musicovery.com.

Too often, choosing royalty-free music to play on hold means choosing the track that’s least annoying.

Our business is based on the idea it shouldn’t have to be like that.

But if you make a conscious decision to improve the way your brand sounds, you’re starting to think about strategy. After all, you’re now shaping the way clients hear you – creating associations that connect sounds to images.

So, whether you’re making the most of an audio branding service like ours, or simply paying for a licensed track you think works well with – and best represents – your brand, it makes sense to think about what kind of audio fits with people’s image of your company.

Get this wrong, and you could end up sending mixed messages.

In December, we picked up on the week Delta Air Lines played ‘Let It Snow’ to callers whose planes were cancelled owing to, well, a lot of snow. Outrage on Twitter besides, it’s obvious the company didn’t do it on purpose – it was the season to be jolly, after all.

But it shows that something a lot of companies regard as unimportant is actually a major part of a caller’s experience. Association has a lasting effect, and without enough forethought, it could be all too easy to lose valuable enquiries. Don’t forget – you and your staff will rarely hear your hold music, so it’s important to make sure it’s right first time.

Below you’ll find three examples of good and bad music choices for a few different businesses, plus a bit of rationale. And while these are a bit daft, they serve to prove a point. Callers, like visitors, have an expectation of the brands they choose.

Criminal lawyers

Bad: The Godfather Soundtrack. A grand way to sound a bit dodgy. And sure, you might not go this far, but lounge jazz would present the same sort of image.

Good: Ambient; chill-out. Chances are, your clients are a bit stressed out. But by playing something low-key, it means you’re not making anything worse. But then again, we don’t mean too low-key. Whale songs probably won’t wash.

Garden centres

Bad: Techno. Since your customers want to associate your centre with a relaxing environment. And because class doesn’t grow on trees.

Good: Classical or ambient music will set the tone perfectly. Oh, and plants like classical music, so if they were calling it would get their vote, too.

Hotels

Bad: Romance, business or holiday, there are loads of reasons to stay in a hotel – and absolutely millions of reasons a hotelier shouldn’t put 70s disco music down the blower.

Good: If it’s an inner-city establishment, chill out or ambient will likely suit the brand. If the hotel’s a little more provincial, it might be worth choosing something a little more traditional.