Customer Experience - Sound

I'm going to cover this post in 2 sections: Music and Sound.


1. Music

Most businesses think they've got their sound down; that the music they play in their shops, gyms, restaurants, taxis, hold buttons is simply good music.

Good is what you think the music is. Your opinion of the quality of the music, in this situation, isn't the most important thing here. What is - Does the music represent your business? Does it encourage the atmosphere you want? What mood does the music invoke?

Where businesses fall down is deciding on the music based on what they think their customers will want to listen to, guessing their personal taste. There are 2 reasons for this:

1. The owners are not likely to include genres he/she dislike in the list of options. There are many reasons for this way of thinking, but if one is making the conscious decision not to play "classical" music, for example, because of a personal dislike for the genre then that decision has purely been made for the business owner, not the customer. Let's not forget, hopefully you'll be concentrating on running your business, not what music happens to be on in the background, right?
2. It seems so brutally, frustratingly obvious, but not all customers enjoy being stereotyped. One particular annoyance of mine is walking into a shop which, for the entire duration of my stay, blasts out rap. I'm sure others think exactly the same about other genres too, specifically the more "fringe" genres. So if you're going to play music, make sure there's a wide variety or at least some variation as you may be turning away customers who don't "fit the mould".

What I'd ask business owners to do is think purely about the psychological state the music they play puts their customers into. Should they be feeling happy, reflective, relaxed... aggressive, pumped up?

Play music with swearing and you set a precedent that swearing openly is OK. Whether or not you agree with swearing is irrelevant. You're setting that precedent that it is. Your customers will be placed in a psychological state which makes them think, as swearing is acceptable here, I can swear. Then your worry should be who at - your staff, other customers? This effectively creates a very steep slope into escalation which no one wants.

To give you a quick example of selecting music to induce a mood, in my time on this earth I've known club owners and DJ's in London and, of all the music these difference places put on, they all had a similar idea for the bigger nights - cheesy music. Why? Because it's fun, happy, feel good so there's less of a chance that there'll be trouble.


2. Sound

Moving away from music, another almost untouched on part of sound in a shop is sound. Just sound. Ambient sound. The video above made me chuckle and exemplifies my point exactly. I'll explain why in a moment.

Ambient sound is so important. It's a constant reminder that something is going on around you, that you're part of something. The same restaurant can feel depressing and lifeless in silence but when it's busy it feels like the place to be. This is partly visual and partly sound. I'd suggest that sound, however, is equally as important as it's a constant reminder that you are somewhere that other people want to be. Your being there is affirmed, other people being there confirms that it's a good place to be.

I sometimes find myself in clothes shops which are quieter than a graveyard. This problem is made worse because the clothes suck up the sound. I often don't go back to those places. Shopping is supposed to be fun and exciting, right?! I'm enriching my life with these new objects right?! Then the shop should make me feel like it's the place to buy enriching things.

So let's look at that music shop in the video. Consider what the customer wants - probably an opportunity to hear an electric guitar and amplifier in as ideal a place as possible. This shop is not that ideal place. There is so much other noise going on in that shop that it would be impossible to make a solid decision on whether the amp or guitar sounds great. This means less sales and more time wasters.


Conclusion


(I felt compelled to mark the conclusion because of the length of the post)

Your focus is to put things in your business which enrich your customers experience of being in your shop/restaurant/gym/taxi/gallery etc. Focusing on what you want to hear is the worst place to start. Consider what your customers will need to reassure them that your place is the place they want to be. Maybe it's through loud dance music from a live DJ. Maybe it's piping through ambient noise from a train station. Maybe it's talk radio. Maybe it's an interesting lecture. Maybe it's adverts, reviews, discussions about the products you sell from your customers or professionals.

It can be anything. Play with it. Get creative. People respond to creativity. I would definitely remember a clothing shop I walked into which sounded like a busy train station and I would definitely tell my friends about it...