By Benjamin Jackson

Copyright thescarboroughnews

The dramas of being on hold when making a phone call has been scientifically dissected by researchers at the University of York.Commissioned by Talkmobile, the company wanted to find out if there was a specific genre of music that made those waits more tolerable.Does having music, though, lead to an increased perception of waiting or lessen the feeling of hanging on the telephone?

It’s become part of daily life since call centres were invented; the inevitable “please hold, your call is important to us” spiel while trying to address a domestic or financial situation, to be soothed by some form of hold music.

It can be either the bane of your existence or, sometimes, inspire you to go re-listen to some works by artists you never thought would be used to help you kill time while waiting for an operator to answer.

It’s something that mobile network provider Talkmobile were particularly interested in, owing to its “commitment to enhance its already industry-leading customer service rating” – currently 4.7 on the tried-and-tested Trustpilot service.

They wanted to ensure that every bit of their customers’ journey was smooth and improved, and that includes the holding music we’re often subjected to.

They commissioned music psychologist Dr. Mini O’Neil and researchers at the University of York to find out if certain hold music made customers more at ease and not concerned with the wait time, or if certain styles only made the wait time long and painful, leading to those occasional bouts of phone rage with the operator on the other side.

The science part (methodology)

The study involved 2,540 participants who were each placed “on hold” for a fixed duration of two minutes and 22 seconds. During this time, they were randomly assigned to listen to one of ten different audio experiences, which included seven distinct music genres as well as silence, nature sounds, and trivia.

Throughout the experiment, researchers monitored participants’ heart rate, mood, and alertness. Afterwards, the listeners were asked to score their audio experience out of ten and provide an estimate of how long they believed they had been on hold.

What genre of music is considered the least annoying to listen to while on hold?

Despite maybe having a case of them while on the phone to a utility or service provider, it turns out that blues music is considered the least annoying genre to be subjected to while on hold.

It received the highest satisfaction score among all musical genres tested, with many of those who participated in the study admitting that it “helped pass the time” and that it had a more soothing effect while waiting for a response over the phone.

Interestingly, participants also ranked both trivia and silence as more popular to wait on the phone with rather than other musical genres, with silence considered as one of the quickest means of time passing while waiting on hold.

While the blues was the most popular musical genre in the study, silence did rank first with a perceived waiting time of 1 minute 49 seconds, feeling seemingly shorter than the timeframe suggested.

What genre of music is considered the most annoying to listen to while on hold?

While we are all for heavy metal being used in more mainstream situations, it doesn’t fare well when it comes to those waiting to be put through, or reconnected to, someone on the other end of the phone.

It scored a very low 5.10 out of ten for listener satisfaction, making those who participated in the study feel “overstimulated” by the “repetitive, loud, or emotionally aggravating tone,” with some even reporting it caused them “headaches and distress.”

While genres such as pop, hip-hop and classical music were rated less favourably than blues and silence, it would be heavy metal that was singled out in the study as being least liked; so gone are the chances of having Mudvayne as hold music while waiting to get your gas meter fixed.

Does having music make a difference in how long I feel I am on hold for?

Apparently so, and especially the type of music being played can influence a caller’s perception of time while on hold over the phone.

Fundamentally, the use of music is that of being a “distractor”: a 2002 study by Guéguen and Jacob, for instance, found that people who heard music on hold underestimated the duration of their wait, owing to the sounds becoming an engaging stimulus occupying cognitive resources, including distracting us from passages of time.

Some studies, such as one by Oakes (2003), found that slow-tempo music made waiting feel shorter, while fast-tempo music made it feel longer. However, other research has found conflicting results, showing that fast tempos can make time feel shorter.

Research has also shown that people tend to be more patient and perceive time as passing more quickly when they are listening to music they like.

What’s the best, or worst, hold music you’ve experienced when on the phone to a company or utilities provider? Share your best examples by dropping the writer of this article an email, for potential inclusion in a later piece.