I am continually amazed at how companies treat us when we call in and go on hold. The insane waits that many consumer companies subject us to are bad enough but to add insult to injury there’s that little issue of music on hold.
Music on hold ranges from high quality CD playback (rarely), through what sounds like abused eight track recordings to out of tune radio stations. Add to that that the music can be of any genre (although I have yet to be regaled with punk or industrial metal) and you have a pretty diverse range of torture methods.
Sometimes the result is tolerable but mostly it is simply irritating. But occasionally you encounter what I think of as the the worst, the very worst, music on hold: Looped music. Within a few minutes of hearing this you know exactly what’s coming and coming and coming …
What amazes me is that if anyone from the company ever actually had to go on hold to their own customer service of technical support surely they would recognize just how annoying it was.
I think every CEO and all senior management should call into their own company and see for themselves what the customer experience really is like. I’d bet that music on hold would change pretty quick if these quys had to listen to what they make us listen to.
