Need another reason to use On Hold Marketing?
Consider this: our brains can’t quite grasp the beeping sound that often replaces customized on hold content delivered by a human voice. That’s according to Anthony McGovern, a New York-based freelance science and technology writer.
In addition to their high-pitched, monotone nature, McGovern says most people are irritated by the beeps from microwave ovens, trucks in reverse and certain telephone systems because those artificial sounds end abruptly.
In contrast, natural, more-nuanced sounds gradually fade in volume. McGovern explains that’s one factor our brains use to determine what made the sound. He writes that “the flat tone of a beep lacks that fadeaway or any other small variations of a natural sound.”
He then quotes researcher Michael Shutz by adding, “flat tones are basically incompatible with the physical reality of the natural world.”
What People Want to Hear
An unpublished study by Schutz showed that people react more positively to natural sounds.
Schutz displayed two different cell phones to study participants. Each phone played the same four tones when a call was missed. However, one phone generated flat, artificial tones, while the other phone used tones with a more natural decay. Almost 90% of the participants preferred the phone with the natural tones.
Don’t Create a Negative Environment
Are you subjecting your callers to those annoying beeps while they’re on hold? That tells your customers that you don’t care about that particular experience with your company. And because those monotone beeps are so irritating, they can actually lengthen your callers’ perceived hold times.
About the Author
Scott Greggory is the Chief Creative Officer at BusinessVoice. A copywriter, voice talent and producer with the agency since 1993, he leads the writing team and helped pioneer Humor On Hold in the mid-1990s. His work has been recognized 150+ times by local, regional and national award shows for creative excellence, including the 2021 AAF Silver Medal Award. In 2026, Scott became the first inductee of Bowling Green State University’s School of Media and Communication Hall of Fame.