3 Interesting Effects Music Has On Your Customers

They say music can soothe the savage beast. Well I’m sure most of you don’t consider your customers as savage beasts, but this saying holds true to them nonetheless.
 
Here are 3 things you should take note of the next time you play music in your stores:

 1. Music tempo dictates how fast customers move through your store and how much they spend. 
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A study summarized in a paper by French researchers explains that music’s tempo significantly influences the time customers spend in your stores. The study found that low tempo music caused customers to spend more time inside stores whereas fast tempo music caused them to move through them more quickly.
 
The effect of music tempo was doubled in restaurants wherein slow music caused customers to take their time and spend more rather than when fast music was playing.

2. Music affects customers perception of time

For those of you who have ever been on hold when speaking with a customer service rep, you may or may not have noticed the amount of time that has passed. Playing music while callers were on hold made them stay on the line longer before they hung up.
 
Another experiment went on to suggest that loud music can also contribute to a customers’ perception of time but this effect was gender specific. Loud music caused females to think less time has passed than actually has. 

3. Music genre makes customers buy more expensive items on the menu
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Another study experimented on how music genre affected customers’ spending habits. The study experimented on the effect of playing top 40 pop music versus classical music in a wine store.
 
Not surprisingly, customers spent more when classical music was playing rather than when the top 40 pop hits were but not in the way you might expect. Customers who spent more did not purchase more bottles of wine but tended to choose the more expensive bottles.
 
Before you replace your entire playlist with Mozart though, researchers caution that this also caused customers to perceive an establishment as expensive.

Take action today.
Gone are the days of playing random audio content in stores. Make music work to your store's advantage. Take the first steps towards a better listening experience for your customers and a sound content strategy that can contribute to your store's sales performance. Click the link below now and let's discuss how you can further improve your store playlist. 

 1. http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=1966-08400-001 
 2. http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=7467