Music is an undeniably powerful way to change the environment in your venue. By using overhead music in your store, you have an opportunity to boost sales by engaging your customers. Audio is powerful because it can’t be ignored – while customers can overlook imagery, they can’t prevent themselves from hearing what’s going on around them. You can close your eyes, but you can’t turn off your ears.
The Benefits of Overhead Music
Keeps clients in store longer. Studies show that simply playing music in your store keeps people shopping longer. It fills the empty space and makes the environment more comfortable.
Affects shopping speed. Customers shop faster when you’re playing fast music and slower when you’re playing slow music. Keep in mind how fast you want them to shop when choosing your music.
- Shoppers like it. Plain and simple – people prefer to hear music.
- Emphasize your brand. You probably have a good idea of how your brand looks, but do you know how your brand sounds? Music is just one of many ways to build an audio brand.
- Shorten perceived wait times. Just like silence on hold makes telephone wait time seem longer, silence in your store can make waiting on line appear to last forever.
- Filter target customers. When you walk past a store at the mall playing excessively loud music, you probably think one of two things: “Wow! This store is exciting, I can’t wait to shop here!” or “That’s horrible – I can’t imagine shopping there.” In this situation, the store is filtering potential customers with music. Those who don’t like the music probably aren’t the Brand’s target customers. If they did enter the store, they would be unlikely to spend much money there.
How to Approach Overhead Music For Your Store
One effective way to implement overhead music in your store is to create a branded, in-store radio system. In addition to playing background music, you can choose to mix in overhead announcements and even your brand’s audio logo for a natural-sounding radio station that helps you promote your business and promotions.
One of the most important aspects of background music for stores is having control over the system. Many music options dictate the use of premade playlists… and only premade playlists. While this is a quick solution, it’s frequently not the right solution for many stores. Instead, look for an overhead music solution that is customizable so you can decide what’s playing, when customers will hear it, and how often.
When you’re in control of your overhead music, you can help boost sales, improve customer happiness, and energize your employees.