When used correctly, music can be an incredibly powerful tool for businesses. Gone are the days where music was managed by the business owners and or their staff, and used for just background noise; nowadays smart businesses use music to enhance their customers experience, their brand/image, and increase footfall and sales. Here we take a look at the ways you can measure the effectiveness of the music you play and optimise it to achieve the desired end results.

Making music fit your business

If a business makes the transition from having no music, to having music, that music becomes an extension of the businesses brand/image; another medium and sensory experience that can influence the customers perception of the business. It’s therefore important that the music you’re playing is aligned with your businesses brand/image and customers.

One method for making sure your music fits is to get customer feedback. Start by creating a list with a mixture of both core and irrelevant brand/image traits, and then ask people to rate your business for each trait. For example ‘On a scale of 1-10, how much do you agree with the statement our business is warm and friendly’. Do the same for the music style you play or are looking to play, i.e. ‘On a scale of 1-10, how much do you agree with the statement Music Style X is warm and friendly’. If people score the same statements evenly for both your business and music, you know they are a suitable fit. If not, you can continue to measure and optimise your music until the desired results are achieved.

Does the music have the desired effect on your customers?

Music can affect customers in many different ways. It can change people’s moods, it can make them feel more relaxed and comfortable, spend more, eat slower; even make them want to try on clothes! The desired effect will depend on the overall objectives of the business. A restaurant might have the objective of increasing the number of customers per week night, and so the desired effect would be people eating faster to free up tables. You could measure whether the music is having the desired effect by comparing with previous nights and seeing if tables are being used at an above than average rate.

A retailer might want to use music to increase the dwell time of shoppers. There’s various systems that stores can install that keeps track of how many people are in-store, their paths through the store and how long they stay for, making it easy to see if the music is working effectively.

A bank or doctors waiting area could use music to reduce the perceived waiting time, therefore alleviating frustration amongst customers. You could compare two different sites: a site without music and a site that has music, and survey the customers at each site on things such as how relaxed they felt, and how they would score their time on site on a scale of 1-10. If there are significantly improved scores for the site with music then you know it’s having the desired effect.

We hope you found these examples on how to measure and optimise your music, and you’re able to take something away from this post. We work with a huge variety of businesses, and have designed our music service on extensive research to ensure you have the most effective music for your business at your disposal. Feel free to get in touch and remember to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for more useful Muzo muzings.