Something not virus related ;)
I’m guessing it’s based on people using the same company for their call hold and distribution systems, but it leads me to wonder why they don’t bother Using different music for each major corporation? I was on hold with Blue Cross, but after a while I forgot and thought I was on hold with my doctor. Wonder if a psychologist helped compose the simple synth music to calm people down for being stuck on hold a long time?
One of the hospital sites I have called for years has always had their hold music/info be some of the procedures they offer, I never really listened to it and just waited for someone to pick up. Now that I am wfh this week I’ve actually listened to the hold recording and I am wondering if I need a virtual colonoscopy this year.
:D
Everyone is forced to use on-hold music that is freely licensed. To add to that, everyone is lazy and leaves the default music installed. It’s sad, too, because once on-hold music is made or chosen, typically it’s just a checkmark on the install of every new callmanager or call agent system installed from that point on.
The common areas to my work building play a very-low volume “80s hits”. I will go home wondering why the hell some song is stuck in my head.
I’ll add a story, Jeff. Waaay back in early 2000, I worked for a Cisco network reseller. Back then, the actual Cisco company did not have any spoken voice as part of their on-hold music, and a somewhat simplistic menuing queue upon call-in. So my boss, being the jackass that he was, mimicked both. When you called into our tiny little reseller company, the menu sounded … kind of like Cisco. If we placed you on hold it sounded … kind of like Cisco. Now you tell me what customers took away from that.
Step 1: get a web cam
Step 2: bend over.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: PROFIT
This American Life did a fun segment about a famous piece of default hold music.