I love when my children are quiet but when they are silent I get worried.
The lack of sound can be just as off putting as too much sound when it comes to kids. For those of you that aren’t parents I’ll break it down.
Loud is chaotic and distracting and you can’t hear yourself think.
However, quiet means someone’s doing something they shouldn’t or they are dead.
As a small business owner, this sound effects my work tremendously. It’s incredibly hard to focus when my ear is constantly checking the sound frequencies in the living room or worse, their bedroom. It is pretty much impossible to do that thing everyone’s talking about called “staying on task.”
So what if my customers had the same kind of distractions focusing on me and my products because of the sound that I generate?
Distracting Sound In Business
How can a company distract with sound you say? In more ways than you might think.
What if the on hold music was repetitive to the point of causing anger or frustration? How about an in store playlist with a scratchy speaker or WIFI constantly cutting out? What if an electric toothbrush buzzed too much and made people uncomfortable using it?
Sound strategy goes deeper than sonic branding alone.
Sound strategy is ALL the sound in your marketing whether it’s branded or not.
With just a little foresight, a lot can be analyzed, examined, and remedied.
Design Your Product With Immersive Experiences In Mind
UX stands for user experience.
A good user experience is what motivates a potential customer to make a purchase. One really beneficial element of UX design is when you create an immersive experience within the user’s experience.
Before you get too confused, an immersive experience doesn’t need to mean VR goggles and 3D visuals.
An immersive experience quite simply means- how can we make the customer “feel” more?
Sound Strategy For The Win
So back to my distracting or off putting sound analogy.
When a sound affects a user experience, we have to ask ourselves why.
How can sound issues be fixed within the scenarios listed above?
Problem: The hold music is too repetitive.
Solution: Invest in a custom track that can be looped in a more inviting and interesting way.
Problem: A scratchy speaker in a store’s PA system.
Solution: Fix or replace it.
Problem: An electric tooth brush buzzes too much.
Solution: Take it back to the manufacturer to see if maybe there’s a more low profile motor to invest in.
Problem: The kids are too loud.
Solution: I close the door. Enough sound will penetrate for me to know the tone and know that everyone is ok.
Problem: The kids are too quiet.
Solution: Doors stay open and potentially I move the smart speaker into their room to “check in” from time to time.
Sound Investments Pay Off
Sound investments pay off in the long run. When the customer knows that you’re “hearing” them (pun intended) and their needs, they will be that much more inclined to invest in you and your product.
As for the kid issue. I may not have found the best fix yet but with a little more thought I could come up with something brilliant.
Or I just wait a few years till they’re older and too cool to hang out at home anymore.
