Hold music

Try this.
Watch the latest ad from a brand you love, then call its customer service line.

In the ad, everything is just right.
A warm voice, smiling faces, a line about how much they care about their customers.
On the phone, a menu greets you first.
Nine options, none of them your problem.
Then the hold music starts.
Every so often, a recorded voice tells you your call is important to them.
At minute fourteen, the line goes dead.

Both come out of the same company, but they’re rarely discussed at the same table.
Every word of the ad is debated for weeks.
The call centre is a cost line in the budget.
The shorter the calls, the better.
Hardly anyone thinks of hold music as a communications matter.

Customers don’t need to know about that division of labour.
To them, both are the voice of the same brand, and they decide for themselves which one to believe.

A brand gives itself away
in the places nobody took care over.

The agency writes the ad.
The company chooses the hold music.