Managing Voice-to-Voice Encounters

Voice-to-voice (V2V) encounters are interactions that occur between the company and the customer via a telephone. One critical aspect of the V2V encounter is the waiting time that occurs before the customer talks with a service employee. This article investigates two perception management techniques: information cues and music. In particular, estimated wait times, number in the queue, presence of music, and music valence are all investigated. The main findings are that playing of music, especially music that the customer likes, reduces the perception of waiting time and increases satisfaction. Information cues were not found to affect perception of the wait or satisfaction.

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