A while back I wrote about What Your Hold Music Says about Your Brand. For travel and destination brands, hold music can be used to do more than give your brand personality; it can soothe the savage beast (i.e. the angry consumer waiting to talk to a representative).

On Saturday, I was that savage beast, on hold with Getaroom, a third-party hotel reservation company that Trip Advisor had used to book a room for me. I was fairly angry over the possibility of having to lose my reservation – and my money – over a technical booking error (I’ll save you from the long story).

The point is, their hold music kept my rising temper at bay. It was a wonderful, soothing steel drum song. It relaxed me, and made me think of remote white sand beaches and frozen drinks, the soft, warm tropical breeze playing with my hair. It helped that I was outside on a sunny day, but the point is this: Getaroom used their hold music to their advantage. They not only calmed me while I waited for a problem resolution, but made me want to plan a vacation somewhere other than where I was going (Boston).

While many brands are struggling to play audio that won’t irritate their customers, Getaroom is two steps ahead of the game, planting the seeds that will hopefully result in future bookings. The best part? They contacted the hotel directly to resolve my issue, and after the lengthy but calming steel-drum interlude, they returned to my phone call to tell me everything was going to work out fine.

Well done, Getaroom. This savage beast is soothed, happy, and dreaming of her next tropical vacation.