POS Sounds: What is your brand saying as a customer is literally checking out?
SOTA Brand Story
SOTA, a GenZ retail company in Minnesota, was all about mission. It was even in its name, an acronym for State of the Art. All across the state, students knew that SOTA was the place to go to explore trending art, fashion, and music.
SOTA’s mission was to support local art and be an instrument of brand identity.
The walls were covered in local artists’ work, as the overhead speakers proudly played local artists music. In certain sections of the store, there were even TVs playing local arthouse films and documentaries. SOTA knew what they stood for and were all about the brand experience. The only thing lacking in this seamless journey of inspiration and intrigue was the sound of the chip reader system.
The default sound of a POS system is awful. It needs attention from ALL brands, big and small. SOTA just happened to be the first to notice.
The absolute final stage of the transaction, payment, is crucial. It’s when a customer decides if they are happy with their purchase, if they’ll come back again, whether or not they’ll leave a review, or tell their friends about their experience. This moment is critical but always overlooked.
Of the billions of purchases that happen every day, three out of four buyers walk away from the register feeling some form of emotional distress.
– Joe Sauer, Neuromarketing Specialist
That highly important element of brand experience, point of sale, is largely ignored. This part of the brand experience falls into the Peak End Rule.
The two most important points of sale is the peak part of the experience and the point of sale.
SOTA decided to take action where most hadn’t and complete the purchase point process with a fully branded tone. Although they didn’t have an official sonic logo, they felt that at this time, the more crucial sonic element to focus on was a functional sound. They needed to replace the chip reader sound with something more… friendly.
Request For Proposal
SOTA’s RFP (request for proposal) was for a “successful transaction” tone for the store POS reader.
The sound needed to match the brand’s vibe and mission. It should be fun, friendly, not too busy, and memorable. It should transmit the proper intention that the customer had successfully completed the purchase and was welcomed and encouraged to return at any time.
SOTA Sonic Strategy
Dreamr Productions proposed finding something minimalistic with electronic elements. This would keep the orchestration light and the feel modern.
SOTA was on board.
The next step was research and creation.
To get a better sense of the experience, we walked the aisles of the store, listening. We listened to the sounds of the shoppers, the acoustics, the ambiance, and the overhead music. We knew that tone and frequency were critical considerations as there were a lot of competing sounds at play. The transaction tone needed to break through the noise without being too abrasive and pitchy.
We decided to focus on three characteristics for the tone:
Friendliness
Happiness
Inspiration
Although we weren’t creating a sonic logo, we did need to remind people where they were shopping. It was the end of the shopping experience, and based on the Peak End Rule, the end of the shopping experience matters…a lot.
SOTA Sonic Experience
Here was the final version of SOTA’s “Successful Transaction” tone.
From this sound, we build out two more tones. One was a “Card Removal Tone”.
And the other was a “Declined Transaction Tone”.
Beyond these sounds, we also created corresponding haptic rhythms. It sounds like a lot, but Dreamr Productions is all about preparing for the future.
Next, we worked with the POS manufacturer to integrate the sounds into the POS system itself. These sounds could then be used for in-app purchases as well, keeping everything uniform and seamless.
SOTA Sound In Action
Once the sounds were agreed on and downloaded into the POS system, SOTA brought in a focus group of in-store shoppers to try out the new experience. The results were great!
“I smiled without thinking about it. When that friendly chirp told me I could remove my card, I just chuckled. Funny how spending money can make me laugh and leave me feeling happy.”
Customer Review #1
“I’d never noticed that annoying default beep until it was taken away. It was so nice not to feel like my card would be shredded if I didn’t pull it out ASAP.”
Customer Review #2
Usually, we still have to prompt the customer to take the card out or put the card in.
-Employee
After hearing the comments, we built the theory that the standard transaction tone had become so annoying that customers had simply learned to tune it out. As a result, it had become useless.
The default chip reader sound has become useless and irrelevant.
The Tenacity of a Tone
Notification tones exist to be persistent, tenacious, and helpful. When this tone becomes irritating or offensive, it becomes a liability.
SOTA, is not a real company. This fictitious case study was created to demonstrate a real sound in marketing solution when it comes to point of sale. In real life, generic POS sounds do nothing for the personality of a brand. They are not reassuring or satisfying, and most importantly, they do not wrap the shopping experience up into a perfectly seamless bow.
This case study was written to highlight the lack of strategy put forth in current POS sounds and the easily fixable options to rectify the situation.
– Jeanna Isham
I know that I am obsessed with sound and, because of that, may be more sensitive to it than others, but…am I? Really?
When you think about the purchase point of the shopping experience, do you think the POS sounds are great or just meh?
Credit Card Notifiers
Mastercard and Visa have invested in this conversation. Both credit card companies have developed a branded tone for payment.
You know what card you’ve just used, that the transaction has gone through, and that you can move on.
But the difference here is that the actual purchase made or the store shopped at has had no part in the end transaction. I may know what credit card I used, but I am not aurally prompted as to which store I’ve just used that card in.
Credit cards only tell you what card you’ve used, not the location of which you’ve just used them.
Store and Product Sounds
One store that takes this location announcer thought to heart is Trader Joe’s. As I wrote about in the Purses By Moms case study, Trader Joe’s overhead music is very personality-driven, focusing on quirky but friendly. They would be ones to really play with the idea of sound identity. And they have.
The grocery store has played on and off with the idea of custom sounds. Several years back, at Thanksgiving, you may have heard a turkey gobble at checkout. Or during Halloween, you might have heard Tocatta and Fugue.
I thought, “Hey, what a fun and quirky idea.” It seemed to truly fit the grocery store’s personality. So I kept digging, trying to find out what others had thought of the experience.
I dug into a Reddit strand and found it wasn’t as perfect as one might think.
Some customers liked it, but others found the sounds to be annoying or off-putting. Some said they were dumbfounded, staring at the clerks or wandering through the store trying to figure out where the heck that sound was coming from. One person said it inspired them to “bring cash next time”.
These sounds, although fitting for the brand’s personality, were not “on brand”. They were “on season”.
Other stores like Dollar Tree and Panda Express have done the same sort of thing in the past. Coca-Cola, the masters of experience, even had a limited run “Happy Beep” sound at checkout.
Although I liked Coca-Cola, it was only a campaign activation. So again, not a mainstay situation.
Why Bother With Sound At All?
Seeing as none of these examples have fully landed on what I’m talking about, is messing with anything at all pointless? As I dug further into the Trader Joe’s Reddit strand, I found someone who held my sentiment.
And herein lies the problem and the opportunity. It all comes down to the importance of POS sounds in the Peak End Rule.
The Peak End Rule
Our memory of an experience is largely dependent on what we’re feeling at the extreme or peak moment of the experience, and what we were feeling when the experience ends.
— Joe Sauer
In a 2022 research study put out by Sentient Decision Science, the Peak End Rule was considered when it came to sound.
In an era where most CEOs and CMOs are struggling to establish, much less sustain, meaningful and relevant connections to their customers, no company can afford to ignore the impact that well-designed and thoughtfully integrated sound can have on how their brands are perceived.
— Joe Sauer
Seeing as the peak experience wildly differs between customers, the end experience is something we can more easily control. Why not own them?
Will these sounds be perfect out of the gate? Probably not. But you have to start somewhere.
From Generic To Purposeful
Bookending experiences with purpose and personal touches is always a gold star in the brand playbook. Every step we make towards meaningful experiences brings more humanity to a product and a company.
The more human a thing can be, the more humans can relate.
And when we relate, we come back.
Our heart and gut run the show 99% of the time. If our gut tells us that Trader Joe’s is our top choice, then that’s where we will shop.
Sound on purpose is a sound choice.
If you’ve gotten this far and still can’t decide if a short sound less than 2 seconds long and as insignificant as a transaction tone could make you feel one way or another. Try this.
Place an order on the Taco Bell app. Just as you complete the purchase, you hear this.
Tell me that didn’t make you feel nostalgic and excited to eat your taco pronto.
How about this one. Open your MacBook.
Didn’t that make you feel excited and eager to be productive?
You’re checking out at Target. You slide your credit card into the chip reader. Your transaction is done, and you hear…
Sound must be made on purpose.
– Jeanna Isham
Hear It For Yourself
This case study was from an episode of the Sound In Marketing Podcast, a podcast focused on spotlighting the use and transformation of purposeful sound in marketing.
Here’s the original episode link.
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Dreamr Productions would love to help with your sound strategy. Contact us today for more information.
