I woke up at 4 AM to the sound of the call to prayer here in Turkey. We’re staying between a mosque and the Mediterranean. The sound resonates through the stone buildings here in the old city. It’s awesome if you can ignore the fact that it woke you up in the middle of the night.

The sound sets the scene. Sound matters.

It affects the way you feel about a place. The sound itself is important, but it’s the mood it creates that matters. Sound influences whether we feel comfortable, peaceful, and welcome. Sound can agitate us. It can speed us up or calm us down. Sound changes our perception of a space, the people, and the events that take place there.

Sound is important. It’s not a trivial detail. It’s a critically important element of how we react to an environment.

The call to prayer changes the way I feel about this town. It affects my understanding of what’s happening around me. It controls some of the decisions I make.

It’s worth contemplating the effect of the sounds in places you control. If you control the sound, you can more completely control the outcome of the decisions made in your environment.

What Does It Sound Like in Your Lobby?

What sound greets your clients?

• Is it the sound of a receptionist handling angry callers?
• Is it the sound of the copier humming?
• Is it the sound of dishes clanking in the nearby kitchen sink?
• Is it muffled voices from the nearby conference room?
• Is it the sound of an angry voice down the hall upset about the fee?

Or is something different?

• Is it gurgling water from a fountain?
• Is it classical music from a quality sound system?
• Is it white noise from the ceiling system?
• Is it the sound of rain mixed into that sound system?
• Is it perky music playing on satellite radio?

Each sound changes our perception of the space. Each sound has a different impact on the decisions the clients make when they operate in your space.

How to Use Sound to Improve Your Client Experience

You have an opportunity—an obligation really—to use the sound to make the client experience better. If your current sound strategy is to let the receptionist tune Pandora to her favorite station, then you don’t have a plan.

The sound you create changes the people as they enter your space. Think it through. Test it. Experiment and collect data on what happens.

Does classical music increase retainers? Do water sounds cause faster settlement? Does perky music result in more litigation? Sound matters. How it matters is hard to determine, but we all know that it changes the way we respond in different circumstances.

When you ignore the impact of sound, you throw away a tool of persuasion. When you ignore the impact of sound, you slow your progress toward the goal.

The call to prayer might not be the sound that works for your lobby. But there are sounds that will get you where you’re going and make it easier to get there.