Playing licensed music in-store lifts the moral of staff and improves the shopping experience for consumers, according to Sofology.
The 57-store DFS Group subsidiary used to play royalty-free music in-store but switched to licensed after consulting staff. It then secured a TheMusicLicence from performer and record company oganisation PPL and songwriter, composer and music publisher organisation PRS for Music.
‘We are really committed to the experience we give our customers in stores to making it feel like you’re at home on a sofa you love, and the music is a really big part of how we create that ‘at home’ feeling,’ says Rochine Metcalfe, Sofology senior store experience manager.
‘Staff are a really important part of what makes us different, we think, to lots of other sofa retailers, and it really matters to us that they are excited to be at work, they’re passionate about what they are doing and they’re engaged. They’re much happier, they love it, we absolutely plan to stick with it and keep using licensed music in stores.
‘We’re really passionate here at Sofology about supporting everybody we work with, not just our staff in stores, but everybody across our support office group functions but also our suppliers. It really matters to us that we know the right people are being paid for us using their music, it really sits with what Sofology is all about.’
‘Having music in store has a massive impact on customers for sure, it keeps the energy up, it makes it a lot more positive, I think it really just takes the edge off the buying process and it just makes everything more fun,’ says Torin Leivers, Sofology, sales consultant.’
‘There was a time where [the atmosphere] wasn’t really felt by the customers and by us, whereas now, we have familiar music, music we all love, it’s something we can share enjoyment over, we can talk about it with customers, with each other and that’s just a really positive thing.’
