A Calmer Place to Talk About Money
Financial stress can stop customers from seeking help when they need it. Research into music, scent and waiting environments points to a practical way banks could reduce some of that pressure while improving the performance of the branch.
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The emotional state of the customer has commercial consequences
- Chapter 2 The work taking place inside branches has changed
- Chapter 3 Stress changes the way people experience service
- Chapter 4 Music can change the perception of the room
- Chapter 5 Scent may reduce anxiety in the moment
- Chapter 6 More sensory input can produce a worse result
- Chapter 7 The commercial case needs to be measured
- Chapter 8 A supporting layer, not a substitute
- Chapter 9 Creating better conditions for the conversation
Introduction
Banks have spent years improving how customers access financial support. Hardship teams have expanded, digital pathways have become easier to navigate and frontline employees receive more training in identifying vulnerability.
One barrier remains difficult to address: the emotional cost of asking for help.
ASIC found that anxiety and stress prevent many Australians from approaching their lender when they experience financial hardship. Shame, embarrassment and fear of failure also play a significant role.
Those feelings do not disappear when someone enters a branch. They become part of the service environment.
The customer notices whether they are acknowledged, how long they may have to wait and whether other people can hear their conversation. They register the noise, lighting, layout and pace of the room before an employee has an opportunity to help.
For a customer preparing to discuss missed repayments, suspected fraud, an estate or a major financial commitment, the branch can either add to the pressure or begin to bring it down.
Research into music, scent and waiting environments suggests that banks have more influence over this moment than they may realise.
The emotional state of the customer has commercial consequences
ASIC’s 2024 financial hardship research provides a clear picture of the emotional conditions surrounding some banking interactions.
More than five million Australians had struggled to make loan or debt repayments during the previous 12 months. Among those who experienced financial hardship, 73% reported stress or anxiety, 56% lost sleep and 41% experienced a decline in their physical health or appearance.
The same research found that 51% saw anxiety and stress as a potential barrier to asking their lender for help. 40% cited shame or embarrassment, and the same proportion cited a feeling of failure.
Only one in five had ever sought financial hardship assistance.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that almost 55% of financially stressed Australians experienced high or very high psychological distress in 2023. That was approximately 2.6 times the rate among people who were not under financial stress.
This is more than a wellbeing issue for banks.
A customer who delays seeking assistance may arrive with a more serious financial problem, fewer available options and less confidence that the bank will help. A customer who feels exposed or uncomfortable may leave before speaking to anyone, withhold information or avoid returning for a follow-up conversation.
The effects can appear across several areas of the business: hardship engagement, complaints, queue abandonment, customer satisfaction, trust and the amount of time employees need to settle a distressed customer before addressing the reason for the visit.
A calmer environment will not resolve the underlying financial issue. It may improve the conditions in which that issue is discussed.
The work taking place inside branches has changed
The commercial role of the branch has shifted as routine banking has moved online.
The Australian Banking Association reports that 99.3% of interactions between customers and their banks now take place through digital channels. In-person branch interactions have fallen by 51% since 2019.
Yet customers still value access to a physical branch when the matter is important. Accenture found that 63% of customers turn to branches to solve specific and complicated problems. Another 67% valued having a branch nearby because its presence conveyed stability and availability.
The remaining branch network therefore carries a different kind of responsibility. It handles the interactions that require judgement, reassurance, privacy or an extended conversation.
These interactions are also expensive to deliver. They involve physical premises, specialist employees and longer appointment times. The quality of the environment affects whether the branch fulfils that role effectively.
If a branch is expected to build trust, support vulnerable customers and handle complex conversations, its performance cannot be judged only by transaction volume. Customer confidence, willingness to seek help, perceived privacy and the quality of the conversation also matter.
The sensory environment contributes to each of them.
Accenture found that 63% of customers turn to branches to solve specific and complicated problems.
Stress changes the way people experience service
Financial anxiety does not remain neatly separated from the service interaction.
Stress can narrow attention, make information harder to process and increase sensitivity to uncertainty. A customer may struggle to follow an explanation, interpret a delay negatively or become overwhelmed by a process that would feel manageable under different circumstances.
The waiting period is particularly important because it gives anxiety time to build.
A customer who does not know how long they will be waiting, whether they are in the right queue or how private the eventual conversation will be has little information with which to reassure themselves. The sounds and activity around them fill that gap.
Silence is often treated as the professional default in financial services. In practice, a busy branch is rarely silent. The acoustic environment consists of keyboards, ringing phones, footsteps and fragments of nearby conversations.
For a customer waiting to disclose a personal financial problem, that environment may reinforce the feeling of exposure.
Banks already manage many of these conditions through branch layout, signage, appointment systems and staff training. Music and scent offer two additional tools for influencing how the space is experienced.
Music can change the perception of the room
The evidence linking music with stress reduction extends well beyond retail.
A 2020 meta-analysis published in Health Psychology Review examined 104 randomised controlled trials involving almost 10,000 participants. Music interventions produced significant effects across psychological and physiological measures of stress.
A separate review focused on waiting rooms found evidence that background music could create a more positive experience and may reduce anxiety. The authors noted considerable variation between studies, which makes the choice of music, setting and delivery important.
Research conducted inside a city-centre bank provides a direct link to the branch environment. Over three weeks, researchers compared classical music, easy-listening music and no music. Customers’ assessments of the banking hall changed according to what was playing, and their evaluation of the room was positively associated with their evaluation of the music.
The study did not establish a universal soundtrack for financial services. It demonstrated that customers do not experience background music separately from the branch. What they hear influences how they perceive the space itself.
That distinction matters commercially.
Music selected to support a calm, credible environment may improve the experience of waiting, soften the sense of exposure and help establish an appropriate emotional tone before the conversation begins.
Poorly controlled music may have the opposite effect. Excessive volume, distracting lyrics, an unsuitable tempo or a playlist that conflicts with the bank’s positioning can introduce more stimulation into an already demanding environment.
The operational model is therefore as important as the playlist. Banks need commercially licensed music, central standards, reliable delivery and the ability to control volume, scheduling and content across the network. Local flexibility may be appropriate, but the customer experience should not depend on individual employees using personal accounts or choosing music according to their own tastes.
Music can also provide a degree of acoustic cover, although it should not be confused with engineered sound masking. Genuine speech privacy depends on layout, partitions, absorptive materials and appropriate acoustic design.
Banks need to begin with the feeling they want to create.
Scent may reduce anxiety in the moment
Scent research offers another relevant line of evidence.
A controlled study involving 200 dental patients found that ambient orange and lavender scents were associated with lower anxiety and improved mood while patients waited for treatment.
A separate cluster-randomised controlled trial involving 340 dental patients found that people exposed to lavender reported significantly lower current anxiety than the control group.
The second study made an important distinction. Lavender did not change how patients felt about future dental treatment. It reduced the anxiety they were experiencing in the waiting room at that time.
The parallel with banking is clear. Scent will not change the customer’s financial position or remove the need for a difficult conversation. Its potential value lies in reducing some of the immediate tension surrounding the interaction.
Research published in the International Journal of Bank Marketing also examined the effect of music and scent on people waiting for service. Following a pilot involving 105 people, the main study included 607 participants. The researchers found that changes to the sensory environment could improve satisfaction among customers kept waiting and reduce frustration.
These findings suggest a credible relationship between sensory conditions, anxiety and the customer’s evaluation of a service environment. They do not justify placing the same fragrance in every branch.
Scent brings operational and accessibility considerations that need to be taken seriously. Asthma, allergies, ventilation, neurodiversity and individual sensitivity all affect how it is received. Intensity, diffusion and the physical characteristics of each branch also need to be controlled.
A banking application would require low-intensity delivery, careful testing and an immediate way for employees to report discomfort or adverse customer responses.
More sensory input can produce a worse result
Banks should resist the temptation to treat sensory design as a checklist.
A field experiment in a medical waiting room tested instrumental music and lavender scent separately and together. Each reduced anxiety when used alone. When the researchers combined them, the same reduction did not occur.
Their conclusion was that additional environmental stimuli could raise arousal and work against the intended effect.
Research in retail settings has reached a related conclusion. Music and scent tend to produce more positive responses when they are congruent. When the elements conflict, evaluations of the environment can deteriorate.
Customers experience the branch as one setting. They do not separate the soundtrack from the lighting, digital screens, queue, fragrance and behaviour of employees.
A calming soundtrack paired with an overpowering scent and rapidly changing promotional content is unlikely to create a calm environment. Every element needs to support the same intended experience.
That experience may also vary across the network. A regional community branch, a CBD business banking centre and a suburban advice location do not necessarily require identical sensory conditions.
Central control should protect the brand and customer experience while allowing evidence-based variation by location, customer profile, time of day and purpose of visit.
The commercial case needs to be measured
The business case for sensory design will not be established by asking customers whether they liked the playlist or noticed the fragrance.
Banks need to measure whether the environment changes outcomes that matter.
A controlled branch pilot could compare similar locations under different conditions: music, scent, a carefully tested combination and an unchanged control environment. The design should account for branch size, customer volume, wait times, staffing and the types of appointments taking place.
Customer measures could include reported stress on arrival and departure, perceived waiting time, comfort, satisfaction and perceived privacy. Operational measures could include queue abandonment, complaints, appointment completion and the time required to begin the substantive conversation.
Employee feedback would be equally important. Branch teams experience the environment for an entire working day, not a short visit. Their concentration, comfort and ability to communicate with customers should form part of the evaluation.
The results would allow the bank to determine whether sensory changes produce a meaningful effect, which conditions work best and where the approach should not be used.
This is a more credible path than rolling out a single soundtrack or fragrance based on general consumer research. It turns sensory design into a measurable branch intervention.
A supporting layer, not a substitute
Music and scent cannot compensate for an excessive wait, a lack of privacy or a poor hardship process.
ASIC’s review of ten large home lenders found that lenders were not doing enough to support customers experiencing financial hardship. A better atmosphere will not correct those shortcomings.
It can support the people and processes responsible for addressing them.
A customer who feels acknowledged, comfortable and able to speak privately may be better placed to explain what is happening. An employee who begins with a calmer customer may be able to reach the substantive issue sooner and conduct a more constructive conversation.
The relationship between service and environment can also be seen in customer satisfaction data. In the United States, J.D. Power found that branch satisfaction was 123 points higher when banks consistently delivered basic service behaviours such as welcoming customers, providing prompt service, thanking them and using their name.
Sensory design should reinforce those behaviours. It should make the room more conducive to a good conversation without drawing attention to itself.
Customers do not need to notice the music or identify a fragrance. The relevant question is whether the branch feels calmer, more private and easier to navigate.
Creating better conditions for the conversation
Australian banks are managing more than a channel shift. They are deciding what the remaining branch network is there to achieve.
As routine interactions continue to move online, branches will handle a greater concentration of conversations involving financial pressure, vulnerability and consequential decisions.
The environment surrounding those conversations deserves the same attention as the process used to manage them.
The evidence does not suggest that music and scent will remove customer anxiety. It shows that carefully controlled sensory conditions can affect stress, mood, satisfaction and the experience of waiting.
That is enough to warrant a serious test.
For customers approaching a bank at a difficult moment, the financial problem may be unavoidable. The branch does not need to add to its weight.
Sources
- Australian Banking Association, Bank On It: Customer Trends 2025
- Accenture, Global Banking Consumer Study
- ASIC, More than five million Australians have struggled to make loan and debt repayments
- ASIC Report 782, Hardship, hard to get help
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Financial stress and mental health
- de Witte et al., Effects of music interventions on stress-related outcomes
- Lai et al., Music in Waiting Rooms: A Literature Review
- North, Hargreaves and McKendrick, The Effects of Music on Atmosphere in a Bank and a Bar
- McDonnell, Music, scent and time preferences for waiting lines
- Lehrner et al., Ambient odors of orange and lavender reduce anxiety and improve mood in a dental office
- Kritsidima, Newton and Asimakopoulou, The effects of lavender scent on dental patient anxiety levels
- Fenko and Loock, The influence of ambient scent and music on patients’ anxiety
- Spangenberg, Grohmann and Sprott, The interactive effects of ambient scent and music in a retail setting
- J.D. Power, 2024 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study
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