Why Call Centers Need Sound Masking

January 25, 2012 By

Noise Problems for Call Centers

As a stay at home, work from home mother who plans all day how to get dinner on the table with all 4 members of my family present, there is little I like less than some sort of sales call.  As I am seating kids and dishing up and hoping the baby stays asleep, I’m not exactly hoping that someone calls to ask me to donate money either.  As good as the cause might be, it’s just a hard time of day.  I’m not a jerk about it, I’m just not that open to giving away money or my personal information at that time.  Now, throw in background noise that makes me strain to hear whoever is talking to me, as I am measuring if this is a legit call or not, and I’m pretty much going to hang up.  I don’t know of anyone who wants to volunteer credit card information or other personal details in such an unprofessional context.

I can only imagine this is not what the manager of a call center wants to hear.  However, it’s the very thing he or she needs to hear!  If your product if worth buying or your cause worth investing in, take the time to make me feel safe and comfortable.  It is my opinion that the call center is responsible for providing a professional and personal call experience for their customers.  Unfortunately, as seen above, call centers suffer from many sound problems that do not allow for successful business practices:

  • Background sound, even other callers, can make a customer feel like a number instead of a person.
  • The same background noise can be quite distracting for both customer and caller.
  • When a potential customer hears all this, it only adds to the feeling that their personal information is up for grabs.

Noise Solutions for Call Centers

As a result, as you plan a call center or seek to resolve the common noise problems therein, here a few things you should consider:

  • Keep callers separated if possible so that they are not shoulder to shoulder as they make calls.
  • Partitions or sound-absorbing panels can lessen ambient sound.
  • Some companies offer headsets that help the callers focus on the customers and not the noise around them.
  • Finally, consider sound masking, which aides both the caller and the customer because both can hear the other person and not the craziness in the call center itself.

The goal of a call center is to get current or potential customers or donors to stay on the line, listen attentively, and be heard themselves.  This kind of interaction is only possible if the customer feels like an individual and that their personal and financial information can be given without fear of it being spread beyond the intended hearer.  If you consider these factors as you plan your call center, your chances for success are exponentially higher.

Thus, if background noise is a problem for your call center, consider sound masking for a reduction of distractions and increased speech privacy if you’d like to have a successful conversation with potential customers or donors.

 

Office Distractions You Can’t Ignore

January 23, 2012 By

8.1 Million Hours of Productivity Lost during March Madness

Back during March Madness last year, I read an interesting article about how much productivity was lost during that 3-week span itself.  The article reported that 80% of interviewed office workers admitted they probably bet on the games during work hours.  In addition, while difficult to measure, one firm estimated that about 8.7 million hours of work time would be lost as a result of the NCAA championship games.  What caught my attention was the later premise of the article:

“If people are getting their work done, and doing it well, don’t make a big deal about distractions,” she suggests, adding: “The last thing you should ever do is make a formal policy restricting non-work activities in the office. Those policies rarely fix anything. They just make people grumpy.” And who needs that?…”

Which Distractions Can You Afford to Ignore?

I know we all have different opinions, which is why I am referencing this article: proof that there are several ways to look at the same problem.  While I agree that cracking down on petty rules is counter-productive and with later comments that workers are adept at multitasking, I disagree that all workers are that adept or that distraction itself, as a whole, should be ignored.  There are many forms of distraction, not just technology.  A major cause of work distraction is co-worker conversation.  I do not know of many people who can hold a sane, coherent conversation while typing an error-free, cohesive project proposal or email response.  Thus, when that 80% of co-workers are betting on the game and setting up their brackets,endless rivalry and chatter doubtlessly surround it.  That’s hard to ignore even when an innocent bystander.

Thus, I stick with my previous opinion that managers should not set up silly rules about computer use and personal versus business because no one will follow them and it’s hard to police without being Big Brother and running off your staff.  However, I do feel that the other side of distraction- those of conversation and noise- are definitely worth counter-acting with sound masking.  Just by introducing a little low-level background noise, you can cover the unwanted sound and restore a little peace to the office without burning bridges with your employees.  And since hundreds of billions of dollars are lost every year because of distraction, it’s hard to ignore them all with a clear conscience.

Some distractions are worth ignoring, while others- those of noise and conversation- can be counter-acted with sound masking for increased productivity office-wide.

Reclaiming IQ Loss with Sound Masking

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Distraction & Lost IQ People get distracted- it’s no secret or surprise.  In almost every arena, we find our attention wavering, especially when we need to stay focused.  Unfortunately, work is no exception.  In fact, workers are especially distracted at work, from cell phones to internet to co-worker chatter.  Workers lose a lot of time [...]

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Tips for Working from Home & Being Professional

January 16, 2012 By
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Being Successful at Home Being successful at what you do is a matter if mindset almost as much as skill.  There’s no denying that you have to know your trade so to speak, but actually making something of it and being good at it depends upon your ability to balance your skills and your time [...]

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January 11, 2012 By
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Treating SAD Naturally with Light Therapy & Heated Ergonomic Products

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Dreading January & February? If you’re struggling to cope this post-holiday season, you are not alone.  Tons of people crash after all the stress of Christmas, even though during the holidays they thought they couldn’t wait to get past it all!  Even though Christmas was also colder and much darker than the rest of the [...]

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