Return on investment: the advantages of quality headsets.

Headsets are the single most important link between consumers and businesses. Most consumer-oriented companies rely on contact centers to handle high volumes of customer inquiries, and contact centers must therefore thrive on efficiency. High-quality headsets streamline endless phone calls to quick, effective transactions by cutting down on any wasted time spent repeating information or fiddling with headset adjustments. When businesses invest in premium headsets for each agent in their contact centers, the benefits are quickly realized.

Sound quality is the most important feature of a good headset, and must be satisfactory on both ends of the call. Customers will become frustrated if they can hear the bustle of the contact center more clearly than the agent, and worse, if the agent's voice comes through the call with all of the crackles and pops of a poor microphone. Agents will also become aggravated when they cannot hear the caller and are forced to ask the customer to repeat information. The agent may be forced to take a hand off the keyboard to reposition the headset or make any other adjustment, which increases the length of the call and contributes to input errors. Better headsets eliminate these problems. A proper noise-canceling microphone eliminates the sounds of agents sitting in the next cubicle; the only sound the customer will hear is the clarity of the agent's voice. The transaction will then take place quickly and seamlessly.

It is important to consider how beneficial quality headsets can be to a company. For example, a call may span the length of a minute when the agent is using a poor-quality headset, since information may need to be repeated. With a high-quality headset, the need to repeat information is reduced, shaving valuable seconds off the call. Imagine this: if 500 contact center employees begin using sufficient headsets, valuable seconds are reclaimed, translating into thousands of minutes and hundreds of hours of efficiency. From here, it's not hard to determine out how those saved work hours can lead to thousands of dollars in savings that otherwise would have gone toward hourly wages. It becomes easy to see how the benefits of a high-quality headset can lead to a return on investment.

Another important (not to mention economical) consideration is safety. Sometimes, contact center agents may experience what is known as acoustic shock syndrome, which is caused by unexpected noise "bursts" that may impair hearing. This syndrome results from headsets that do not protect users from spikes in sound. Some headsets on the market today automatically and effectively adjust levels in reaction to unexpected acoustic bursts--a feature that protects the user's hearing. Lower quality headsets may not have this feature at all, or they may have limited capacity to absorb more than one acoustic burst, potentially exposing the employee to harmful spikes of noise. Instead of dreading each call for fear of experiencing pain, individuals using high-quality headsets with this feature can answer each call with confidence that their ears are safeguarded. This protection reduces liability from worker's compensation issues and makes the task of speaking on the phone day in and day out enjoyable and more relaxing for the workforce.

Lesser quality headsets may not only be painful, but are often uncomfortable and unreliable. Flimsy headsets simply do not withstand the wear and tear from normal, day-to-day use, especially if the same headsets are used by multiple employees in rotating shifts. Users may not be able to fix the boom microphone or headband to a comfortable position, or worse, cords could become dislodged and cut off sound. This reduces the morale of workers and cuts down on productivity, since uncomfortable agents are not able to fully focus on their tasks at hand. If headsets are continually breaking, contact center managers must spend valuable time replacing the parts or even the whole set, which will temporarily eliminate that workstation until the problem is fixed. With better headsets, managers can devote all their time to training and assisting employees, and reduce time spent on the administrative tasks associated with replacing broken headsets.

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One of the most important issues contact centers must address is changing technology. Companies are continually searching for new, high-tech ways to conduct business. With older, less expensive headset models, companies may need to invest in interface boxes to connect the headsets to various phone models, or they may even need to order a whole new set. Technological advances in headsets may eliminate the need for amplifier boxes completely.

Sennheiser Communications developed a line of headsets that are easy to upgrade and integrate into new systems; most can even directly connect to nearly all phone systems, eliminating the extra need for interface boxes, which can cost up to $120 per headset. With the boom in popularity of broadband phone services such as Vonage and Skype, the technological future for contact centers is uncertain. Landlines may be eliminated from some contact centers in favor of this new technology. If this happens, headsets will become even more important if they can adapt to changes with an inexpensive cord.

Similarly, the array of accessories offered with each headset is equally as important in the struggle to keep up with changing technology. Quality accessories allow users to customize the headset to their personal preferences, as well as integrate the headset with different systems and technology. The benefit of a high-quality headset reaches far beyond the simple dollar value of the initial purchase price. The morale of the contact center workforce may be boosted because employees are more comfortable, customers and employees can enjoy shorter calls and less time waiting in a queue for a representative and, ultimately, companies can conserve their financial resources for other areas of their business. A headset is the final link between your customer and your company, and deserves careful review to ensure that you are getting the maximum return on investment in both the short and long term.

Eric Palonen is product manager for Sennheiser Communications (www.sennheiser.com); Rachel Vaclavik is marketing communications specialist.

By Eric Palonen and Rachel Vaclavik

Sennheiser Communications