Original Publication: Customer Management Insight - August 2008
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Somewhere between spendthrift and miser, there’s a sweet spot. Quick tips for making a smart selection.
One of the fragmentary memories I have from early childhood is a scene from what I’m 99 percent sure was an episode of Speed Racer. A man walks up behind an airline pilot going over his preflight sequence, puts his hands on the pilot’s headphones, and the pilot spasms and slumps over. The man takes the headphones and turns around. The shot changes to a close up of the headphones and the man’s gloved hands. He moves his hands. A long spike comes out of each earpiece. There’s a smooth metallic sliding noise (Gatchaman fans know exactly what I mean), and a gleam races along the surface of the spike.
Ewwwww!
Keep in mind, each episode of Speed Racer featured opening credits that had an out-of-control racecar tearing through a guardrail like tissue paper and then exploding — a Hindenburgesque, oh-the-humanity-sized fireball — to the accompaniment of the ear-candy pop lyrics of “Go, Speed Racer! Go, Speed Racer! Go!!!” So seeing someone summarily dispatched with a double head-spike was no big deal.
We now live in enlightened times. The headsets of today may not be able to kill you, but they are to die for.
Before you get started
The first concern you should have before sending in an order is compatibility with your phone system. “There are about 5,000 different phone systems, so we have to look up their compatibility with headsets,” says Dori Belik, the general manager for Telemarket Resources International, a distributor that sells headsets from various companies. Belik says that it is rare for a headset not to work with a phone system.
Rare or not, the time to discover that the headsets will work with your system is before you submit the order, not when you overhear your employees talking about you in the restroom the day after your public humiliation.
Noise
Of equal importance, says Belik, is knowing about the noise levels in your call center environment, including whether agents are in high-walled cubicles or open spaces. Often, the type of space you work in determines the type of headset you use. “When deciding between monaural one-ear and binaural two-ear headsets, bear in mind that you want a two-ear headset for a large call center with large rooms and a high noise factor,” Belik says. An over-the-ear headset may be inappropriate for most call centers — at least for the agents. “You have to treat them a little more gingerly than a monaural or binaural headset, which you can beat up pretty good without worrying about it.”
Comfort
Some headsets convert from being worn over the ear to over the entire head. “The benefit of a binaural headset is that agents can’t hear what is going on in the call center, and are forced to pay attention to the call that they have,” says Melissa Vokoun of Communitech, a distributor of headsets and other telecommunications products. “Most call centers lean toward this type of headset if it is in their budget.” She says that supervisors usually wear monaural headsets to keep one ear on what’s going on in the call center. “Most headsets are worn over the ear, although this is a matter of personal preference,” she adds.
Cost
Determine your exact needs. “It’s crucial to match your call center needs with the technology available for different headsets,” says Vokoun. “You need to pay attention to factors such as high turnover in your call center, in which case you need something that’s durable. You also need to see what is in your budget for repairs and replacements.”
That’s right. Repairs and replacements. Consider the entire cost of the purchase, not just what you’re paying for the headsets themselves. How long will these headsets last? Will they break like a pane of glass dropped from a blimp? Consider very carefully whether you might be spending your dollars better by purchasing a slightly — or even, God forbid, a significantly – more expensive model. Remember: The bottom line isn’t always.
Features
Other factors to consider include the controls you want your agents to have. A mute button, so the customer can’t hear your agent saying exactly what the customer can go do to himself? Well, yes, that sounds like a good idea, until that one call where the mute button doesn’t engage. Oops. If it hadn’t been there, the agent never would have muttered that terrible thing about the customer’s mother. Maybe the mute button isn’t a good idea. When considering each feature, take a minute to think not just about its utility, but also about what could go terribly, awfully, horribly wrong.
Earphones
Where and how the sound goes in is of vital importance, both to agents and to customers.
Earbuds
Earbuds help to tune out the rest of the world — so much so that when someone comes up behind you, they may scare the heck right out of you. Especially if you’re watching the YouTube clip of the Speed Racer opening credits. (See? Look at the size of that explosion; it fills the entire screen!)
But earbuds have a big negative. I have two sets of earbuds (so no one gets bothered when I’m watching YouTube) and both of them are lying on my desk. Think about how unsanitary that is. I mean really think about it. People have sat on my desk. I’ve put my shod feet on my desk. God knows what crawls over those earbuds in the night. And I put those earbuds in my ears? Ewwwww.
Another big negative? Neither set of earbuds is particularly comfortable; they make my ears ache after awhile. One set creates such a tight seal that, although it blocks out much of the sound around me, it creates an unpleasant sucking sensation when I remove the earbuds. One day, I’m sure, right after that sudden popping sensation, there’ll be a sudden draining sensation. Then there’ll be a sudden light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel sensation while all the vital fluids in my head gush out of my ears.
The other set doesn’t create that nasty sucking sensation. Those earbuds have a teardrop shape.
After about five minutes, that gently rounded teardrop protrusion against the inside of my ear canal begins to feel like an incredibly tiny pebble in my shoe, or a not so small bit of grit under my contact lens, or a fairly large bug flying up my nose. Or all three.
Headphones
For those who don’t like earbuds, there are external headphones, which lovingly surround the outer ear in a never-ending cascade of customer voices without violating the sanctity of the cathedral of the inner ear. You can even mix and match such features as noise cancellation, foam earpads, leatherette earpads, over-the-ear frames, over-the-head frames, etc. Somewhere out there, I’m sure someone has manufactured sandpaper earpads, you know, for tough call center agents who can take a little pain.
Bonephones
And for the people who love the science fictiony stuff, there are bone-conduction headsets (also known as “bonephones”). These work by vibration along the bones of the head. Say your call center is located in the center of a Chuck E. Cheese’s. To speak to the other party above the nerve-shattering shrieks and screams of happy children, vibrations from the jawbone are picked up by conduction and converted to sound at the other end. This allows for easy communication in extreme environments, such as crowded baseball stadiums, cramped subway trains and the inside of jet engines.
Bonephones can also be extremely useful for employees with certain hearing limitations. As the incoming call is converted to vibrations that bypass the eardrum to directly stimulate the auditory nerves, the device can assist older employees in hearing their customers more clearly. It can also assist people with visual problems who prefer that their ears not be covered.
Remember, a big part of the decision is what the agents will be comfortable with. Some people don’t want headset hair and will prefer an over-the-ear model. Others will want a headset that goes over the head because it distributes weight more evenly. Some agents are even going to say they don’t care (sigh), but they will.
Microphones
Great, your agents are no longer clawing at their heads screaming, “My head feels like it’s in a vice! This is agony!” Your agents can hear your customers as clear as a bell. But what are your customers hearing? Well, let me put that first bit through the Cheap Microphonese converter: “Gray, now you’re a gent. Sir, knoll anger claw [undecipherable] creamy.”
Your agents surely are going to be thrilled that they can so clearly and comfortably hear the customers yelling at them like they’re idiots because the agents are incoherent through their cheap microphones.
If you were buying car tires, you’d never tell the clerk, “I want the cheapest tires you’ve got. When I hit my brakes, I want to be sure I’m going to skid right through a guardrail at 80 mph while Speed Racer drives past me and on to victory. And I want the last thought on my mind to be, ‘Well, I sure am glad I saved a couple of bucks on tires!’”
Boom
The microphone arm (the “boom”) is actually a pretty big part of the entire unit. Will it block the agent’s coffee mug? That sounds silly, until you realize how much of a nuisance that will be to your agents. Also, keep in mind that most of your agents are going to touch their headsets throughout the day. A right-handed agent is going to tend to touch the microphone boom with his or her right hand.
If there are controls on the unit itself, the agent will be adjusting them with the right hand. A leftie will, as you probably figured out, use his or her left hand. Look for a headset that can work for either.
Windsock
Some headsets feature an “external windsock.” It’s that ball of foam at the end of the microphone. Its purpose is to reduce the sound of the breath of air made when people pronounce plosives, such as the “p” in “pickles.” Internal windsocks are also available. Whichever windsock you get, be sure the boom is adjustable.
Noise Cancellation
Noise-canceling microphones play an important role, says Costas Popalopolis of VXI, because they ensure that the caller only hears the agent he or she is talking to and not the surrounding agents. “Hearing other agents does not always give a caller a good impression,” he says.
Cords
The cord determines how easily your agents will be able to leave their desks. If the employees are not allowed to leave their terminals, why would you need anything fancy?
But what if your agents have to get up to reach across their cubicles, to get a cup of coffee, to grab something out of the printer at the end of the hall? If the headset can’t easily come along with the agent, that headset will be on and off more than a strobe light.
Breakaways
Most people who’ve used headsets can recall the incident(s) where they’ve almost garroted themselves by getting up and walking away from their desks with the headset still on. Seeing a co-worker clutch at his or her face as a headset gets yanked away might be vicariously amusing, but it can damage the headset. (And the agent. Yes. Yes.) Strongly consider headsets with breakaway cords.
Cordless
Why stop with a breakaway cord? Why not go wireless and solve the whole problem that way? That’s the wrong question. What you should ask is “Do I need wireless, or do I just want wireless?” Why, exactly, would your agents need wireless headsets? Your supervisors might frequently be away from their desks. Sure, they could use wireless. But are your agents constantly away from their desks? In certain circumstances, wireless headsets are going to be as necessary as tongs at a barbecue. In other circumstances, they’re just going to be a frill you didn’t need. You know it, and the person who signs off on purchase orders will, too.
The exception to this would be if you have a history of budget hits from damaged cords — from being rolled over or severed by desk drawers.
Center, Meet Headset
The experience of call center consultant Becky Simpson, a QueueTips reader who related her efforts to introduce headsets to a smaller call center, is illuminating. She mentions that the staff had been involved in non-call activities and didn’t want to wear headsets when they weren’t handling calls.
The reasons for using headsets, says Simpson, are the same regardless of center size. A headset:
> Lets agents concentrate on the caller.
> Eliminates background sound (when it has noise-cancellation technology).
> Frees up an agent’s hands, improving efficiency.
> Helps improve posture (no more head-shoulder phone grip).
> Makes auto-connect possible, eliminating the wait for the phone to ring.
Simpson noted that the two main concerns the agents had were about hygiene and fear of being tied to their desks. Her solution? Let each agent choose a personal headset from a range of styles, provide antiseptic wipes on a regular basis to keep the headsets clean, and allow the group to decide on wireless headsets to resolve the “tied to the desk” feeling.
Headsets are a big expense. Maybe you can save a little in the short term by buying a bunch of low-end, used headsets. I’ve seen it dozens of times in dozens of ways. Whether it’s cheap tires that don’t keep your call center car on the racetrack of success, or a box of discounted headsets you bought off eBay from the former director of the CDC’s Infectious Diseases Division, people trying to save a little almost always end up paying more than they bargained for. •
Adventures in Headset Shopping
The array of headsets on the market today can make you giddy. At this year’s Call Center Dallas Expo and Conference, attendees were treated to a table full of headset options by Info-Motion’s Michelle Baum.
There was a set for cordless fanatics who still wanted their agents tethered to their desks. “The range is short, so they can’t wander much farther than their cubicle walls,” she said.
She also showed Jabra’s GN BT8040, which features a tiny earpiece that can link to the desktop phone (corded or cordless), as well as automatically switch to a cell phone signal for trips away from the desk. “Perfect for supervisors and managers,” says Baum.
Headset provider GN Netcom recently announced that it has added Jabra wireless and multiuse devices to its portfolio, says Phyllis McCullagh, president, GN Netcom North America.
“The multiuse headsets [like Jabra’s GN9350] work with cell phones, desk phones and PC softphones, making it possible to remain connected via a cell phone when in transit. Jabra’s 9300e series features an increased wireless range up to 350 feet, making it possible for professionals to take calls while picking up a document off the printer, for example,” McCullagh says.
For those who don’t want headband hair and need a lightweight set, GN Netcom recommends Jabra’s GN2100.
An additional feature of this featherweight is PeakStop technology, which protects the wearer from sound spikes over 118 dB SPL (RML).
Once you’ve narrowed down your requirements, by looking at your own systems and needs and by working with a vendor on appropriate features, your vendor rep will likely agree to let you sample a set that seems to meet your needs.
