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John Swodeck

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Audio considerations in contact centers/call centers.

I have worked in and around contact centers for more than 20 years. I am amazed that companies still don't pay much attention to the acoustics of the contact center environments. I can hear background noise in at least 50% of the companies I call for support or questions. This is generally blamed on poor headsets or improper headset microphone placement. Even in locations where the customer isn't hearing the background noise, the associates are experiencing audio levels that most likely impact productivity. I would like to see a consulting company that works with these environments to improve the experience of the customer and associate while improving productivity through the reduction of ambient audio levels.

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    Raam Anand

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    Feb 14 2013: Improving the customer-experience should go hand-in-hand with improving working conditions. I definitely agree to your argument here. I personally love to be working in an acoustically-engineered spaces than working in noisy environments, unless you are working in a rock-band or a musical group. Productivity definitely goes up.
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    Kate Blake 50+

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    Feb 11 2013: Yes John I often hear much chatter going on in the background. One govt. worker got most annoyed with me claiming that I had turned the mobile onto loud speaker, which I hadn't done. But I felt this just reflected her frustration of working in a poor environment that usually has a 30 to 90 minute wait time. Most consumers are not too impressed by this - when will they deliver reasonable services for the public? And reasonable work environments for those already doing a difficult task?

    Thanks for starting the conversation, I look forward to seeing if this varies greatly from country to country. Most call centres for Australia are based overseas - like the one during the floods when I needed to know which roads/ highways were shut. The lady didn't have a clue of the major towns I was asking about, and stumbled to find them on her map. They were definitely not obscure towns and anyone living in this state would clearly understand what I was asking!

    But maybe off shore call centres could be another topic?

  • ZX Style 10+

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    Feb 10 2013: i can't help you with finding an consulting company.
    But i do agree call centers have annoying background noise.

    Basic science can help you probably a lot.
    Make high walled office cubicles.
    They can help reverberate background noises to where they come from.
    You should visit some company's who have those cubicles and experience the sound levels.

  • greg dahlen 20+

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    Feb 10 2013: As a person who frequently calls call centers, I rarely find background noise annoying, actually I rarely hear any. Whether the associates are being bothered by noise I can't hear, I don't know. I've never gotten the sense that they were being bothered by it while talking to me.

    I'm glad you started this convo. John, what do you do with my experience that rather contradicts your position?

    • John Swodeck

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      Feb 10 2013: Greg,
      I am happy to hear that you have had good experiences when contacting organizations through the contact center channel. Your opinion as a user is very important and certainly supports the fact that there are companies that do a very good job of managing background noise for their customers. This very important as it usually results in a more positive experience for the customer.

      I look forward to hearing the experiences of others to see if there is a need for attention to acoustics beyond the environments that I have experienced.
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