Articles

Call Centers are noisy places. No matter how carefully you position the workstations, or how good your audio and call equipment is there will be office noise to deal with, noise to plan around, and noise to eliminate. Furthermore, there is always the issue of sensitivity in conversation to deal with. If people call into a Call Center and sense background noise and chatter they are more apt to regard the Center as a fly-by-night operation and potential fraud risk. Not only ergonomics but psychology must rule the construction of a good Call Center.

If your Call Center deals with any kind of customer service, you will be open to issues of call sensitivity. Offices everywhere that have customer service arms have to take this into consideration, whether the Call Center is off the campus of the company or in-house. This is also the case for military and government operations, corporate meeting areas in private corporations, or for contractors with clearances. Anywhere you deal with personal information you are open to risk.

Sound, being what it is, can pass through just about any surface -- doors, windows, walls, ducts, you name it. If someone is deadset on overhearing any private conversation, it can usually be done with sophisticated eavesdropping devices, and only very sophisticated methods of masking can preserve privacy.

Normal acoustic treatment methods include creating rooms with high sound attenuation. Attentuation involves diminishing the intensity of sound traveling through a medium, and is accomplished through absorption, scattering or spreading the sound. Most organizations do not have the money available for high-class attenuation, so they look to a second alternative -- sound masking.

Although sound masking is often confused with noise cancellation, it does not alter the frequency of sound waves. Instead, it "fills in" the gaps in the sound spectrum, making speech less intelligible in a given space. In terms of return on investment, this method of ensuring acoustic privacy is extremely effective.

Essentially, the benefit for the Call Center is not only safety of conversation, but lack of intrusion of equipment. Properly installed sound masking can reduce the costs of cubicle walls while still dramatically improving the environment. It can also reduce the risk of customers or clients overhearing another customer's private information as a call center rep repeats it back to them.

Masking is a technique that can greatly improve your call center. To start with, it will make your employees happier and healthier, by eliminating stressful background noise. Your employees will be able to relax in a workplace that uses masking, and they'll perform better in the absence of extra noise. To benefit your workers and clients, you'll want to consider sound masking.