Articles

There's always a lot of noise in a call center. It doesn't matter how carefully you organize the workspace, or how advanced your equipment is. There will inevitably be some office noise to confront, think about, and ultimately minimize. Additionally, it's important to consider the issue of protecting your clients' privacy. If people hear lots of background chatter when they call your operators, they're more likely to think that their information isn't secure, and worry about possible fraud. Be sure to think about psychology, as well as ergonomics, when you put your call center together.

If the Call Center has to deal with any sort of customer service, you'll be dealing with issues of call sensitivity. Offices all over the place which have customer service arms must consider this factor, whether the Call Center is located off the company campus or is in-house. This is the case as well for government and military operations, contractors with clearances, or corporate meeting areas in private corporations. You are at risk in any place where you deal with personal info.

Sound travels in waves, and can pass through almost any surface - doors, windows, walls, ducts, etc. Although very sophisticated methods of masking can preserve privacy, someone using a sophisticated eavesdropping device may still succeed at eavesdropping.

Attenuating sound is the usual method used to deal with high noise levels. This involves making the sound less intense by some means, most often spreading or absorbing the sounds that are made. Since the majority of firms cannot afford a complex sound attenuation apparatus, they use the more affordable method of 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.

Call Centers can greatly benefit from masking, and worker health will also be improved, in that background noise is a stressor. For health of employees, providing a workplace that is protected from extraneous noise is very important. For both employee and customer, then, sound masking is a boon to Call Centers.