Sound Masking - Improving The Workplace
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, 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.
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.
Sound masking basically fills in the sound spectrum and makes speech less intelligible in given places. Usually confused with noise cancellation, sound masking will not truly change the frequency of a sound wave. It just covers it up. This technique of ensuring acoustic privacy is often the most effective in regard to the return on the investment.
The advantage for the Call Center is not only call confidentiality, but lack of equipment intrusiveness. Sound masking, when installed correctly, helps to cut costs for cubicle walls, yet greatly enhances the work setting. Furthermore, it minimizes the chance of a client's eavesdropping on another client's personal information when a representative recites it back.
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.
Call centers, by definition, are noisy places. After all, everybody is talking! It is important,however, that this office noise not be allowed to define the business to the client. No one wants to think their personal information is at risk. Since sound can pass through almost all mediums, the office managers should consider sound masking. Masking doesn't cancel the sound but fills in the spaces of the spectrum so speech is not identifiable and the result is a white noise. Masking is more cost effective than other methods. The results are more pleasing to both the workers and the clients.
Published March 4th, 2009
Filed in Management