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Call Centers: Acoustical Considerations
by: Art Barkman
Developing an acceptable acoustical environment for call centers can be a difficult task, considering the constraints imposed by the companies and the planners that establish these centers.
Typically, a large number of people are performing a very noisy task in a confined space. They don't enjoy the workstation size that is provided for most other employees. In addition, management frequently feels that maintaining sight contact with the workers is important from a supervisory aspect, both to assure that the employees are working and to respond to problems that call center employees may have and signal for assistance.
So, to begin with, we have already broken a lot, if not all, of the rules of open plan office acoustics.
- Partition height is less than 60" - typically less than 54".
- There are numerous lines of sight between people, therefore no barriers.
- The barriers are most probably not treated with absorbent surfaces and, if they are, they are used as a tack board and covered with paperwork (this is like buying a sponge and leaving it in the wrapper.)
- The ceiling is probably not optimal in terms of its acoustical performance. It probably has a NRC (Noise Reduction Coefficient) of .60 - .65; i.e. it absorbs about 65% of the sound that hits it.
- People are close to one another..
What to do? More correctly, what can be done within these constraints?
It is quite possible that the answer lies in the headsets used by the operators, customer service representatives, or whatever the appropriate title given to the people on the phone.
If the headset has an input device that covers only one ear, the other ear is left exposed to hear and be distracted by other conversations in the area. To compensate for this, operators will raise their voice level. So too will other operators in response - and so on and so on. We have what is often referred to as the "cocktail party effect". Decibel escalation. Competition for air time.
Frequently, this raising of the voice levels is not necessary for the client calling in (or being called) to hear but the operators think that it is. Or, they may be raising their voice to hear themselves talk over the din. If the microphone on the headset is directional, it will exclude most of the extraneous conversation from other operators. If it isn't, it's part of the problem.
- The Fix:
- Get headsets that have an input (earpiece) for each ear or a sound-blocking piece for the dead side. Having an earpiece with the ability to be "flipped" up for conversations within the space is a good feature.
- Make sure that the microphone is highly directional so as to not pick up the voices of other operators.
- Have each operator phone in from an isolated room in the building so that they can experience what the customer/client hears and know that the operator does not need to raise the level of their voice to be understood.
The best defense is a "zone defense." Protect everything from everything. Isolate each piece of equipment in your system - electrical, data, voice, security and alarm. They are all connected to something that can transmit an electrical surge. Surge suppression devices in those connecting lines can prevent serious loss of data, equipment and time.
Old habits die hard. Supervisors need to keep reminding operators that it is no longer necessary to raise their voice levels for their customers to hear them.
Other steps are probably more expensive and less effective. They include, replacing the ceiling, raising the height of the dividers and suspending acoustical banners immediately above and aligned with the dividers below (so as to allow a "line of sight" for visual access). This later treatment is often impractical because it interferes with lighting, airflow, and sprinklers.