Noisy Workplace

Chances are, you'll hear a lot of noise in the background. Most customer service centers and call centers consist of dozens of desks or cubicles in a small area. Agents are constantly distracted by the voices of the other agents, ringing telephones, and other general office noises.

Excessive noise can be a major contributing factor to workplace stress and anxiety. Stress has been proven to be a big contributor to declines in productivity, and also in absenteeism. When employees are stressed out and distracted by excessive noise,your customer service record is probably going to decline substantially.

If you want to increase your customer satisfaction, you have to increase employee satisfaction. Stressed out and angry employees are not going to be able to provide the polite, understanding service that your customers deserve.

It's not necessarily the fault of your employees, either. Most people aren't able to deal with the level of stress that is caused by the combination of rude or angry customers and excessive workplace noise.

The best way to deal with this would be to offer each customer service agent their own private office. Of course, well all know that this would be very impractical for most businesses. For some businesses it would be virtually impossible!

A more practical way of dealing with excessive noise in the workplace is through the use of sound masking systems. These systems can help reduce the effects of workplace noise by masking it, using white noise.

White noise carries a wide range of frequencies, typically mostly in the range of the human voice.This noise helps keep the brain from perceiving the sound of other voices and other sounds in the office.

Sound masking systems can be very inexpensive. They can be installed much faster and more easily than sound-proofing. And sound-proofing would do very little in an open office environment like the kind in the typical customer service call center.

Not only do you owe it to your employees to reduce the level of distracting noise in your office, but you also owe it to your customers. Happier, healthier employees will be able to take much better care of your customers, and your customers will be delighted to be able to deal with employees who are not grouchy!