Acoustic shock. It’s something you probably have never heard of, but it’s been around for over a decade. If you aren’t aware of the term, not knowing might just imperil the acoustic safety of your contact center workforce.
Acoustic shock disorder (ASD) is a condition that occurs when unannounced sounds, ones that are materially different to normal speech known as white noise, travel through a telephone line or a web interface in the space of under 16 milliseconds, and into the headset. The bursts of white noise are then transmitted through agents’ headsets, causing damage to ears. First isolated as a condition 15 years ago, it is a devastating 21st century industrial injury problem. Since the call center industry has more than doubled in those 15 years, the number of at risk personnel is vast and growing. This is why it isimmediate health problem that needs awareness.
The sounds produced can vary. The effect can be described as consisting of a single frequency, or of a rising frequency sounding very much like a bang or clang. The impact this high concentrated frequency sound can have on the eardrum runs the gamut from pain and tinnitus (ringing in the ears) to hyperacusis (hypersensitivity to sound). Multiple exposures to these burst of sounds can lead to serious heath issues, resulting in work time loss.
Initial symptoms include:
Severe symptoms include:
Acoustic shock disorder does not cause hearing loss, but in the rare occasion that it does, rather than being a high frequency pattern induced injury, it affects low and mid frequency sensorineural hearing.
With the identification of ASD, output limiters in headset equipment have been developed to restrict maximum volume levels transmitted down a telephone line. However, ASD continues to occur despite their use, because headset equipment is not the only way acoustic shock disorder can occur.
Examples of sounds that can cause acoustic shock injury:
Technology is available to measure worker noise exposure before and after the device has been attached, and to store the data for up to six weeks, thus providing a continuous noise risk assessment among a group of workers. However, limiting the sound output does not completely prevent acoustic shock injuries, because acoustic shrieks can occur at low volumes as well. But, with the proper equipment, we can take at least try and eliminate most of the risks.
While preventative measures can be implemented by means of adapting operator headset technology, the key to ensuring the best work environment for your team is to include ASD awareness in your contact center employee training program. Make sure each team members knows what ASD is, how it occurs, and what the symptoms are. The better informed your employees are, the earlier the problems will be noticed, hence making them quickly diagnosed and treated accordingly.
Contact center supervisors should be trained to recognize the validity of acoustic shock as a danger to an employee’s heath, as well as having a procedure in place to address any instances reported to them.
Contact center team members need to be made aware of the dangers of an acoustic shock event, what it is, and what they should do in the event of experiencing one.
By empowering contact center staff to protect and care for their own heath, you can adapt to situations in a timely and efficient manner – benefiting the team member and the team as a whole.
Because of the growth of the industry, instances of ASD are on the rise, ranging from mild to severe. As a work safety issue unique to the industry, every call center should be aware of the dangers of acoustic shock and have procedures and training outlined to cope with it. A business's success would not be fulfilled without the employees, so it is imperative that we take care of each and every team member.
In the modern world of digital media and wireless communication, being connected is as much a basic need as the necessity of water and electric utilities. And as with any other basic service, consumers are usually on the lookout for ways to save money.
Voice over internet telephone service is an increasingly popular choice with consumers. Packages advertise unlimited long distance calls or year-long service for a fraction of the cost of land and wireless plans. A growing number of consumers are choosing to have their telephone service provided by such companies.
Consumers often jump at these plans, bringing with them assumptions that the internet telephone carries the same coverage as traditional phone plans. This isn’t necessarily the case. And what’s hidden away in fine print could literally be the difference between life and death. In some instances, dialing 911 may not be the best way to receive a swift emergency response from local first response agencies.
When it comes to an emergency, internet phone providers can provide a response that the consumer might not expect.
To begin with, the consumer may decide to register an address with the internet phone provider, typically through a webpage. The provider then assumes that service is being used at home. If customers do not carry out this process, the provider assumes a 911 call is coming from a wireless device. An emergency call will then likely wind up at an emergency call center managed by the provider.
Having a 911 call handled by an internet phone company’s call center is something that every consumer should think about. Unlike traditional, local 911 service, a call center does not have the capabilities consumers expect from operators handling an emergency call. Unlike local 911, a voice over internet call center cannot pinpoint a caller’s location. In processing the call, call centers agents will attempt to act as middlemen between the caller and local 911.
Also, so-called softphone use – when a computer is made to act like a telephone – and Wi-Fi connections will go straight to the voice-over-internet company’s call center. Many – but not all – voice over internet companies recommend that consumers have an alternate means of calling 911.
The federal government to date has little impact on communications, leaving regulations to state and local authorities. The FCC does not currently require voice over internet phone providers to offer 911 service. Those that do, do so on a voluntary basis. Such providers could opt out of carrying 911 service at any time without the need to inform customers.
There are horror stories of emergency calls through voice over internet systems being sent to the wrong state. While instances of serious harm or death resulting from 911 call disjunction are still very rare, they are certainly bound to rise as the popularity of voice over internet communication continues to soar.
Every consumer should enter into emergent voice over internet plans with eyes wide open. To ensure adequate coverage in the event of an emergency, consumers should still maintain a landline or wireless connection.
The increasing array of communication devices and platforms is a challenge to emergency response services. Realizing that the current regulatory status is more a hindrance than a help, the FCC recently issued a report calling on Congress to act in the interest of 911 service providers.
In many states, public safety answering points (PSAPs), because of long-standing state and local regulations, are forced to purchase 911 services from local telephone providers. These regulations made sense when 911 was created and all calls were based in landline telephones. As they stand now, these legacy regulations effectively hinder the transfer of emergency service calls to next-generation technologies better able to service the communication formats that have evolved beyond traditional land and wireless calls.
In an attempt to facilitate upgrades to next-generation 911 architecture using IP technology enabling emergency communication via multimedia, the FCC has requested that Congress remove outdated regulatory restrictions. In addition, the FCC has requested that incentives be put in place for states that implement regulations favoring next-generation deployments.
As part of a comprehensive plan to support 911, the FCC’s report has requested that Congress support the creation of location technologies that support all next-generation 911 applications, no matter the network or device used by callers. The report also calls on legislators to establish national databases supporting next-generation 911 security and routing.
Currently the federal government plays a small role in 911 systems, and 911 receives little federal money allocated to public safety, a fact which leaves the federal government little leverage in pushing for next-generation upgrades. Trey Forgety, director of government affairs for the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) is hopeful about changes. “One of the things that NENA has proposed — and I think one of the early recommendations in the report sort of supports this notion — is that 911 should be put on an equal footing with all other public safety purposes for federal grant funding. In other words, 911 should be right up there with police, fire, EMS, homeland security and emergency management. And that’s a fix that can happen without any new dollars being appropriated.”
The FCC’s report also addresses critical issues of local 911 funding formulas. In many jurisdictions, 911 fees are only tied to traditional landline and wireless connections, ignoring completely the broadband connections used more and more by consumers. The report calls on Congress to broaden the base of contributors to better align with the benefits derived from 911 service.
Says Forgety, “We want to make it as cheap and easy as possible for originating service providers to offer 911 service to their customers. So, if I’m AOL, Vonage or whoever I am in the originating-service world, we want to make it as cheap and easy for them to get to 911 as possible. The notion is that, if you make it free — or very cheap — and easy, people will do it, and we’ll expand the set of originating services that can access 911, and that’s very important for consumers.”
Contact centers more even than sales departments are dedicated to customer service. So identifying ways to enhance the customer experience is an ideal way to take a good performance program and make it great.
Principles To Please
A train can’t travel meaningfully without a destination, so a common vision of where you’d like the customer to be after completing a session with your contact center team is a must. The simplest way to craft a vision is to begin with identifying a small set of customer experience principles. Aim for a set of short sentences, phrases, or words that encapsulate the way a customer should be treated. A great way is to arrange them into a mnemonic device. For example, SMILE could mean Sharp, Mirror, Interact, Listen, and Energy. Whatever works to make your vision attainable for your contact center team.
Practice And More Practice
The principles you establish for your contact center team only work if they’re substantiated in action. They need to be locked in everyone’s memory. Print them out and place them in team members’ work spaces. Make them a key indicator of performance reviews. A great way to get your team excited is to make an employee of the month award based on that period’s best performer in your program.
Caring For Customers A Priority
You’ve got a vision and a set of principles set like the rungs on a ladder to success. But good customer service is never a set of boxes to tick off and complete. Caring about customers is the vital component of delivering efficient service that makes the experience a rewarding one. Customers who feel that a contact center agent has formed an emotional connection with them are far more satisfied.
It’s How You Say It
You can’t overestimate the importance of the feel good element of a truly great customer experience moment. It’s efficient, all the boxes get checked off, but there’s that extra component of showing the customer that your team really does care that they get the service they need. The best way to achieve this ultra crucial element is simple: It’s how agents speak to customers. Real, authentic concern. You can’t beat it.
Load Up On Feedback
You need a metric to measure the impact your program is having on customer satisfaction both about the program itself and about individual team members’ performance. The best way is in a real-time format – either through post-call polls and surveys or through a random selection of customers whom you call to elicit comments from about their satisfaction.
And don’t forget to get employee feedback. The troops on the front line can be an invaluable source of excellent data.
Train That Brain
Using a feedback driven training/retraining program is a great way to help iron out rough spots and help your contact center workforce meet goals.
The Bottom Line
You’ll know your program is working from the performance of your business. A reduction in customer churn, an increase in first time resolutions. Happy customers combined with team members who are on board and engaged in your institutional vision make for a customer service operation that ensures future customer revenues in a highly competitive market.
Any time communication takes place with customers there is an opportunity to enhance the image of your enterprise. Unfortunately, there are also the pitfalls of leaving the customer with a less than satisfactory experience. Optimizing contact center metrics can be a way to better your communication with customers – and that’s a means to advertise your company at the same time as helping your customer base.
Usable Data
In attempting to measure the efficiency of your contact center’s performance, it’s helpful to consider planning how you will use the data you generate. Don’t underestimate the amount of data you will generate – it can be significant. But less is more – if you won’t use it, don’t bother gathering it.
On The Same Side
Clarity and focus are the hallmarks of any successful internal review of performance. Everyone involved from highest management to frontline team member should communicate the same metric definitions and goals. If there’s no consistency, there is no way to set goals for improvement.
Simplicity
To avoid confusion and retain that clarity and focus, use just two or three measurements. Set realistic time frames for gathering data and stick to them.
Ask And You Shall Receive
Want a better answer? Ask a better question! Keep your survey simple. “Did you get more out of your call than you expected today?”
Keeping It Real
Consider asking your survey questions in real time and let your contact center team member log the information. Any negative feedback can be addressed on the spot. An unhappy customer can be turned around by taking the time to listen to concerns.
Avoid Over-Analysis
Using just a few measurements and being prepared to use the data are the groundwork. Analyzing the data produced, however, can be the area where the whole process breaks down. Constantly returning to data over and over again is a pitfall.
Sample multiple view points from your company to begin the analysis process. It will help make sure everyone is on the same page.
An easy way to evaluate your analysis is periodically to define the perspective. How is this going to help the customer – that’s the bottom line. Identify a goal and move on.
Don’t Micro-Manage
You need your team on board and committed to the measurement process. Micro-managing operational metrics risks disaffecting the men and women on the frontline that drive the measurement and will put in place the goals the process will produce.
Meaningful Objectives
Meaningful objectives are objectives that are meaningful to the customer. If you can’t see how a proposed objective relates to customer satisfaction, it’s not a real goal. Letting the customers’ needs drive goal setting is the key to success.
Bringing Everyone Together
Establish customer service improvement meetings, and plan on holding them at least once every quarter. Bring together representatives from ALL areas of the business involved, from HR and finance to the operational team, to discuss progress towards goals.
By providing non-linear points of contact within your business, you can foster new ideas and new goals to improve your contact center customer relations.
As technology evolves new ways of communicating with customers, the problem of making sure that person-to-person communication does not become distorted by the digital medium is a real one. The ways we achieve customer satisfaction sometimes require special consideration.
This is especially true with web chat. Missing nuances of tone and facial expressions, a chat session that seems innocuous and customer-friendly to your contact center team member might come across as curt and rude to a customer. In order to optimize web chat for customer relations, here a few best practices to keep in mind.
No matter how well you’ve trained your contact center team members, web chat has its limitations as a communications medium. In crafting web chat policies make sure to include a line in the sand specifying when it’s time to switch to the telephone.
Some types of problems are just too complex for web chat – customers will thank you for making sure their concerns are addressed as fully as possible. Where First Contact Resolution (FCR) can’t be achieved, a seamless transfer of conversation from chat to telephone should be possible.
Keeping customers waiting can ramp up frustration levels. If there are no contact center team members available for chat, have a capability that shades out the “Chat Now” feature. Better to deactivate the feature than condemn customers to an indefinite wait in a clogged queue.
Yes, web chat is staffed by live, honest-to-goodness human beings, but the chat medium can make customers feel like they’re talking to a robot. By emphasizing a personalized web chat conversation, you not only encourage customers to use the web chat feature, but you leave them satisfied with the experience. It can be as easy as telling them your name and asking how their day was. Paying attention to their conversation, and gathering extra details about their situations, can also show the customers that their problems are being heard, understood, and solved.
It goes without saying that the obligations of professionalism don’t disappear in digital media. We may abbreviate and misspell words in our private texts and e-mails, but there is no place for poor grammar and spelling when communicating with customers. Even when the conversations become friendly and a little more personal to where the customer shares information unrelated to the problem, keep a level of professionalism and focus on solving their issue.
In communicating via web chat, it is crucial to respond to the customer immediately. Any wait at all will seem too long to a customer needing assistance. Even if you do not immediately know the answer to their question, respond asking for more information or to let them know that you are about to research their problem.
Avoid long paragraph responses. Customers tend to give up on chat when it takes too long to see a response. So keep responses short and snappy to keep customer attention focused on the chat experience. Make sure to ask follow up questions throughout the conversations, to ensure that the customer is understanding your instructions.
Keep instructions as clear and easy to understand as possible. Try going in a numbered steps order, or respond slowly with descriptive details. If the chat experience is too complicated it defeats its purpose and makes for an unpleasant customer experience.
Remember, if things get too complicated, it’s time to switch to the telephone.
Avoid making customers reconfirm information they have already confirmed. It slows the chat down uselessly, and is just annoying.
An easily overlooked matter is the age of the person a team member is chatting with. Typically, younger customers are comfortable with chat features. Readiness to redirect queries to other avenues of communication ensures that all customers receive the attention and help they deserve. Being sensitive to age and preferences in contact center communications are crucial to a satisfying customer experience.
Live web chatting can be unsuccessful, if the right measures are taken. You always want to make sure your customer feels comfortable, and understood. Remember, the customer is always right, so do your best to help them through their problems, because the better your customer service is, the more likely the customer will return.
It can be a matter of life and death: Private persons using radio-jamming devices to interfere with emergency responder communication. And it’s on the rise.
Fire and rescue face extraordinary challenges in their efforts to save the lives and property of Americans everyday. When responding to a call for help, radio communication between responders and dispatch is a crucial element when even a few short minutes can save a life. But in a growing trend these radio transmissions are being jammed in a deliberate effort to frustrate first response to emergency situations.
It’s all too easy to do. Someone monitoring the frequencies used by emergency responders waits until a fire fighter or emergency medical technician identifies his radio identification code. Then the jammer keys a mike, preventing the emergency technician’s use. Sometimes the jammer repeatedly keys and rekeys to see if that particular emergency responder is still trying to communicate. Sometimes there’s silence or sometimes the jammer whistles into his mike. The jamming ceases when the emergency responder has been forced to quit attempting to communicate.
The issues with jamming is clear: First responders are unable to get the information they need, get it is scattered pieces, or receive the information too late. Emergency situations can prove fatal in seconds, so every moment counts. Jamming frequencies and disturbing communication between emergency professionals can result in fire and rescue or police from arriving too late to a scene and keep victims in harm’s way longer than necessary.
Radios are available that can be programmed to tune into specific frequencies, and the frequencies used by public safety agencies are often enough published on line. The radios jammers used are far more powerful than the ones in fire trucks and ambulances. A jammer keying his mike overrides them.
A quick Google search pulls up information on jammers for sale that block cell phones and XM radio frequencies. A quick search on marketplace giant Amazon yields few results. Because they are illegal, individuals wishing to jam emergency frequencies will need to rely on other means of securing a jammer, such as Craigslist, the black market, word of mouth, or building one.
For many it’s just a prank, but interfering with public safety communication is against federal law. In fact it is illegal to buy, sell, or operate a jamming device – an offense that carries with it fines of up to $112,000 per act and time in federal prison.
Many are not deterred by the consequences, however. The FCC is investigating a growing list of instances of jamming reported by exasperated firefighters and medical technicians. In 2012 the FCC instructed dispatchers in departments disrupted by jammer activity to read a statement over the air warning that interfering with the transmissions is illegal whenever it occurred.
So far emergency personnel have gotten around the jammer by relying on their personal cell phones for communication, but it wastes minutes that could make the all the difference in the world for someone in need of help.
U.S. Rep. Peter King (R) is considering proposing a bill that would increase the penalties for such acts. His proposed legislation would specifically make interference with public safety radio a federal felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Congressman King was moved to draft his bill by an incident in 2013 during which someone transmitted on the T-band radio channel for the Melville, New York Fire Department. The transmissions included words and chanting, officials said. After 10 months, police made an arrest with the help of the Federal Communications Commission.
The jammers rely on their anonymity to get away with their crime, but the FCC is working to help take this away. Newer technology can help federal authorities locate and track down jammers. Mobile monitoring devices and satellites can be used relatively quickly to pin down jamming activity.
For any team to work and work well, there must be clear expectations and lines of communication. And there’s no way to avoid them: Performance management is key to ensure your contact center team members are all pulling in the same direction.
But if it’s so important, why is there such a sense of dread surrounding the topic of performance management? Because of the perception that it is empty bureaucracy, merely a control mechanism, a hindrance to your team at best, and an expression of management’s hostility, at worst.
But there are ways contact center supervisors can use performance management as a rallying point for team esprit de corps. It’s all about changing perceptions.
Like any process, the beginning starts with a strong foundation. When approaching a contact center team with something new, or something that can be perceived in a negative way, establishing a secure foundation of trust is imperative.
The ideal way to gain your team’s trust is with clarity and transparency. Any change can be a potential source of anxiety, so presenting the steps of your performance management program in outline form acts to allay fear. So remember, in your initial meeting, your key objective is clarity of process - explaining where your process is going.
Clarity in large part can take the sting out of the idea of performance management by redefining the parameters. Performance management essentially is about tracking progress and identifying need.
This process works in two ways - by identifying weaknesses and strengths. Discussing the idea of addressing weaknesses often causes anxiety to team members. Work to calm those fears first by emphasizing that strengths and weaknesses are aspects of both individuals and of the team itself. Identifying strengths and weaknesses of both sides allows for better understanding and development when building a relationship. And your team won’t be asked to read minds - a unified goal is crucial to a successful program.
Next, demonstrate to your team members that areas of weakness aren’t times for finger pointing, but opportunities for development. Communicate to your team that when opportunities are discovered for, you can demonstrate that worker satisfaction is a company goal.
For performance management to work, the process and the results must be owned by team members. This means keeping open lines of communication between contact center team and supervisors, but also incorporating a self-assessment component into your performance management program. Each level of management must work together to ensure quality performance.
Unless there is consistency and follow through, clarity of process and target setting on their own will achieve nothing. Building the trust of team workers - and keeping that trust - is a matter of utilizing performance management as a consistent method of team member development. Make sure to assure clarity with every change and create a system of checks and balance where a team member can feel comfortable expressing an issue and can expect a resolution that improves the situation.
All work and no play can weaken any team. In working through your performance management program to set both individual team member targets and targets for the team as a whole, a reward system helps replenish good will and morale and maintain trust that the program truly identifies weaknesses and strengths. It can instill encouragement, leading to an increase in quality performances and happy employees.
A performance management program does not have to entail shaking contact center team confidence and fostering anxiety. By addressing team concerns and even anticipating them in rolling out your performance management program, you can redefine how your team perceives the program, and help ensure it will be a success. It is about building a stronger relationship within the company that can produce more efficient workforce.
The men and women of law enforcement dedicate every day to making our world a safer place. Because we know that real dedication to public safety entails risking the highest sacrifice, KOVA is deeply honored to sponsor the Police Unity Tour.
The Tour began in early May 1997 when Officer Patrick P. Montuore of Florham Park Police Department organized a memorial cycling event. This event was meant to raise public awareness of those in law enforcement who had lost their lives in the line of duty and as a way to honor their sacrifice and the sacrifice of their families. The first year saw 18 cyclists participate in a four-day, 300-mile long event ride from Florham Park, NJ, to the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, D.C. That first year raised $18,000 for charity.
Last May nearly 1,700 cyclists from nine chapters from as far away as California and Florida turned out for the Tour, raising over 1.72 million dollars, bringing total donations to 14 million. In recognition of the Tour's achievement and its motto, ‘We Ride For Those Who Died,’ the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund has selected the Police Unity Tour to be the sponsor of the National Law Enforcement Museum’s Hall of Remembrance.
Sponsoring an event like the Police Unity Tour allows us at KOVA to show our sincere respect for the men and women of the thin blue line who face danger every day to make our country safe and stable. Going above and beyond the call of duty, Tour organizers are a model of civic responsibility and their work helps make our communities safer, better places to live. The funds raised by the Tour help:
KOVA would like to congratulate the Mullica and Hammonton Police Departments who have teamed up for the 2014 Four-Day Police Unity Tour. The riders representing New Jersey’s finest are:
For all the frustrations, for all the tense moments, for all the near misses, for all the direct hits, and for all the sorrow For the long hours endured without complaint, for the unfounded complaints you receive, and for the thanks you don’t… For being there when you’re needed, for the sterling discharge of duty, and for the pride and integrity that you stand for we at KOVA thank you.
