Whether you purchase a list from another company or you handle your lead generation in-house, leads are not cheap. Especially as you narrow down the pool to only your high-quality leads, the cost per lead raises significantly.
Why would you gamble the chance of losing even a single lead to an issue that’s entirely under your control?
Hardware plays a significant role in your call center connectivity and productivity levels. Every time you make a call with low-quality call center equipment, you risk the loss of your valuable leads.
When you work from a cloud based call center, your setup requires much less hardware than a traditional on-premise solution. Which pieces of high-quality call center equipment are necessary to run an effective business?
Headset
An agent’s headset is the most noticeable portion of hardware that impacts day-to-day life in a call center. Agents don a headset for around six hours per day; clearly it impacts them on a direct, physical level.
The most important aspect of a high-quality call center headset is that it connect to the computer via a USB rather than a 3.5mm audio jack. USB provides a better connection than the typical ⅛ inch connection seen on many headsets.
As for the physical construction of the headset itself, it is surprisingly not as important. There are two reasons to pay a bit more for headsets:
1. Call clarity
The headset has no direct impact on connectivity or call quality. However, on some low-end call center headsets, they return a scratchy- or tinny-sounding call. While it doesn’t affect the actual connectivity, the scratchiness may make it difficult for agents to immediately understand the individual on the other end of the line.
2. Agent comfort
Agents wear headsets during a significant majority of their day; hopefully the headset provided is somewhat comfortable to wear for such extended periods of time. Although it’s merely a cosmetic functionality issue, providing more comfortable headsets for agents may improve their performance. Or at least keep their headset on their head throughout the day!
Computer
Computers are the supporting stars in your call center. While the headset might receive the most initial attention, if there is no solid computer to process the data transfers, agents cannot make calls.
When looking for agent computers, skimping on capability to save a few dollars will only harm you in the long run. Invest in computers with a decent amount of RAM (at least 4-6 GB) in order to process everything an agent needs to do on their computer.
Agents often need to run simultaneous tasks alongside the call center platform, such as:
- Messaging programs
- Other browsers or Internet tabs
- Background applications
While it might be possible to run certain softwares on equipment like a tablet or cell phone, it usually is highly discouraged. Running such a significant application over a wireless connection often delivers poor call quality.
Ethernet
The opposition to running call center software on equipment like a tablet or cell phone due to their wireless connection leads to the next important piece of call center equipment: an ethernet cable.
A hardwired ethernet connection provides the strongest signal and best call quality possible. Cloud based call center software transfers large amounts of data at once in order to run phone calls through a web phone. If you run our computer on wireless Internet, you run the risk of dropped calls and patchy audio feeds, absolute killers of potential deals and client relationships.
If there is difficulty communicating in either direction, patience will be limited. In order to keep closing deals with prospects and your customers on the phones, hardwire every computer to the Internet via ethernet connection. This is a simple way to ensure the best quality across all agents.
High-Quality Call Center Equipment, Top-Notch Results
When you refuse to cut corners on your call center equipment, you receive noticeable results. Better call quality, fewer dropped calls, and improved overall connectivity are a few of the positive outcomes.
By providing a better experience for your leads and customers, your retention rates rise. This means not only happier customers but happier agents as well. If you foster beneficial encounters for both your customers and leads as well as your agents, you maximize company satisfaction overall.
