Headset solutions provider Sennheiser Communications (News - Alert) offers a number of professional, consumer and contact center headsets that promote improved comfort, quality and productivity.

 

The company’s contact center headsets support agent’s communications needs while also fostering a more comfortable and positive work environment.

 

For office workers and today’s on-the-go mobile professionals, headsets have also become an essential tool to efficiently multi-task and manage calls from any location.

 

A recent study by IDC (News - Alert) shows that by the end of 2011, mobile workers in the United States will account for 75 percent of the workforce – an increase from 758.6 million in 2006 to over 1 billion by year-end 2011.

 

To find out more about their specific headset offerings and uses beyond the call center, I asked Eric Palonen, Product Manager at Sennheiser, a few questions on the topic.

 

 

 

TMCnet: Sennheiser’s entire range of CC and SH series headsets promote sound quality... how are these solutions beneficial?

Eric Palonen: A quality headset should not stop at providing the tools required for conversation. Instead, our solutions provide the best possible speech quality to improve conversation. Imagine the efficiency a contact center or office could attain with shorter, clearer conversations at comfortable volumes on every call.

 

TMCnet: What are some of the key features necessary in a headset to ensure quality communications and connections occur?

EP: The headset has to be comfortable to wear. While the user is wearing it, they have to feel confident that it will stand the test of time and daily abuse. During use, it needs to sound intimate and clear. Our Sennheiser grade microphones ensure that the conversation will be clear. We have been making microphones for over 65 years for recording studios and touring musicians. If we can make something good enough for them, imagine what we can do for you.

Our contact center headsets feature special Kevlar and Tephlon reinforcements for durability that can be relied on for daily business use. Each headset features painstaking ergonomic refinements that enhance comfort while minimizing wear and tear on the assembly components.


TMCnet: How do headsets facilitate simplified mobile productivity, and why is this beneficial?

EP: The days have finally arrived where mobile communication is embraced as a necessity for corporate communication continuity. The mobile office is now as capable as those at HQ and thus the tools used at home base can be just as effective on the road. With a myriad of connectivity options thanks to Bluetooth, Sennheiser provides superlative features and quality on demand to make the road as comfortable as the home office. When your workforce is connected, capable and happy, so are your customers.

Aside from call center headsets, how do Sennheiser headset solutions improve in- and out of office mobility for different types of workers? What types of company’s beyond call centers can benefit from headsets?

EP: Many road-warriors are required to multi-task in a rental car or airport terminal. Freeing one or two hands goes a long way towards comfortable efficiency. Using a Bluetooth headset with a softphone laptop application allows the user to privately communicate while accessing critical data to make a crucial business decision before boarding a plane, for example. Without being hands and cable-free, the conversation would have to wait until the plane lands, which could be in several hours. In the real world, a few hours too late is unacceptable.

TMCnet: What headset solutions does Sennheiser offer to keep users connected?

EP: I will start with the nerve center of your operation- your home office. You have order makers and takers as well as customer support. Each relies on their phone and/or computer for daily business with your revenue-critical partners. They need a hands-free solution that emphasizes speech intelligibility, comfort and durability for everyday use.

Our SH and CC series will hit a home run with heavy phone users thanks to microphones derived from our award winning studio and live sound technology. This enhanced speech intelligibility makes every conversation easier by eliminating repetition, confusion and noisy artifacts from standard-quality electronics. On the road, it’s all about what you can connect to without wires. Our Bluetooth line of headsets, including the acclaimed BW 900 let you carry a conversation from the beach to the boardroom. The focus is on connectivity, call quality and ease of use - all of which we center our product design around.


TMCnet: What are some of the different ways headsets are used in today’s workforce? Is their presence / importance more significant now? Why so?

EP: Today, Sennheiser solutions offer the optimum speech quality for the plethora of headset users' needs. Voice-overs for slideshows, presentations and training modules gain instant credibility and authority over the listener with powerful yet natural speech reproduction.

 

Voice recognition programs run at their most efficient speeds with incredible accuracy scores. Language-learning computer programs are able to correctly enforce the proper pronunciation during training sequences. These are just examples of how a better sounding solution can work, yet there are still possibilities for alternate uses showing up every day.

 

The personal computer and mobile phone have also opened up unlimited potential for the human voice and its interaction with other people and software. Look for this trend to continue at a rapid rate, and look for Sennheiser the next time you need a high quality hands-free solution.