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In work environments where employees spend a significant amount of time on the phone, making that experience as comfortable, convenient and efficient as possible is critical for improving business performance. Many companies today are outfitting their employees with wireless headsets for phone and VoIP calls. Wireless headsets not only provide users the freedom to communicate about their work area without cords, they can also significantly enhance employee productivity and job quality.
Setting the Scene at Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is an organization that has realized the positive impact of wireless headsets. The company provides services that help businesses manage customer information. Its sales representatives sell services to customers through telephone contact.
But some of the Salesforce.com sales staff reported they weren’t able to fully concentrate on their calls because of the noise level in their tightly packed cubicles. They also felt like they were losing precious time having to put customers on hold to find information or locate supervisors when issues needed to be resolved.
Since the sales team spent most of their day on the phone, Salesforce.com knew that something needed to be done to ensure that these phone troubles did not get in the way of the team’s productivity.
To better arm its employees to perform their jobs, Salesforce.com joined forces with independent research company, Adams Consulting to conduct a study sponsored by Plantronics. Salesforce.com outfitted 46 of its sales reps with Plantronics wireless headset systems, and kept a control group of 18 sales reps who worked with their existing wired headsets for one month. The hypothesis was that most of the reps’ phone obstacles could be overcome with a wireless headset system.
Study Results
At the end of the month, the research results supported the Salesforce.com hypothesis: The benefits of the wireless systems were apparent. The Salesforce.com team that used wireless headsets achieved a profound productivity increase. Wireless headsets enabled a reduction in the number of missed sales calls from an average of 4.9 a day with wired headsets to 2.1 a day with the wireless systems. Sales reps were able to make more calls in a day, which is directly proportionate to the number of sales opportunities. The study found that the Salesforce.com group that used wireless headsets showed a 7.5 to 20 percent increase in new sales opportunities.
The wireless headset users also reported an improvement in sound quality and overall comfort, which can be attributed to the ergonomic design of the wireless systems and their ability to customize/control volume and fit. For employees who spend an average of five to six hours on the phone each day, enhanced comfort can make a big difference in overall job satisfaction and productivity. And the ability to hear and understand callers better can help the team more easily gain customer trust and land sales.
The Salesforce.com sales team with the wireless headsets also reported in the survey that getting rid of the cord was a significant convenience in that they no longer had to deal with tangled headset cords and they didn’t feel tethered to their desks. In fact, the reps noted that their new freedom to move around was the most significant way that their jobs improved, since they could now go to a quiet corner to concentrate on their calls when things got too noisy in the cubicle bank. Also, they could better collaborate with coworkers or connect with contact managers when the situation warranted.
The survey found that the reps using wireless headsets noted that having the latest technology reinforced their belief that they worked for a cutting-edge company. This notion can have a tremendous positive effect on hiring and retention.
Conclusion
After the compelling results of the survey, Salesforce.com outfitted its entire sales team with wireless headset systems. The quantitative and qualitative data show that wireless headsets can have an impact on both employee job satisfaction and a company’s bottom line. The resulting improvement in employee productivity and comfort serves to encourage other businesses to examine how a wireless headset implementation could benefit other phone-centric workplaces.
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