Hello All,

I'm IT Manager at a South Wales based call centre. One of the biggest complaints from our customers when on the phone to our advisors is that they can hear them typing in the background whilst giving emotional support to the client. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem and managed to solve it buy purchasing some form of silent keyboard? I've given Google a go but there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer.

Thanks!

Steve

I've never tried it but how about noise cancelling headsets instead?

Steve: I wonder if you're looking at the wrong bit of the problem (a la drunk looking for his lost keys under the lamppost, 'cos that's where the light is..)
The question I would ask is why are your agents typing anything at all if what they are doing is "giving emotional support"? What your customers are really complaining about, I suspect, is that your agents' behaviour is telling them that they think your systems/organisational requirements/time pressures are more important than the customer and their problem. (And research would show that people can't actually parallel process, and are much better doping one thing at a time, and this is more true when one of the tasks is complex, and conversation/emotional issues are complex) My advice would be to think about the call structure/process and the customer, not about how noisy the keyboard is. (On the other hand, I think that when the typing is task related, and appropriate, noisy keyboards are a good thing..they tell the customer that you are doing something about their problem) Hope these comments are useful; happy to discuss further offline if any use to you.
Guy

Hi Steve,
Suspect the issue is more headset (than noisy keyboard) related. If the customers complain about hearing the agents type then they are picking up background noise so can probably also hear other agents talking as well.
The noisier the call centre the more importatnt the headset quality in my experience.
Investigate noise-cancelling mics on (duo) headsets. Jabra and Plantronics tend to be the best and Sennheiser also worth a look especially if you require USB headsets. See if you can trial a few models on sale or return perhaps.

Thanks
Adam

Thanks for your feedback guys,

You're right about concetrating during emotional support, however the agents need to log alot of the information so that it can be referred to later, so it's the lesser of two evils I'm afraid.

I've purchased a new headset to trial which has a noise cancelling mic which should help. We'll trial it and hopefully it will work. I've found one keyboard so if it's not working then I might try that. I'll post back here the results.

Thanks again!

Steve