You may be familiar with the game of telephone. During the game, one person whispers a word or phrase to another person, who then repeats it to the next person in the line, and so on. The point of the game is to show how miscommunication works, as people can easily misunderstand the information that’s said to them, creating a chain reaction of incorrect information down the line. And, while the game of telephone is fun, leading to plenty of laughs, miscommunication isn’t a joke in call centers.
Cyara’s voice quality testing solution empowers businesses to test and monitor voice quality from every perspective.
When customers call your contact center, they’re looking for information and an easy answer to their queries, without any further hassle. Like in a game of telephone, clear communication is key. But, just as whispering can make it difficult to understand one another during telephone, sudden drops in voice and audio quality across the phone line can make it nearly impossible for your customer to understand your agent. Poor voice quality can lead to misunderstandings and general frustration, damaging your customer experiences and brand reputation.
There are many different factors that can cause voice quality to degrade. With an automated voice quality testing solution, you can proactively identify issues before your customers are impacted and ensure that your agents are always able to communicate clearly and effectively with your customers.
What Causes Voice Quality Issues?
Because contact centers and agent environments are very complex, there are many different factors that can contribute to poor voice quality. Unfortunately, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer for what may be causing an agent’s voice quality to degrade. From an agent’s headset malfunctioning to your customer calling from a location with poor phone signal, some problems are more difficult to pinpoint and address than others.
Still, it’s important to be aware of several common causes for poor voice quality, such as:
Network Performance
We all know the frustration of having to deal with a poor network signal. One moment, you could be speaking to one of your loved ones, when suddenly their voice becomes garbled, or it sounds like they’re moving through a tunnel. Whether it’s an unexpected dead spot or just generally spotty network performance, these instances can make it very difficult to effectively communicate.
While, in many cases, it may be your customers’ network that is causing poor voice quality, it’s important to ensure that your remote and work-from-home employees have access to high-speed connections. An agent may believe that they have a quality network connection, but their home network isn’t meeting standards. And, as even the slightest network performance issue can cause packet loss and latency, voice quality testing can help troubleshoot where an issue lies, so you can take proactive steps to remediate issues before it impacts your customers.
High-Volume Traffic
During times of peak interactions, your contact center’s network can become overloaded, resulting in packet loss, echoing, jitter, and other voice quality issues. When high-volume traffic causes network congestion, it can make the voice quality sound distorted or include sudden periods of silence. For many brands, this can be disastrous, impacting CX during critical seasons, such as a retailer that must manage increased traffic during Black Friday.
In other cases, a remote agent’s desktop can become overloaded. An influx of calls and too many open applications can cause unusual delays in answering calls or low-quality audio, making it difficult to communicate clearly with a customer. When an agent’s workstation is overloaded, they can improve voice quality by closing unnecessary programs—such as video streaming, video games, or any additional applications that are competing for memory and CPU resources.
Hardware Issues
Your agents’ equipment may also be the culprit when they experience poor audio quality. For example, an agent may accidentally position the microphone away from their mouth, making their voice sound quiet, or background noise in a remote environment can interrupt a customer interaction. Poor Bluetooth signal, low battery, and using a cheap headset as opposed to a company-issued model are other examples of hardware issues.
While hardware issues likely aren’t a technical problem and can be resolved fairly easily by charging a headset or using the correct microphone, it may be hard to identify without the right testing and monitoring solution. Cyara’s real-time agent monitoring solution makes it easy to monitor and troubleshoot issues in the agent environment.
Proactively Eliminate Potential Issues
Because contact center environments are very complex, it can be extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of voice quality issues. But, with an automated voice quality testing solution, you can accelerate the troubleshooting process and begin addressing potential defects before your customers are exposed to poor CX performance.
A voice quality testing solution allows you to understand CX performance from every perspective, through every stage of the CX development lifecycle. If a defect emerges at any point during development or in the live environment, your team will be able to locate instances where defects will make it difficult for your agent and customer to understand one another. With this information readily available, you can proactively eliminate issues and ensure your CX is always performing as intended.
Ensure Clear Communication with Cyara’s Voice Quality Testing
Poor voice quality can lead to miscommunication and frustration for both your customers and your agents. Even the slightest issue can turn flawless customer interactions into a game of telephone, damaging your customer satisfaction and brand reputation. But this doesn’t have to be the case. Cyara’s AI-Led CX Transformation Platform includes automated voice quality testing solutions designed to ensure effective communication whenever you speak with your customers. Contact us today to schedule a demo or visit our website to learn more.
