Key takeaways
- Voice quality testing systematically evaluates audio clarity to prevent miscommunication between agents and customers
- Common causes of voice quality issues include network performance problems, high-volume traffic congestion, and hardware malfunctions
- Proactive testing allows organizations to identify and resolve issues before they impact customer experience
- Automated solutions accelerate troubleshooting and ensure consistent voice quality throughout the CX development lifecycle
- Industry standards like mean opinion score (MOS), perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ), and perceptual objective listening quality analysis (POLQA) provide objective measurements for voice quality assessment
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.
Voice quality testing is the process of systematically evaluating and monitoring audio clarity, consistency, and reliability across communication channels to verify customers and agents can understand each other without distortion or interruption.
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. Research shows that 76% of customers will stop doing business with a company after just one poor experience, making voice quality a critical factor in customer retention.
There are three primary factors that can cause voice quality to degrade: network performance issues, high-volume traffic, and hardware problems. With an automated voice quality testing solution, you can proactively identify issues before your customers are impacted and confirm 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
Poor network performance is one of the leading causes of voice quality degradation, resulting in garbled audio and communication breakdowns.
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 (when data packets fail to reach their destination, causing gaps in audio) and latency (delays in audio transmission), 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
Network congestion during peak call periods causes audio distortion, delays, and communication failures that directly impact customer satisfaction.
During times of peak interactions, your contact center’s network can become overloaded, resulting in packet loss, echoing (when audio is reflected back to the speaker), jitter (irregular variations in packet arrival times causing choppy audio), 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
Equipment malfunctions and improper setup are often the simplest voice quality problems to resolve once identified.
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.
Understanding voice quality measurement standards
Voice quality is objectively measured using industry-standard scoring systems. MOS rates voice quality on a scale of 1-5, with 4.0 or higher considered acceptable for business communications. PESQ and its successor, POLQA, are ITU-T standards that algorithmically assess voice quality by comparing transmitted audio against the original signal, providing reliable benchmarks for testing and monitoring.
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 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.
The Cyara Agentic Platform includes automated voice quality testing solutions designed to ensure effective communication whenever you speak with your customers. Cyara’s real-time agent monitoring solution makes it easy to monitor and troubleshoot issues in the agent environment.
Contact us today to schedule a demo or visit cyara.com to learn more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Poor voice quality in call centers is typically caused by three main factors: network performance issues (packet loss and latency), high-volume traffic causing congestion, and hardware problems such as malfunctioning headsets or incorrect microphone positioning.
Voice quality issues can be prevented through proactive testing and monitoring, confirming agents have high-speed network connections, using quality hardware, and implementing automated voice quality testing solutions that identify problems before they impact customers.
Voice quality testing should be performed continuously throughout the CX development lifecycle, such as during initial development, before deployment, and in the live production environment, to catch issues at every stage.
MOS of 4.0 or higher on the 1-5 scale is generally considered acceptable for business communications, indicating good voice clarity with minimal distortion.
Poor voice quality can stem from many factors, including network congestion, packet loss, jitter, high-volume traffic, hardware issues like faulty headsets, and inadequate bandwidth for remote agents. Because contact center environments are complex, pinpointing the exact cause can be difficult without the right testing solution.
Even minor network performance issues can cause packet loss and latency, resulting in garbled audio, echoing, or sudden silence during customer interactions. Remote and work-from-home agents may believe their connection meets standards when it does not, making proactive testing essential.
Yes, during peak traffic periods, network congestion can cause distortion, jitter, and unexpected silence on calls. An agent’s workstation can also become overloaded, leading to audio delays and reduced call quality.
Faulty or improperly used headsets, poor Bluetooth signal, low battery, and background noise in remote environments can all degrade audio quality. These issues may be hard to identify without a dedicated monitoring solution.
Automated voice quality testing allows teams to proactively identify and address defects before customers are impacted, rather than waiting for complaints to surface. It provides consistent, objective insight into CX performance across every stage of the development lifecycle.
Testing at every stage helps ensure that defects are caught early, before they reach the live environment and affect real customer interactions. This approach protects both customer satisfaction and brand reputation.
Undetected voice quality problems can turn routine customer interactions into frustrating experiences, leading to miscommunication, abandoned calls, and lasting damage to your brand’s reputation.
The Cyara Agentic Platform includes automated voice quality testing solutions that monitor and test voice performance from every perspective, helping contact centers ensure clear, effective communication at all times.
