Let’s face it, everybody who’s on the phone a lot wants great sound quality. You want your voice to be heard loud and clear, and you want to be able to hear your callers equally well. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.
When your favorite four legged friend decides to distract you with their attention grabbing bark, or your favorite little fur ball is at the window howling at the neighbor’s fellow feline, sound quality can go into the tank real fast.
Maybe it’s your coworkers that are celebrating nearby, or the gardener is reaching gale force winds with his favorite leaf blower right outside your home office window. Whatever you find to be distracting, unwanted noise can have negative effects.
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Unfavorable customer experience. Customers don’t want to fight to hear, they want to have a naturally free flowing, easy to understand conversation. But, when distractions set in, focus and concentration go out the window. The result is your customer becomes frustrated and this alone can cause them to be less interested in what you’re proposing..
- Erodes productivity and is unhealthy. When you’re struggling to hear your caller, or your caller keeps asking you to repeat yourself, this could be classified as clear and present danger. Focus is taken away from the mission at hand, and instead, directed towards the struggle of hearing well. Studies have shown that unwanted noise can not only be distracting and unhealthy, but lowers your productivity and a lot more.
Check out this article “12 ways noise affects worker well-being and productivity” .
Noise happens. It’s a given, right? So whether you find yourself working among coworkers in an open office environment, or fighting the natural elements while working from home, noise is a true reality that we all have to deal with.
With computer based communications taking center stage these days, headsets have quickly become the must have, go to piece of technology. When you blend these two subjects together (distractive sound and headset technology), what’s the best office headset to get that can help remove unwanted noise?
You’ll want an office headset that has two key features:
- Noise cancelling microphone. Professional headsets today come with a variety of microphones. The two most popular are:
Non-noise cancelling microphone. These don’t eliminate any unwanted noise. These are fine if you work in an isolated environment such as a private office. But, for anyone else, this just isn’t going to cut it.
Noise cancelling microphone. Unlike a non-noise cancelling microphone, this one does eliminate background noise. This means that you might hear noise in your work environment, but those you talk to on the phone will not. In most cases, this is a must have feature.
- Noise reducing ear cushions. Believe it or not, not all ear cushions are created equal. Some ear cushions are made of a foam material, while others are made from a leather type material. The latter being superior for reducing noise. So, you need a model that has leather type ear cushions.
Next, the size of ear cushions vary. Some go against the ear, while others wrap completely around the ear. In a lot of cases, the smaller ear cushions are fine, but it depends on the degree of noise in your work environment.
If noise is what you’re seeking to reduce, then select a model that features ear cushions that encase your ear completely. This will help to prevent sound from penetrating your ear while at the same time, isolate the incoming sound from the speaker so you can hear better.
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Flexible microphone boom. Why is this important? Because having a flexible microphone boom allows you to position the microphone to the ideal spot. If you have the microphone too close to your mouth, you will sound distorted.
If the microphone is positioned too far away from the side of your mouth, you will sound faint.
The general rule of thumb is that you position your microphone about two fingers widths away from the corner of your mouth. If your headset microphone isn’t adjustable, it puts you at risk of having poor sound quality.
Other factors to consider.
This would include things like the length of the warranty, headset adjustability, comfort and more.
But, for the sake of this blog, we’ll focus on these three features to help us arrive at the best office headset with noise cancellation for working from home.
With these three features as our backdrop, what headset, among all available headsets, represents the best noise cancelling headset for working from home?
We feel that the Discover D722U for computer, or D722 for desk phones has the best noise cancellation today.
What makes this our top pick?
- Oversize ear cushions. Unlike smaller ear cushions that allow sound to penetrate the ear canal, the D722 series fully encases the ear. This prevents outside sound from entering the ear, while at the same time, captures sound from the ear speaker far better than the smaller size cushions.
- Excellent noise cancelling microphone. The Discover D722 series headsets have a noise cancelling microphone that exceeds the performance of competitive brands. In the end, you get a better quality phone call with unwanted sound kept to a minimum if not fully eliminated. Your customers won’t be asking you to repeat yourself either, which gives them a better overall experience.
- Extremely flexible microphone boom. The material that the microphone boom is made of allows it to be bent into any shape or position and it will hold steady. This gives you the versatility to position the microphone where it can do the most good, two fingers from the corner of your mouth. Having a flexible microphone boom may seem insignificant, but when it comes to establishing and maintaining optimum sound quality, the little things can make a big difference.
The frosting on this cake is that it comes with a full 3-year warranty. This is longer than what other brands offer which means you have longer peace of mind and a worry free user experience.
Conclusion:
The Discover D722 is a very efficient headset that works extremely well to eliminate unwanted room noise. You get a great microphone with an adjustable boom and a pair
of pillow soft, oversized ear cushions to help knock down all that noise. You avoid being distracted and your callers get a better call quality experience. Productivity is enhanced and you remain focused.
You can find other professional headsets that help to reduce noise, but you’ll be hard pressed to find one that works as well as the Discover D722 for the price. Bar none, this is the best value going if you want a comfortable, great sounding, reliable and affordable headset for use in your office, call center or home office.