magazine
36
Headsets
Sovereign Housing Association manages
36,000 homes for 80,000 residents
across the south and south west, making
it one of the largest housing associations
in England.
When Sovereign upgraded its
telephony system to Microsoft Lync, it
decided to equip advisors at its three
Sovereign Connect contact centres
with headsets that would maximise the
benefits of, and work seamlessly with, the
new system.
In extensive trials, one headset stood
out from the rest, as Head of Sovereign
Connect Debbie Humm explains.“We
trialled headsets from four different
suppliers for three months, with several
advisors testing each model, and at the end
the message came back loud and clear: ‘We
want the Sennheiser DW wireless’.”
Sennheiser’s multi-award winning
DW Series of wireless headsets provides
an industry-leading range of up to 180
metres, 12 hours’ talk time and fast
charging, taking just 10 minutes to
provide three hours’ talk time and one
hour for a full charge.
But what really stood out for Debbie
were the headsets’ comfort and call
clarity. “The Sennheiser DW wireless
headset was a revelation. The headset
itself was really comfortable to wear
and the sound quality was great. I had
been told that range could be an issue
with wireless headsets but reception was
excellent.”
Another attraction was Sennheiser’s
position as an official Microsoft Lync
partner and the availability of DW Series
headsets in versions fully optimised for
Microsoft Lync. These offer plug-and-play
connectivity with proven compatibility
and high-quality audio, including true
wideband audio when connected to
Microsoft Lync softphones or IP desk
phones for enhanced sound quality and
speech recognition.
Sovereign Connect ordered 130 DW
headsets through Sennheiser reseller
Communications Solutions UK and has
been delighted with its choice.
The benefits
“It helped greatly in raising the morale
and self-esteem of our advisors,” explains
Debbie. “Because we had invested in the
best equipment they felt appreciated. Our
staff could choose between single-sided
and double-sided models. As the wireless
headsets enable people to get up and
move around the office, they help relieve
stress, particularly if advisors have been
dealing with a challenging caller. It also
allows our advisors to multi-task.”
DW Series headsets feature high
performance ultra-noise cancelling
microphones to filter out unwanted
background noise. The improvement in
Sennheiser
gets the nod
clarity that this brings can greatly improve
call efficiency for Sovereign Connect
advisors. “One advisor has described it as
like being in a bubble with the caller,” says
Debbie.
Debbie has also been impressed by the
physical strength of the headsets, which
are made using high quality materials for
maximum durability and a low total cost
of ownership. “They are very robust. I have
worked in situations where lower quality
headsets needed constant replacing,
draining budgets. But the DW series is
very tough, and our staff take pride in
their headsets.”
Sovereign Connect advisors manage
up to 60,000 incoming calls from
residents each month. The health and
safety of advisors is an important
consideration and the DW Series benefits
from Sennheiser’s patented and unique
ActiveGard technology which detects
unsafe audio levels and compresses the
signal within milliseconds.
Summing up Debbie says: “We want
to provide the very best customer service
experience for our residents, so we
are moving from reactive to proactive
management of residents’ needs. The
implementation of Microsoft Lync
with Sennheiser optimised DW Series
headsets is an important step in that
transformation process.”
Sovereign
Connect
advisors
manage up
to 60,000
incoming
calls from
residents
each month.
The headset itself was really
comfortable to wear and the
sound quality was great.
Sovereign Housing selects MS Lync and Sennheiser
for its contact centres
