Headsets – a core piece of contact centre equipment – come in every shape and size. You have options in the sub-$50 segments that promise a stellar experience but may not fulfil your durability and warranty criteria. There are $50-$150 variants, excellent for a consistent experience across bulk deployments. For above $150, you can get something really premium with a lot of value-added features like proprietary noise cancellation technology and native software integrations.
Let’s consider some of these key price segments and explore how to budget for an agent headset purchase.
Is Going the Sub-$50 Way Worth it?
Small contact centres yet to reach profitability or even larger ones, buying headsets for hundreds of agents at once, typically consider this segment as a viable option.
On the upside, industry headset standards mean that none of these variants are likely to harm your agents with sudden volume flux, or get in the way of delivering a smooth customer experience. However, you might not receive the warranty coverage or vendor support you need in the long term. MPOW and VoiceJoy are two companies to consider in this segment – there are also the entry-level variants of Logitech and Jabra.
A Bang for Your Buck under $150
Most mass deployments choose to stay within this segment, owing to the combination of quality and support. Leading agent headset providers like Poly, Sennheiser, Jabra, Logitech, and Koss all have mid-range offerings between $50 and $150.
Some of the features you could expect in this segment are:
- 2-3 years warranty coverage
- HD voice clarity and lightweight build
- Proprietary features like Jabra’s PeakStop
- Noise cancellation microphones
- Padded earpieces
This should suffice for nearly every common contact centre scenario. However, you may not get premium features like a long battery life for wireless headsets or active-noise cancellation (ANC).