Removing background noise is a longstanding contact centre concern. White noise machines, higher cubicle walls, and larger office spaces have somewhat suppressed the problem, but not completely. After all, contact centres are often vibrant environments. Maintenance repair work, distracting colleagues, and noisy keyboards can detract from excellent customer conversations.
Yet, the switch to remote work has furthered the issue. Barking dogs, delivery drivers, and noisy housemates create additional distractions that disrupt customer and agent experiences. Unfortunately, sticky tape solutions - such as working from a quiet room, covering walls with soft furnishings, and moving closer to the microphone - just do not cut it as remote working becomes more of a mainstay by the minute.
Of course, this is not true for every operation. Some agents will soon move back to the contact centre full-time. However, this is more the exception than the rule. In fact, only 16% of companies have said they plan to bring their employees back into the office once the pandemic has subsided, according to a 2021 Buffer report.
As a result, most contact centres must embrace this new “hybrid” reality. And now is the time to fully equip agents to block out background noises and enable more engaging and trustworthy customer experiences - from both the contact centre and remote locations. This is the key to driving greater customer satisfaction while simultaneously reducing agent churn.
Enter Krisp
Traditional solutions that combat background noise – including noise-cancelling headsets - are expensive and often difficult to deploy at scale, particularly within a distributed workforce. Krisp, on the other hand, offers a cost-effective, easy-to-implement alternative.
At the toggle of a button, loud washing machines, screaming children, and other noises become problems of the past. What’s more, agents will not hear distracting noises on the other end of the line either.
Thanks to an AI layer that sits between agents and their devices, the app enables seamless, distraction-free interactions, bringing many benefits to contact centre agents, whether they’re working on-site or from home. Here are ten worth noting:
- Bi-Directional Noise Cancellation
Traditionally, many view noise cancellation as cutting out sounds within the agent’s environment alone. Yet, such an approach only blocks background noise from one direction. Agents must still avoid distractions that lurk within the often-vibrant surroundings of their customers.
However, the AI layer within the Krisp app sieves through the audio as it comes back to the agent. Therefore, the innovation protects everyone from disruptions during a call, whether the customer has installed the app or not.
- HD Voice
Krisp does not claim to enhance voice quality. However, by minimising an entire array of background distractions, the app succeeds at maintaining the natural HD quality of a person’s voice.
In other words, the solution enables listeners to hear the speaker—and the speaker alone. Clarity, therefore, reigns supreme, allowing agents to engage in more natural, meaningful conversations.
- Echo Removal
When a room has poor acoustics, echoes bounce off the walls. Krisp filters out those noises, too, to ensure that clear conversations prevail.
During video interactions, the value of such a feature grows as reverb is often more prominent. With more operations likely to adopt the channel in the future, it is crucial to consider this issue closely.
The additional benefits of echo removal extend beyond the confines of customer conversations. Consider environments where conference rooms play host to internal interactions. These are prone to echo. As such, the Krisp app is the ideal solution for more productive and clear conversations across a business’s entire workforce—beyond customer service interactions alone.
- Voice Cancellation
Like a biometrics system, users can now train Krisp to recognise their voices. In doing so, it registers the pitch of each agent’s voice as high, medium, or low.
Such functionality allows the app to block out opposing voices in the background. So, for example, if a family member bursts into the agent’s room speaking loudly, chances are that the customer will remain oblivious to the incident. Agents can then remain confident that they are delivering an excellent, uninterrupted customer experience regardless of what’s happening around them.
Krisp Voice Cancellation is a first-ever for the industry. And over time, it will continue to grow in nuance and sophistication to recognise individual voices and offer agents an even greater sense of privacy and security.
- Low Power Mode
Modern-day agents have several programmes installed on their desktops. From real-time analytics to scheduling apps, there is often heavy pressure on the processing power of their PCs.