Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Ward Competitors off Your Prime Prospects: Use Sound Masking


If you are in sales, your “client is your competitor’s prospect”, and your competitor is not always another agent from a competing company, but maybe your colleague sitting on the chair next to you.  This is how competitive the world of sales is.

As you call on your prospect, your competitor could be jotting down surreptitiously on a piece of paper or even on the palm of his hand, vital information he needs to know to get to your client’s door before you do.  More likely, he gets to close the deal, too!

This is one of the reasons why open-offices should have sound masking system built in place.  Tell your boss about it!

What is sound masking system?  

They are reasonably-priced gadgets you can install right up on the ceiling of your office.  They produce a variety of low-level natural sounds, such as the refreshing sound of a running brook, waterfall or raindrops.  Also known as “white noise”, the sound is so low you can hardly hear it at all.

However, this low-level white noise has a powerful effect on other existing distractions happening in the office.  It “overrides” or “masks” the noise to a level that it becomes unintelligible for other people in the room to listen to.  As a result, you would still see some of your colleagues chatter; doors, chairs or desks would still make sound when pushed or moved, but you will not audibly pick up the noise, or understand it, thus you maintain concentration towards your work, regardless of the disturbance happening around you.

Ward Competitors Off Your Business

You need not run a company to be in business for yourself.  As an employee or as a Sales Agent, you are already in business!  Protect it by investing in reasonably-priced sound masking system you can install right inside your cubicle or even on top of your desk.  These personal sound masking systems are available on the internet; there is always one that suits your budget.

Install  VoiceArrest Sound Masking System,  the most effective sound masking system in the market today,  and put premium on your employees' privacy, as well as provide them with a noise-free environment to work from.

Even in his day-to-day activity, a sales agent, a boss, or a rank-in-file employee should not care less about speech privacy.  Information that is confidential in nature should be treated as such.  In open-offices, this requires a lot of effort and "creativity", such as covering the mouth when one speaks or mumbling on the telephone in an attempt to keep things secret.  Both ways are ineffective, if not ridiculous in the first place.

To ensure higher level of privacy inside your office and to eliminate noise distractions that rob you or your employees of productive time, install VoiceArrest.

It is your most cost-effective solution to noise distractions that hamper your employees' productivity.





Voice Arrest Sound Masking and How it Helps in Boosting Employees Morale


Are you managing people? Voice Arrest Sound Masking is an innovative solution to keeping your job less stressful. Here's why.

Managing Personalities Not People

You know how nerve-wracking it is to manage "personalities", rather than people, and a good office manager is one who can get things done through the efforts of his employees, regardless of their moods, personality traits or individual differences. However, it takes more than a "nice" manager to keep the business viable. He needs to invest in sound masking.

The Talking Point: Revenue

Keeping the business profitable is the core objective of every business undertaking, for what is business if it does not make money? You would not go into business and commit financial suicide, would you?

A good manager is one who will stop at nothing to realize this objective, but modest enough to admit that he cannot achieve this goal without the help of other people: his employees.

It is a thin line to walk on, often times challenging. On one hand, the manager has to make sure that he positions his people like ducks on water, wading straight to where he wants to bring the organization, but on the other hand, he also has to look after the welfare of his people. To strike a balance between making money and keeping people happy is a good trait of a manager. This is where a cost-efficient and highly-effective sound masking system can help.

What Sound Masking Does

Foot traffic, humming sound of office printers, fax machines, A/C units, and the buzzing of the telephone - these all make up noise that is indispensable in an ordinary office setting. You are clueless as to how these noise distractions can make your head spin, disrupt your focus and diminish your productivity, until the boss calls you for a slugfest (read: talk) about your performance.

Imagine being out of job at this time when millions of Americans are struggling to find one. This is not the right time to flip pages of classified ads; instead of losing your job, get your acts together and show your boss that you are still worth every dime he puts into your pay envelope.

If you can't purchase a personal sound masking system to protect you from noise distractions in the office, gather all your guts and talk to your boss. Retaining an employee costs less than hiring and training a new one.

Sound masking protects your employer's bottom line, as well as your job. It masks noise that seems harmless, but in reality causes far more damage than other repetitive strain injuries combined; in fact, in 2008, US companies lost billions of dollars due to work-related stress. Noise distractions are the forerunners of work-related stress that hampers productivity, and worse - your health.

So, is it not the right time to invest in a sound masking system?

Install Voice Arrest Sound Masking System today, your one-time solution against noise distractions.

Your employees deserve a conducive working environment where they can focus on their tasks and become productive without the hazard of noise. Noise causes work-related stress, and stress is the root cause of occupational illnesses that hamper employee's performance, and busts your revenue.



Best Places Where to Use Sound Masking Systems


Sound masking systems are perfect indoors and outdoors.

Sound masking systems are perfect for use wherever distracting sound needs to be blocked. Most sound masking tools, a.k.a. white noise machines are used in offices and work areas today, to encourage employees to stay focused on the task at hand; however, you may also use white noise machines at home, especially when you want to rest.

There are three places where sound masking systems are often used…

Public or crowded areas—sound masking systems may be used in offices which are open to the public, but are not always too crowded. These include waiting areas, pharmacies, offices where conversations need not be heard, or areas where silence is required such as libraries, spa, or a beauty parlor.

Sound masking systems are often installed in areas where private conversations must not be heard, not necessarily in areas where the actual conversation is coming from.

Offices, work rooms and other private area—in an open-office setting, where work areas are in cubicles or separated only by thin partition-walls, sound masking is not only an important add-on to the acoustics plan of an office, but an indispensable requirement. If you want to keep noise from other offices or cubicles at a manageable level, this is where sound masking system comes in. Additionally, it is believed that sound masking machines may increase workplace productivity by 18% a month.

Open offices and other non-crowded areas—People respond differently to sound—other people may have sensitive ears while others may not be easily bothered by noise, no matter how loud it is. In an open area, one may be easily distracted by sound produced by little objects, even as light as a pin drop. If you respond too easily to such noise and get distracted by it, sound masking systems can help you eliminate this unwanted noise.

Sound Masking and Ergonomics: How You can Improve Your Chances at Promotion this Year


If you have been eyeing your supervisor’s swivel chair for the past two years, would you not consider sitting right on it this year?  Everyone loves a little promotion and it is but normal that you set a goal for yourself, too!  Now, there is something that can catch your employer’s attention that might just merit a swivel chair of your own:  show him that you are his asset, not his liability.  How?  Two words:  productivity and efficiency.  And the tools you would need to achieve them, right here in this article.  Please read on.

How Sound Masking and Ergonomics can Help Your Promotion

Do you feel sluggish as you go about your daily task?  Your feeling of utter “uselessness” won’t help you get closer to your goal.  You may not have realized it, but your office environment can be a culprit.  Office distractions rob you of energy; even without listening intently to office chatter, noise gets into you.  The humming and buzzing sounds of office fax, printer and other equipments seem harmless, but they can sap your energy without you noticing it, until your head starts to ache or your ear starts to ring, as if a bee got in there.    

As your condition is left untreated, it will hamper your concentration towards your work and consequently, your productivity will diminish.  Imagine this happening to your co-employees as well.  Would the boss take notice?  Of course, he will!  Anything that challenges his revenue is bad news, and most often than not, employers act on bad news more readily than they do on good ones.

Now here’s the trick:  show him solutions rather than gripe about the problem.

Tell him about sound masking systems.  Sound masking is NOT eliminating noise (which is impossible to do in an office-setting), but to mask it to a level that it becomes incomprehensible to the human ear, and therefore will not cause distraction.  Voice Arrest by SpeechPrivacySystems.com is one good product you can try immediately.

Tell him about Ergonomics.  Sure, you have heard of this one, but perhaps you have not given it much thought.  You won’t realize how important it is to use ergonomically-designed office equipments, such as ergonomic keyboards, ergonomic desks, or ergonomic mice, until your hand suffers from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - a type of Repetitive Strain Injuries that affect the hand.

Perform a little test on your hands.  With arms parallel on the floor, put the back of your left hand against the back of your right hand with your fingers pointing to the ground.  Hold for 60 seconds.  If you feel numbing on your wrists, or a tingling sensation accompanied by pain, it is an indication that Carpal Tunnel Syndrome has slowly set in.  Avoid surgery or long-terms treatments; go ergonomics.   Start with the use of mini keyboards and notice how your wrist and fingers “relax” as you type.  There will be less effort, and definitely no more pain.

Become an Agent of Change

Your employer will appreciate suggestions that protect his bottom line.  Remember, that’s his motivation.  He will surely take notice of your ability to think through sticky situations and emerge with valuable solutions; a trait of a good leader.  

Take notice how the use of sound masking systems and ergonomic keyboards impacts your own productivity and efficiency.  And if you continue to deliver good performance, a swivel chair with your name on it, might just be delivered to your office soon!





Sound Masking in a Call Center Office: Silence Writes the Paycheck


The need to hire call center agents to market products or services on the internet has become an indispensable strategy for most businesses.  Competition is fierce on the internet; those who refuse to ride on the wave of technology are left with fewer options to thrive.  However, those who prefer to face up to the challenge have to find ways on how to cope with the changing business climate.  This is where sound masking becomes an indispensable tool for your business.

The internet has offered more opportunities and wider options for people who conduct their business on the internet.  But as horizons expand and local businesses have to converge with a lot more people, back up support for customer service should be in place.  This is where call center agents play the major role in making sure that existing customers are taken care of while new ones are made.

How to Set Up Your Call Center for Success

Call center agents have a tough job:  they serve as your front act to a barrage of complaints, questions and requests that can come with a litany of curses, insults, and snide remarks yet they have to oblige an answer or an explanation without losing their cool.  Can you beat that?

They have to be on their toes.  A customer can be nasty, arrogant or explicitly devoid of manners, but as your front act, they have to exercise self-control, tolerance and the resiliency of a bulldog.  They cannot afford to lose a client every so often, lest they lose their job.  Yet, despite of how good a call center agent is in his job, noise distraction can affect his work.

This is where sound masking can define failure or success for your business.

Here are tips on how you can design your call center for success:

1.  Provide partitioned work spaces for each call center agent where conversations can be carried out in private.  Over-cramped work spaces (think about open-offices) create a lot of distractions that can hamper productivity.

2.  Protect confidential information by installing sound masking systems within the call center.  Sound masking systems emit sounds that override telephone calls and afford a level of privacy to confidential information shared between your customer or your prospect and your call center agent.

Sound masking is an innovative solution against noise.  It is best installed in high-traffic areas like call centers and hospitals, but just as suitable for installation in other areas that may not be as populated as call centers, open-offices and hospitals, but require just as much privacy, such as legal offices and your company's boardroom.


VoiceArrest Sound Masking System  is the most effective sound masking system in the market today with its benefits surpassing other sound masking systems.  It can be utilized as a paging system, too.  

VoiceArrest Sound Masking System,  as the word suggests, is not “total noise cancellation”; as this is not possible to achieve in a place of business.  What sound masking does is only to "mask" noise by introducing low-level sounds that override the noise and reduce it to a level that cannot be understood by other people.  This gives privacy a chance in any environment; people at work are not bothered by distractions, hence they perform better.









Save Your Job: Tell Your Boss about Sound Masking System


You are losing focus; in fact, you cannot remember deadlines and you got your reports all mixed up.  You are stressed!  Work-related stress can make you forget things and lose things – including your health and your job!

Figures Don't Lie

Work-related stress, also referred to as on-the-job stress, is the root-cause of ailments that has milked most companies billions of dollars in sick leaves, disability benefits, including deaths.  As each employee loses minimum of ten hours per week to office distractions, this gives you the picture on how an employer encounters a dip in his revenue, every month.  If work-related stress is not properly addressed, it can have a negative impact your health, your job and your employer's business.

Save Your Job and Your Employer's Business
                                                                                         
 Tell the Boss where the problem lies, but more importantly, tell him about the solution.

Tell your boss about sound masking system.  If your work environment is stressful due to noise and other office distractions that dissipate energy and impairs concentration, it is the same thing with other employees, too.  This has a boomerang effect on revenue, and your boss has the right to know; otherwise, he blames it all on human factor, such as poor performance, lack of initiative, laziness, etc., which is unfair to you and to your officemates.  Speak up and be heard. 

Sound masking system neutralizes noise by introducing a low level background sound that masks it to a level that it becomes less comprehensible.  You don’t pay attention to something you can hardly understand, do you?  You still hear a little humming sound; in fact, noise does not go away.  You cannot eliminate foot traffic, can you?  You won’t put off your office fax, or put the telephone on mute, but of course!  With sound masking, there is no need to worry about noise even if it happens, where it happens.  Sound masking system, also referred to as white noise, takes care of the problem – even if you’re not watching.

Powerful Secret of an Employee Employers Won't Fire


"When company's revenue hits a snag, more heads will roll". This is more of a verdict than a warning. If you happen to be at the receiving end of this grim announcement, it is time to take a long hard look at your performance and honestly assess if you are your employer's asset or his dismal failure.
Recognizing the problem is half its solution. Have you been meeting work deadlines? Do you contribute?
Trouble rears its ugly head when your performance at work starts to nosedive and you can't pinpoint the cause. You begin to miss deadlines, and to summon concentration towards your work requires effort. You find it too easy to cook up alibis why you deliver less, and perform poorly. You have a bad case of work-related stress that has to be dealt with accordingly, before your situation gets worse.
Nemesis of Productivity
Are you having trouble with noise at the workplace? Noise dissipates energy and makes you lose two hours daily to distractions. Do something about it. If you can't kick it, mask it!
Sound Masking is the solution. It is achieved when background sound cuts into existing noise or speech in a given environment and renders it incomprehensible.
Interchangeably referred to as "white noise", this low level sound creates speech privacy even in high-traffic areas. White noise comes in soothing variants of ocean waves or other natural sounds.
More Than Masking Noise
Sound masking system also protects your communication. Speech privacy is crucial when you work in the military or in hospitals where confidential information should be protected at all cost; however, even in a sales-driven company, speech privacy should take center-stage. You would not take chances making your all-important sales call while another agent is within hearing distance, would you?
With sound masking in place, you can make all those sales calls you have been wanting to make and nail them down! You will not be bothered by eavesdroppers prying on your conversation; sound masking has your speech privacy (and sales) covered.
Take Your Pick
So, there goes the secret of an employee the Boss never wants to leave: productivity. Who would want to fire an employee who carries his own cost?
Where to Find the Solution
Sound masking system for individual employees is available on the internet. There are many good websites you can visit, but take a look at what SpeechPrivacySystems.com has for your budget.
Find a sound masking unit that delivers two benefits for a price of one: first, it masks noise that hampers your concentration, and two, it is your personal speech privacy system. It masks your own voice when you interact with a client on the phone, or talks with a colleague inside your work station. Most importantly, it should render your conversation unintelligible to a third party who should not be privy about it.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Personal Sound Masking System: Invest in Your Own Speech Privacy


Office distractions, such as noise and office blabber of an overly-excited colleague,  do not only disrupt focus; noise also causes stress on all employees, saps their energy, and consequently, hampers their productivity and efficiency at work.

However, in cramped open-offices, there is something else that “endangers” the chance to deliver a good performance, aside from noise distractions.  It's competition. 

Let us accept it.  You are only your company's asset as long as you perform, and in a sales-oriented company, closed-deals are its life-blood.  Sales agents competing for an annual paid vacation or a car or cash will stop at nothing to get what they want.  This is where the game can become "nasty".

Invest in Your Own Speech Privacy

Protect your prospects and your chance to advance your career in sales.  Do not allow competition swallow you whole without doing something about it.  If your present office setting denies you of your sales because other sales agents can probe on your sales call and use the information they gather to deny you of your chance to a paid vacation or a ride on a nice car, imagine how frustrated you can become?  Other agents who will find themselves in your situation will feel the same way too.  Tell your boss to safeguard speech privacy in the office, lest he sees productivity go down the drain and his revenue with it.

Tell him about Sound Masking System.

Sound masking system may either be for the entire workplace that only your boss can provide, or a personal gadget you can operate within your cubicle or work space, for your own protection.

With a personal sound masking system, you are assured that your telephone conversation with a client is no longer intelligible to an eavesdropper.  It will also provide you the “silence” you need to focus on your work and become more productive.

What Have You Got to Lose

What have you got to lose when you don't ensure your privacy in an open-office?  Everything you've got! 

Find a solution today. 

Install Sound Masking: Protect Your Bottom Line from Office Distractions that Kill Productivity


Voice Arrest Sound Masking Systems, an innovative solution to office distractions, sounded like a piece of crap when I heard about it the first time.  Honestly. 

Is there really a gadget that can instantaneously switch off noise in an office full of rowdy sales agents beating sales cut-off?

I did not pay much attention to the sales pitch of an agent trying to sell a sound masking system in the office.  I have been an agent all my life, so I seemed to have heard too much of myself from people who wear the same cap that has been on my head since I entered sales.  However, his demo of sound masking system, alternatively referred to as white noise generator, caught my ear.

A Little Explanation about Sound Masking and What it Does

Sound masking, as the term suggests, “masks” noise; it does not eliminate it.  Office chatter cannot be avoided, unless you run a mute-team of sales agents.  The effect of office distraction is not easily noticeable, which makes it more damaging.  People who are often exposed to office distractions, such as foot traffic, boisterous laughter or chatter, and the continuous buzzing of office equipments, lose concentration, which affects their output or productivity at work. 

You need not be involved in a chatter to be affected.  It is enough that you hear it.  Surveys revealed that an employee loses as much as ten hours per week to office distractions.  If you were an employer, this can give you shivers long before snow falls.  You may consider closing shop, too!

The Ill-Effects of Poor Concentration

Let us get the facts straight.  Why should we be bothered by office noise?  The answer is simple.  When people can’t focus on their work and their productivity is hampered, they would not be able to contribute as much or at least equal to the cost their employer bears just to maintain their employment in the company.  If low productivity continues, and revenue just breaks even, an employer should decide for the good of his business, which may not be for the best interest of the employee that has under-performed.  However, that is how business runs things.  It can only accommodate non-producers for a while; if left too long in the team it would be like having a small leak that can sink the whole ship!

But hiring and training of new employees involve just as much cost.  This is a setback for employers who knew they had to do something, but would find themselves on stale mate position.  Good thing there is a solution that eliminates the root cause (office distractions/noise pollution) of the problem.   Perhaps, you can hold off giving an employee his walk-out papers, until you are sure the problem is attitudinal and there is nothing you can do about it.

Take the Sound Masking Challenge

 Find out if sound masking can help improve your bottom line.  Surveys revealed that most employers who have installed sound masking systems inside their offices have seen positive results within a short time. 

How Sound Masking Can Increase Productivity

Hate Noise?

Don’t you just hate it when your surrounding is noisy while you work? According to experts, noise pollution may affect one’s attitude towards work and may decrease one’s productivity. If you hate getting bothered by the chit-chatting, clattering of pens and computer keyboards, and the incessant ringing of the telephone, sound masking systems will help eliminate unwanted noise around you so you can regain your focus on the task at hand.

Noise pollution not only affects productivity, but it may also cause stress and inconvenience in the workplace. If this problem remains unsolved, your productivity may continue to slack; your efficiency diminished and you might lose your job!

Sound Masking can Increase Productivity

One effective way to fight noise pollution is by installing sound masking systems in your home or office. These tools are easy to use while their benefits are tremendous! Employers who use sound masking systems in their offices, to help their employees focus on work, say their collective productivity increases annually as management strives to make employees happy and comfortable at work. And you know what they say, “increase in productivity” means “surge in profits”.

How does sound masking work?

According to Speech Privacy Systems, sound masking systems utilize special sound spectrums that mask noise and human speech. There are two kinds of sound masking systems popularly used today: plenum systems and direct-field systems, which are also deemed to be the most effective sound masking tools. For more information about sound masking solutions and white noise machines, visit http://www.SpeechPrivacySystems.com

Choosing White Noise Machines for Your Home and Office

Here’s why you should get white noise machines for your office.

Struggling to focus on the task at hand because of office noise? What you need are white noise machines to help you cope with your surroundings.

More and more CEOs today are installing white noise machines in their offices to increase their employees’ level of concentration towards their respective functions. Productivity of employees who are easily distracted tends to diminish, which does not sound like piece of good news to any employer, does it?

If you, or your employees, are struggling to keep  productivity high, what you need are white noise machines.

Using only a continuous stream of sound, white noise machines can create a calm and convenient workplace environment.

White noise machines can aid people at work and at rest.

Employees are not the only people who will find white noise machines helpful. Anybody looking for a good night’s rest or a quiet afternoon will definitely be pleased with how well white noise machines can help them mask out distracting noise. Using a specialized, low-level sound, white noise machines can mask any unwanted noise and replace it with a conducive atmosphere for work and will not compromise productivity – and revenue.

Eliminate stress with white noise machines.

One of the leading causes of stress is noise pollution. Noise pollution can irritate anyone who is vulnerable to it and may cause stress in the process. Aside from eliminating noise in your area, white noise machines may also eliminate stress. By keeping your environment free from disturbing sounds, you can focus your attention to keeping your performance level at par with your employer’s expectations and keep your job, regardless of how challenging the global economy becomes.  No employer lets got of an asset-employee, but shows no mercy on “deadbeat” employees.