Things to Consider While Choosing your Office Headsets

The study shows over 70% of today’s office workers are still not using a headset when they’re on the phone.  Not only is not productive.  It causes shoulder and neck pains for the employee.  So which headset should you purchase for your office employee?  There are several factors to consider when purchasing a telephone headset:

1) Brand:

Plantronics and Jabra (formerly GN Netcom) are the two biggest headset companies in the North American.  Between these two brands, they occupy 90% of the US market.  There are several new companies that just started to market office headsets in the US, like Sennheiser, VXi, and even Bose. Plantronics was the original headset company.  Plantronics made their headsets famous by sending one of the headsets to the moon.  The famous words were spoken by back to earth by Neil Armstrong – “One small step for men, one giant step for mankind…” spoke on a Plantronics headset – A little fact known by very few people.  So for over 50 years, Plantronics has been making different headsets from little tiny Bluetooth headsets, office headsets and even tactical headsets for the US military.

2) Price:

How much do you want to spend per employee?  Maybe that’s determined by the position of the employee or where it’s being used?  An executive or manager in the company may have a $400 budget vs. a front desk clerk may only have a $100 per headset budget. For a large call center with 500 workers, you may only want to spend $70 or $80 per headset.  Typically the lower end headsets are corded headsets and the higher end ($200+) are wireless headsets.  There many options in between.

3) Corded or Wireless:

In the old days, the audio from a wireless headset is just not as good as a corded headset.  Technology has come so far today that wireless headsets sound quality is “almost” as good as a corded headset.  I use a wireless headset on a daily basis and often I tell my customer that I’m using a wireless headset, he could not believe the high-quality audio it delivers over the wireless device.  Wireless headsets have the advantage of the cordless freedom.   You are not “tied” to your desk by a cord in addition to a pile of cord sitting on your desk.  With a wireless headset, you can walk and talk within 300ft of your office and answer calls 300ft away from your desk, like from the lunch room.  Of course, the drawback of a wireless headset is the cost.  Wireless typically cost twice as much as their corded headset counterpart of the same style.  Wireless headsets start in the $200 range.  If you add the extra optional device for remote answering, it’s $260-$300.  The most popular wireless headset is the Plantronics CS540 Wireless Headset.

4) Headset Style:

There are several ways you can wear a headset (corded or wireless).  You can wear a headset either over-the-head (most popular) or over-the-ear, even behind the neck (not as popular).  Most men like over-the-head style with the traditional headband because it’s the most stable of the three wearing styles.  Most women like the over-the-ear style because it doesn’t flatten or mess up their hair.  Over-the-ear headsets are not as stable. Typically every person has their own personal preferences on how they like to wear the headset. There are also convertible headsets that you can change the style (either over the head or over the ear) on the fly.  Plantronics HW540 is a convertible headset and Plantronics Savi W740 is a convertible wireless headset. So if you’re buying headsets for many employees and they’re not sure which one to go with, this is a good option to go with.

5) Quality:

All headsets come with a minimum of a one year warranty, 3-year warranty for some high-end headsets.  Of course the lower end headsets, also lower priced are not as well built and the warranties correspond with the price.  Like the old saying goes “you get what you paid for”.  So my advice is to spend as much as your budget will allow, it will pay for itself in the long run.

You can check out all the different corded and wireless options at www.headsetplus.com  They’re one of the largest office telephone headset supplier in North America.  They specialized in headsets, so they can help you pick out the headset that best fit your needs and most importantly for your office phone and employee.