Jabra Engage wireless headsets let you work away from your desk and still maintain a wireless connection that won’t let you, or your customers, down. You will appreciate superior sounding calls, even in busy offices with many wireless devices: the Jabra Engage Series enables three times as many people to work wirelessly in the same office space. Advanced noise-canceling microphone and enhanced speakers deliver crystal-clear calls, even in noisy offices.

Up to 13 hours' talk time — and when you do need to charge, the fast charge feature powers the headset to 40% in just 30 mins. Connect to desk phone and soft phone for both Engage 65 and 75; additionally, the Engage 75 includes Bluetooth, for mobile connection. Choose your wearing style: Mono, Duo,and Convertible options available. The Engage series is a strong replacement for the Jabra Pro 9400 headset series, which has been discontinued. Learn more about the transition, here: Jabra Pro 9400 Series Headsets Have Been Discontinued.

To get all of the details about the Jabra Engage series, watch our YouTube video, below.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel and help us get to 250 subscribers! Once we reach our goal, 10 lucky subscribers will win new Jabra headsets!

Avcomm Solutions staffers have been celebrating college and high school graduations with their family members this month, and we have heard some great commencement speeches. Typical advice shared by graduation speakers is that the end of formal education doesn't have to be the end of learning. This is especially true today, as there are many opportunities to learn — from home — at our fingertips. And, many are available at no cost!

Learn a foreign language with the Duolingo app; iTunes U offers everything from Introduction to Psychology to Woodworking; Coursera is used by Fortune 500 companies for professional development; and YouTube videos are another way to learn everything from how to tie a bowtie to playing guitar and checking tire air pressure.

One of our employees likes Master Class, which offers online classes from experts. She especially likes the cooking and wine classes taught by Gordon Ramsey. Other employees take dance classes with their spouse; host foreign exchange students to learn about other cultures; and take golf lessons at a nearby municipal golf course.

The benefits of learning new languages, skills, sports and ideas have the potential for new relationships, world travels, career advancement, and more. Your brain also benefits from learning, because the neurons are stimulated and form more neural pathways, which slows aging.

With all of these advantages, and opportunities to learn, our advice is that today is the day to learn a new skill and invest in yourself. Now, go out there and make us proud!

The introduction of Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) technology into business professional headsets has been a successful pairing. With noisy open office environments and working on the go, active noise canceling technology is important for success (and a sure way to find focus in the midst of chaos).

We are fortunate to test the headsets that we sell, which makes it easy for us to recommend targeted solutions for each customer's unique work style and environment. In this video, Carey McCoy provides an overview of the three Active Noise-Canceling headsets that Jabra offers. From corded to wireless, large ear cushions to small ear buds, Jabra has a headset for you!

Take a few minutes to watch this informative and entertaining overview, and then be sure to "Subscribe" to our YouTube channel! Give our headset experts a call at 1-866-998-9991 for personalized headset recommendations.

A guest post by Mike Dershowitz, the CEO of Rethink Staffing, a Fair Trade Outsourcing Company, and its sister facility, RTS Philly Outsourcing Center. He believes that when companies focus on their employees’ social and economic progress, it motivates them to perform better at work and produce outperforming results. Contact him at 888-631-0398 or mike@rethinkstaffing.com for an initial consultation. Read more from Mike on his Medium site.

Original publish date: September 3, 2018

As much as the contact center world is deploying AI and bots, like any other business, to optimize its operations with existing humans, or someday replace them, there has been a parallel, growing body of practice known as “Video consumer Service” that is quietly changing our industry as well.

With broadband almost everywhere now, video conferencing has come into the mainstream and is used by many business professionals almost on a daily basis. A 2017 study by IHS Markit stated that 85% of companies surveyed use video conferencing as part of their unified communications environment.

Make no mistake, video consumer service could be coming to your contact center. Video consumer service gives us a fascinating window, not only into the future, but also into a world where “phone etiquette” is insufficient, and a place where bots will not be able to go for decades, if ever.

At Rethink Staffing, one of our earliest consumers was a company with a pure Video Consumer Service need. While we do handle their regular multi-channel support, their video consumer service staff is twelve times the size of their multi-channel staff. For their business, Video is consumer service.

Asked whether or not we could do this, our answer was “absolutely,” and we had a handful of early Agents who were game. But once we got started, there were a host of issues we definitely had to worry about, for which neither we nor our client was prepared for.

For the uninitiated, video consumer service is simply rendering a consumer service session via video, where you can see the consumer, and your consumers can see you, and interact with you through a microphone, speakers and a webcam. While not for everyone, you’d be surprised how many consumers find it a viable option.

In preparation for the day when a video consumer opportunity may be at your doorstep, here’s a small list of things to consider if one of these comes across your desk:

First up? “Eyelines.” When your consumers can see your agents via video, it’s a whole new ball game about what your contact center actually looks like. The consumer will care, and comment, about what they see. Embarrassment ensues, like the time we inadvertently positioned an agent’s desk in front of the door to the men’s room without realizing it. Luckily all the consumer saw was hands being washed before we caught that mistake and corrected it.

Second: “New Etiquette.” We had to re-write the rules here, on both sides. What shocked us most was how some agents became lax in their behavior on camera, in many cases without noticing it. Like the time that a consumer who went to retrieve a piece of information, and our Agent decided now was a good time to brush her hair, and reapply makeup, and continued to do so when the consumer returned.

Third: “Connection.” Connection and computer speeds at your consumer’s point of contact will vary greatly. While the software for video consumer service should validate your consumer’s technology, this will impact the way your Agents render service. They have to be on the lookout for pauses, echoes, and other impediments to smooth communication. Think back to the early days when we started getting calls from consumers on mobile phones.

Fourth: “Thick Skin.” We had to retrain folks on what they could expect to see from those outlier consumers. No longer were we worried about sarcastic comments, profanity, or yelling. Now, we had to worry about the visual side of all of that, as well as a window into consumer’s lives that turned early agents into enthusiastic voyeurs.

And then there was the time when the Agent, confronted with an attractive member of the opposite sex on their video screen, tried to end the call by getting a date.

In the beginning, while it was certainly an entertaining and a profound window into the human psyche, the video feed ended up normalizing Agent behavior, once they were made aware, much faster than the phone does. Simply put, the human psychological need for esteem and not to be embarrassed turned out to be our biggest ally in creating professional behavior while on video.

Also, it’s important to not neglect the IT issues here. Forget about just good webcams and microphones — that’s table stakes. Your IT department has to worry about massively greater bandwidth consumption, redundancy, congestion, as well as packet routing.

Finally, the intimacy of video is so much greater than the phone; 90% of all human communication is nonverbal. The upside to video consumer service is that when it’s good, your agents feel much better about helping their consumers and the thanks they receive make a much larger impact on them.

So, if you see a video consumer service application come across your desk, I say go for it. If nothing else, it will be challenging and fun. Just make sure you’re prepared for what you’re getting yourself into!

One of our customers had a very good question for us, and we realized that others may be wondering the same thing:

Now that Jabra, Sennheiser, and Plantronics have all come out with new wireless headset options, will my existing EHS cable still work if I purchase one of the new headsets?

The short answer is, "Yes, as long as the new headset is the same brand as your old headset!"

And, as long as you are utilizing the same phone brand and model.

Here's why: (WARNING: Stop reading now if you aren't interested in the finer details of wireless headset remote answering).

EHS cables are built to be compatible with specific phone brands and models; as phone vendors release new phones, the headset manufacturers create compatible EHS cables.

EHS (Electronic Hook Switch) cables electronically connect to a wireless headset and phone. An EHS passes predefined signaling. Users can handle calls with the headset only, freeing them from remaining next to the phone. EHS cables provide a ring alert signal to your headset anytime your desk phone rings. It also allows you to answer and end calls right from your headset anywhere within your headset's range. EHS adapters eliminate the need for an old-school handset lifter.

Yealink is one phone brand that manufactures its own EHS adapter, compatible with the various headset brands. We sell that as well!

Please note: If you switch headset brands, then you will need to also update your EHS cable to the new brand.

If you're in doubt, check the brand's compatibility guide for the most up-to-date information:
Jabra
Plantronics
Sennheiser

Or contact us, and our Headset Experts will get you the answers you need: 1-866-998-9991. After all, Communication Is Our Business!