Press Release by Headsets Direct February 24th, 2010:

A tech company defies a tough economy and fuels growth by going wireless. A new VoIP telephone system and wireless headsets allow employees to respond to customer requests faster and more effectively than ever.

Click here to view the entire press release.

We have customers inquire about telephone Plantronics equipment on occasion and what a customer is really searching for is a Plantronics telephone headset.  Plantronics has a few corded models of telephones which use a headset instead of a handset, for example the Plantronics T10 telephone headset.  It’s a fully functioning telephone that rings, has redial, flash and a mute button, but no handset.  The headset replaces the handset for clear, comfortable, and hands free calls.  A wireless version would be the Plantronics CT14 telephone headset which provides caller ID, 300 foot range and 10 hours of talk time on one charge.  So hopefully this better explains how a telephone Plantronics is really a Plantronics telephone headset that has been enhanced with a headset for hands free communication.  And with a wireless model, you gain the freedom to roam your surroundings while you talk.  As always, if you have any questions regarding telephone headsets from Plantronics, please call, email or live chat with us!

The Problem:  Keeping information & conversations flowing quickly between employees.   The Solution:  Unified Communications

How do you keep employees informed and communicating with each other if interaction needs to happen between large facilities, multiple buildings or teleworkers (employees working from home)?  In the past, you would spend your time walking or traveling to have face to face conversations or you would spend the day leaving voice mail messages until you finally connected.   The solution to this growing problem is called Unified Communications. The best description I can provide is that it allows people to quickly communicate using multiple electronic devices that show your network of peers if you’re currently able to talk, chat, video conference or IM.  All of this ultimately helps you reduce your response time to communicate.  Decisions can happen faster….Answers can happen quicker….Customer service can respond collectively.  This technology is moving your conversations away from traditional PBX or key systems (phones systems in the back closet) and turning them into software applications which move your voice, video and messaging across your IP network, thus allowing you to connect to co-workers in-house and around the world seamlessly as if sitting next to each other.  The software will also show your presence or your availability to talk. When you look at your screen, you will be able to see who’s available to talk before you ever initial a call.  This is how your response time to communicate greatly decreases because you don’t need to leave a voice mail if you know the person’s not available and when they become available, they’re presence will change and you can contact them immediately.  Also, you don’t care if they’re in their office, traveling remotely or working from phone.  Once they show they’re available, your call goes to the computer they’re using.  IBM released the package Sametime and Microsoft launched Office Communicator to set the standards in Unified Communication with many other communication vendors following quickly behind.  Another key element to Unified Communications is the ability to Federate with a separate company such as a vendor or customer.  For example, if you’re in constant contact with a specific vendor, you can Federate with their company and your contact will become a visible on your presence screen and you can easily see when they’re available to communicate with you instead of leaving voice mails back and forth.  As you can see, Unified Communication not only helps you communicate with co-workers in the same location, you can also improve communication with remote personnel and with contacts outside your organization  making for faster and more efficient communicating.

A customer recently called with panic in his voice as he started explaining his office has been using the Plantronics Polaris (P-series) headsets for many years, with great success, but he read online that the Polaris line has been discontinued.  The advantage of the Polaris headsets is that an amplifier wasn’t required which makes them less expensive (also takes up less desk space) and it came with a bottom, direct connect cable.  For the new solution you will select any Plantronics H-series headset and an A10 cable (part #66268-02) keeping your price low and working the same way.  You will want to make sure of one thing… keep the H-series headset and A10 cable together and don’t allow mixing of Polaris headsets and the Polaris bottom cable.  The reason is a little technical…. but here goes.  The Polaris headset had amplification built into the headset.  The bottom cable had no power or electronics.  With the new solution, the opposite happens.  The amplification is built into the A10 cable and not the H-series headset.  Now you can take a standard H-series headset (which is typically a stock item being 100 times more popular then P-series Polaris headsets) and add either an amplifier, A10 cable or other bottom cable that’s compatible with specific phones.  At the end of the day, the solution is the same with a headset and bottom cable, it’s just powered different and more universally acceptable now and also allows for less expensive upgrades if you change your phone system because now you keep the same headset and change out the bottom cable or amplifier.

I was talking to a customer of a small insurance agency about a problem he was having with getting a new employee quickly up to speed to assist clients with questions from incoming calls.  The challenge as he described it is every time we have a new hire, or even expand job duties during times of downsizing, there is a need to have an employee be able to learn how to handle calls, answer questions and provide necessary answers to clients.  In his current situation, the new person would sit next to an experienced co-worker in a cubical for weeks while they listened to one side of the conversation.  After the call, most of the time is spend repeating the conversation so the new employee can hear what the caller was asking and what answer was provided.  Hearing the problem, I was easily able to offer a solution of a headset Y-Training Cable.  They were already using headsets in the office, so a simple $39.95 cable was the only necessary equipment.  A y-training cable allows you to plug two headsets into one telephone.  Both headsets will be able to hear the phone conversation, but only one microphone will be live while the other is muted.  There is a toggle switch in the Y-cord that allows you to control which microphone is live.  For this situation, the experienced worker will have the live microphone and carry on normal conversations with clients.  The new hire, or trainee, will listen into the call and now have the ability to hear both sides of the conversation making a gigantic step forward in the learning curve of what to say and how to respond to clients because now you’re hearing the entire conversation instead of a one sided conversation as before.  As you can see for an extremely small investment, you can increase the speed of training and have new employees up and going on their own in a fraction of time with the use of a y-training cord.

We want to know what your experience and thoughts were with the Plantronics  CS55.

If you’re planning to attend CES 2010, stop by the Plantronics booth to see all of the latest headsets for business, home and on-the-go!
Las Vegas, Nevada
January 7-10, 2010
Plantronics Booth – South Hall 1, #21922

Plantronics will be changing the MSRP prices listed on the following models to provide pricing consistency and product differentiation to our consumer market. This change only affects the legacy Plantronics Bluetooth headsets listed below.  Plantronics.com will be updated by Dec. 31, 2009.

New Plantronics .Audio Computer Headset Products!
Plantronics will be introducing 3 new PC USB Headsets at CES in January.

Products: .Audio 626 DSP, .Audio 646 DSP, .Audio 476 DSP
First Order Date: January 7, 2010
First Ship Date: February 26, 2010

Detailed product and order information will be available after the CES press announcement.