Voice problems disguise themselves as a chameleon between colds and flus. They are by no means recognized in all cases, not even by the employee himself. This one rather complains about recurring colds or sore throats. A missed opportunity to significantly reduce absenteeism due to illness. What do you actually know about the voice of customer contact employees?

 

'Complaints of the upper respiratory tract' turn out to be the cause of absenteeism in 17% of cases, good for a second position in the ranking that you will find in 'Key Figures 2023', an overview of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment of the number of registered occupational diseases. This puts respiratory complaints just below psychological complaints (number 1) and above third place ('musculoskeletal complaints').

What does the occupational health and safety service know about your contact centre?

The used by Arbodiensten CAS codes know only one specific classification that refers to voice complaints: (R 102 or 'change of voice'). Employees who actually have voice problems often only indicate the symptoms: laryngitis, sore, dry throat, cough, throat clearing, cold, infection, etc. If you don't ask questions, you are going down the wrong road. The complaints then persist, because the cause is not clarified. And that is a pity, because reducing this entire group of complaints is often relatively easy.

Is voice training already included in your communication module?

While you would be tempted to think of vocal cords as comparable to an instrument, its fragility becomes more apparent when you realize it is an organ. You take an instrument out of the case and put it away after use. Vocal cords have many more tasks to perform and can 'run' considerably fewer hours. They are also active outside 'working hours', protect the trachea, play a role in swallowing and respond to all kinds of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. With intrinsic factors, for example, stress and health factors and extrinsic factors, for example, air conditioning and climate. We also know from research that a voice can withstand about four hours of strain per day – under good conditions. Male voices can withstand significantly longer under healthy conditions than female voices. This is because male voices literally contain more muscle tissue.

The ratio of voice problems in men and women is 30 and 70 percent respectively. Yet it is not smarter to mainly use male voices in customer contact. A female voice scores better on credibility and leads to a higher purchase and visit intention, according to a study conducted by STR.

Vocal cords are swimming bands

The vocal cords themselves are surrounded by mucous membrane. Mucous membranes must remain moist to function healthily. The vocal cords are located above the trachea and not above the esophagus. So you can't drink the vocal cords 'wet'. At least; not at the moment. What is drunk eventually ends up in the mucous membranes via the digestive tract. When employees talk a lot, air often blows past the vocal cords. That has a drying effect. If this happens in an environment with dry air (ideally, the humidity is not lower than 40%), then this will shorten the capacity of the voice. Everything that contributes to the drying out of the vocal cords - including a malfunctioning climate control system - reduces the load capacity. Everything that affects the mucous membranes has an effect on the capacity of the voice.

Our voice suffers quickly

Not only the environment can have an adverse effect on the vocal cords. There is a whole series of factors that negatively affect the vocal cords. Think about stress: adrenaline has a dehydrating effect. Or ergonomic factors such as poor (head) posture, sitting posture, or high breathing. Medication use (antihistamine for allergies, heart medication, high blood pressure/hypertension, hormones) and a condition such as heartburn can also contribute to the development of voice complaints. And obvious: long-term strain on the voice, the use of untrained voices and shouting, for example while going out or exercising, can lead to voice complaints.

Symptoms indicating serious voice problems

Anyone who wants to be alert to voice complaints can help themselves – or the employees in your team – to recognize the following symptoms:

• coughing/coughing/clearing throat with great regularity;
• complain of sore throat or tired throat;
• complain of dry throat despite frequent drinking of water;
• getting out of breath while speaking;
• frequent colds;
• hoarseness, 'peeps' in the voice, brief moments of breakdown;
• loss of volume or pitch.

The effect of exercise

Those who train their voice and recognize problems at an early stage can prevent a lot of failures, costs and suffering. Within education, where no less than 50 percent of people experience voice complaints at some point during their career as a result of the intensive strain, training appears to be very effective. Professional voice users in the media also benefit permanently from training. The positive effects of that are Still visible 15 years after training.

It is an illusion to think that fatigue and frequent colds have only physical consequences. Based on a more holistic and sustainable vision of people, thorough training also increases job satisfaction and mental resilience. Even a short one voice training already improves.

More job satisfaction

In my experience, training internal voice coaches yields results in all respects. Result: more job satisfaction, less stress, more insight into customer behavior and how to respond to it. When internal voice coaches recognize 'red flags' in good time that predict imminent failure, the tide can be turned and the right interventions can take place at the right time. And although you could argue that the use of artificial voices can also save costs in terms of absenteeism, the empathic impact and emotional intelligence who come along with a real voice, unmatchable. (Ziptone/Debby Mureau)

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