Silence and Dead Air: Outbound's "Silent" Struggle

I am "The Queen of Dead Air" for a reason.  It's not the most glorious title, but you name it, I've seen it.  I've troubleshot some of the most complex dead air issues over my time, and my pain is your gain.   

"Dead Air" can be a really painful problem for VOIP contact center businesses and their customers, especially if the source of the challenge cannot be quickly identified.  Where to look is a fundamental question that many businesses struggle to get an answer to.

Let's start by defining "dead air."  Dead air is the absence of 2-way audio in a connected call.  This differs from call quality or audio degradation, though the causes are often the same.

The good news is that 99.999% of the time, the cause is environmental or agent behavioral. This news is good because the resolution is within your control. 

So, what are the most common causes of dead air?  Here's a list of things to investigate in order of the most common causes.

1. Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi usage is a prevalent cause of dead air.  Any software that has a streaming component requires a stable internet connection, and voice is no different in that regard.  The difference between streaming video and audio is that video will often buffer and re-establish the connection. In contrast, streaming audio causes packet loss and can result in a disconnected session. Once the session is disconnected, it is often lost entirely. Some small contact centers can use Wi-Fi without issue, but that is playing with fire since there is a tipping point that you cannot see or measure. Router bandwidth, the proximity of the workstation to the router, and the host of other applications running on machines that consume that bandwidth are just a few variables that can affect the stability of the Wi-Fi signal. This is particularly dangerous for work-from-home agents because everything is Wi-Fi enabled, from your smart fridge to your thermostat to your TVs and your kids streaming from 3 different devices simultaneously. 

If your agents are on Wi-Fi, have them plug through an ethernet cable and see if the issue goes away.

2. Machine Resources

If there could be two number 1 causes, this would be the other. Much like Wi-Fi, under-resourced machines can have severe detrimental effects on 2-way audio. Oftentimes, customers look at the "minimum" resources to facilitate the software, not considering that the minimum is to run this particular application. You should have the "recommended" amount of bandwidth at a minimum. When you think about everything required to run your business, on top of the things the agents run because they can, you find that machine resources dwindle very quickly. I can't begin to count the number of times I've been troubleshooting dead air live with an agent only to see 400 open tabs, YouTube streaming, email, the CRM, security scans, and the like running as well. 

Have your agents open Task Manager. You want to see no more than 40% -50% of CPU and memory being used at any given time. Yes, consuming all of the disk space also will cause issues. The higher the utilization of each machine resource, the more likely they will experience call quality degradation. Once you hit 70% -80% or higher, they are likely to be experiencing dead air and session disconnects. Remember, minimum spending on machines can result in minimum profits for your business.

3. Browser Settings

Here's a fun story. Browser developers don't think about all the applications running over their browsers. With every new release, they add experimental flags and settings that can severely affect VOIP applications. Some very common ones that cause issues are sleeping tabs intended to conserve memory, energy saver settings, cookie settings, 3rd party storage partitioning, and auto-refresh extensions.  VOIP companies do their best to test new browser releases, but it's worth noting that no two contact centers are the same, and the pace of releases, including hotfixes, can be very rapid. In addition, your CRM or other applications may suggest specific settings that introduce issues with your VOIP software. That is something to keep in mind as well.

Take a look at the various browser settings and experimental flags and adjust the suspicious ones until you find the source of the issue. You can also ask the VOIP providers' Support Team if they have a list of problematic settings. Moreover, you want to stay 1-2 release versions behind. The problem with being on the "bleeding edge" of new releases is that you, well…bleed.

4. Bluetooth Headsets

Having agents near each other using Bluetooth is a not-so-fun exercise in "Who's on first," especially if they are all the same make and model.  Bluetooth headsets are rife with opportunities for interference, not to mention the range and battery life challenges. Oh, and as the battery life diminishes, so does the range.  Don't even get me started on AirPods.  The worst part is that AirPods often work great…until they don't…and then we're wasting time troubleshooting AirPods that will inevitably experience this same issue again. AirPods, beats, and other music-oriented headset devices = bad.

Always check with your VOIP provider for a list of recommended headsets. Generally speaking, most wired headsets are compatible, but the recommended ones have been tested with the software. If you want to vet this out as a potential contributing factor, plug your agents up with a wired headset, and if you're going to prevent issues, do this out of the gate.

5. Internet Speeds and Bandwidth

Businesses and work-from-home agents must consider the size of their internet pipe. Like Wi-Fi, many little-thought-of devices consume bandwidth, and the more active devices, the more bandwidth consumed.  As your employee base grows, so does bandwidth consumption in an office setting.  Moreover, suppose you don't have a dedicated pipe. In that case, you may be sharing the internet with other businesses in your building, significantly reducing your visibility and control over ensuring your business has adequate bandwidth to support your team. In a home environment, especially if agents aren't guided on minimum speeds, they will often have a package that is insufficient to handle VOIP traffic and all household devices. WFH agents especially should be hard-wired in.

Try speedtest.net from your machines during peak traffic hours to see what speeds you are getting. VOIP providers also typically offer connectivity tests and assessments that measure your connections' speed, MOS scores, jitter, and packet loss. These can offer insights into how internet speeds may be impacting your business.

6. Group Policy and Virtual Machines

I'm lumping these together because they both have the same challenges.  Suppose you lock down some aspects of the machines. In that case, the software may be unable to update required extensions, receive new bug fixes, or capture software enhancements necessary to maintain quality and performance. In addition, you may have specific things locked down from upgrading (such as a softphone extension) whilst the application's code base is updated outside of your control, rendering these two elements incompatible. It's VERY important that your technical resources stay on top of testing and software deployments in a group policy or virtual machine setting.

You don't have to be on the "bleeding edge".  As I mentioned earlier, that can introduce its challenges. However, timely non-production testing and feedback to your VOIP provider can help them identify challenges in new releases and correct them before the code hits production.

7. OS Settings

Yep. Another group of settings that might ruin your happiness. OS settings for your agents can wreak havoc on your agent population. This is especially true if you have other UCaaS or CCaaS solutions in the mix.  The most common symptom tied to this is when you hear agents say, "The first call is always dead air after I log back into the application."  This indicates that you have an application that maintains control of the headset when switching between them. If you're not hearing that callout, this is still worth checking. 

Check your machines' sound settings to see if "exclusive mode" is enabled. It is also worth exploring other settings, such as the system's default device and whether the headset's current drivers are up to date.

8. Security Software

Le sigh. Security software always thinks it knows best, which can cause scans of your VOIP application to throw flags and subsequently "protect" you from the application. 

Always review your security scans and settings to ensure your VOIP application isn't being blocked for security reasons. If it is, ask your VOIP provider to provide a letter from their InfoSec Team explaining why the identified risk does not expose your business to harm.

9. IP Whitelisting

If you whitelist the IPs that can communicate with your systems, this would be a great check. VOIP providers do expand their IP ranges, and if the new ones aren't whitelisted on your network, you may run into issues.  Don't forget to check this on your VPN if you have one!

10. Carrier Issues

Carriers are not perfect! They do have outages, equipment failures, and challenges that surface from time to time. Most VOIP providers have multiple carriers to ensure redundancy, allowing them to route call traffic around carriers experiencing technical challenges if needed. To diagnose this, you'll have to work with your VOIP provider. They will ask for samples from the last 24 hours to perform their research and may ask for samples a few times. This is because carrier-side logs usually expire within 24 hours, and more than one carrier may be impacted. It's also not uncommon for the VOIP provider to ask to do RTP captures to help diagnose the issue's source.

If it's not any of the above, there are other causes. Firewall Settings, MPLS Circuits, SIP Trunks, Zscaler and other security software, NAT translation, agents located in a country without reliable internet, network equipment failures and frayed cables, and distance from the data centers can all contribute to call quality and/or dead air issues. Let us not forget that the VOIP providers are not impervious to issues, though that's much less common. Always open a support case with your provider to get things moving while investigating these other common causes.

Note that dead air issues can be a combo of things as well. While it certainly could be a single thing, don't assume there's one magic bullet for resolving this every time. In my time, I've seen combinations of bad browser settings, too little RAM and agents on Wi-Fi, and many other combinations. 

Make sure to read your VOIP Provider's technical requirements documents. Support Teams will struggle to find the cause and may even refuse to troubleshoot if you are not complying with the technical requirements for operating the software.