What to Look for in Phone Booths for Your Office Space

An open floor plan office salutes a friendly farewell to cubicles across America and can provide many benefits, like improving company culture and increasing collaboration between departments. That said, open floor plans can make finding a private space to work more difficult. 

Fortunately, office phone booths can help employees find that perfect productivity bubble.

If you’re hearing the call to add a phone booth for office solitude, this guide will provide the lowdown on everything to look for in an office photo booth to optimize your workspace and improve workflow.

What Is an Office Phone Booth?

When you think of a phone booth, what comes to mind? For many, it’s the traditional freestanding contraption containing a vintage phone and a very small slice of privacy to make a quick phone call.¹

Fast forward to today.

While the idea behind the office phone booth remains the same, the layout has had a major upgrade. Here is what you can expect from a modern office phone booth:

• Interior – Gone are the days of a lackluster cramped interior. Now you can expect a comfortable solo space to accomplish workplace tasks, often outfitted with a chair and a small wall-mounted desk space for your laptop, sticky notes, and other accessories you need to find your workplace zen.

• Exterior – The office phone booths of today are visually pleasing on the exterior, providing a modern and sleek design to complement your open floor plan. You can also customize the details according to your office’s aesthetic preferences, like choosing the booth’s exterior colors and how many glass walls suit your fancy.

• Acoustics – Office phone booths provide much greater noise reduction than the phone booths of yesteryear. Now employees can enjoy access to a cozy (and quiet) booth when calling clients, banging out a quick email, or escaping the occasional distractions of chatter in the open office space.

At Juniper Office, we offer two renditions of the modern phone booth—a single-person booth that provides standing space to hold a phone call or video conference and a double-person booth that’s equipped with two seating areas for collaborative communication. With this versatile layout, you can expect your employees to reap all the benefits providing phone booths offers. 

Are Phone Booths Still Relevant in the Office?

Phone booths still hold a very relevant place in the office, especially in an open office environment. With departments intermingling and coworkers chatting about their upcoming weekend activities, it’s sometimes healthy to take a break from the chitter-chatter for an important phone call.

That’s where the office phone booth comes in. They provide employees with a slew of advantages, like:

• Brainstorming – Sometimes employees need a moment to finalize a fully-fledged idea they’ve been working on. A few minutes (or more) in the phone booth can give them the silence and alone time they need to put their ideas to paper.

• Decreasing workplace stress – You can help lower work-related stress by providing staff with a place to recharge their batteries. After some time alone, they can come back to work with renewed energy to take on the day’s challenges.

• Providing solitude – Being in a work environment that involves continuously being around other people can be draining to some people. Office phone booths offer a place of solitude to take a break from the constant togetherness of a shared office space.

• Increasing productivity – A phone booth is the ultimate quiet environment to make client phone calls, take part in video conferences, and complete other solo tasks in a setting that minimizes distractions.

What Factors to Look for in an Office Phone Booth

When you begin the search for your first office phone booth, the options available to you can feel exciting, yet endless. Should you focus on the design or the durability? The assembly time or interior lighting?

It’s actually important to consider all of the above, and a few other factors as well.

Here, we break down five essential components of office phone booths to help you find the one that will best complement your office space and staff.

#1 Ventilation

If you’re in the middle of a heated hour-long phone call, you’ll be grateful for a phone booth that keeps itself cool (a.k.a. temperature control) and stays well-ventilated.

And if you enter the phone booth as the self-proclaimed cologne connoisseur is exiting, you’ll be pleased to have a ventilation system that works to diligently cleanse the air of the pungent scent.

Some characteristics to look for in terms of booth ventilation include:²

• The ability to adjust the thermostat to your preferred temperature
• A sustainable (and more cost-effective) booth that turns its fans off when it’s not in use

#2 Lighting

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but no one wants to be that person during a video conference. You know the one—the ominous dark figure looming over the video call because of their poor lighting.

That’s why the types and amount of lighting you choose for your office phone booth play an important role in how users appear in video calls. A combination of natural and soft ambient lighting is the ideal solution for an office phone booth.

But how do you achieve natural lighting? Easy!

Choose at least one transparent wall for your phone booth to allow natural lighting inside. The more glass walls you have, the more natural light you’ll have inside and the more sustainable your office phone booth will be, as you won’t need as many light fixtures.

However, it’s convenient to have a few pre-installed lights inside your booth that users can use as needed, including:

• Task lighting – Dimmable task lights near the booth’s desk space will allow you to adjust the brightness of the light so that you find the most complimentary lighting for your video chat.³

• Ambient LED ceiling lighting – LED lights are energy (and cost) efficient,⁴ and they’re ideal for that occasional early morning or late night power hour work session.

#3 Soundproofing

If you’re contemplating purchasing a soundproof office booth for your office, we’re willing to bet one of the main reasons is to provide people with a peaceful place to work.

A quiet slice of privacy—an escape where they can be especially productive.

Therefore, it’s important to look for an office phone booth with the following acoustics:

• Minimal outside noise – Look for a booth that can prevent most outside noises from leaking inside. Although complete soundproofing is difficult, the ideal booth will stave off the majority of the chatter happening outside. When comparing different models, consider asking how much sound each booth will block.

• Limited echoes – Hearing an echo of yourself during a phone call can be distracting, which would defeat the booth’s purpose. Its interior shouldn’t muffle your voice or create a resounding echo. Rather, your voice should sound clear and crisp to yourself and whomever you’re speaking to.

#4 Furniture

If you’re interested in convenience and comfort, it’s helpful to outfit your phone booth with the appropriate office amenities. Depending on its size, you can include a work surface like a small desk and chair.

Sometimes, the furniture is built into the booth, like a small office desk and a bench or chair. Other times, you can equip it with a variety of removable furnishings, either offered by the company you purchased your booth through or purchased separately.

When making decisions on furniture for your phone booth, there are a few considerations that often factor into the final selection:²

• How comfortable is the office chair?
• Will it suit the needs of all of your employees?
• Can employees easily enter and exit the booth with the furniture in place?

#5 Assembly

When you’re bookmarking your favorite phone booths online, they likely have one vital aspect in common. All of them feature pictures of the end product—the perfectly assembled booth erected in all of its glory.

While the answers to the following questions likely won’t completely sway your decision, they are important when contemplating the challenges that come with assembling such a large piece of equipment:

• How much does the assembly cost? – Some companies include the cost of assembly in the out-the-door price. Others charge an extra fee for installation.

• How long will it take to assemble? – Some booths have fewer pieces to assemble and are quickly constructed. Others require a full team of workers and an excessive number of tools to complete the job.

• Will the assembly disrupt daily office affairs? – If the assembly requires power tools and multiple workers, the odds of slight disruption grow larger. The good news? Once the installation is complete, the staff will have a quiet and comfortable place to work when they need a break from the constant hum of the office.

Find the Ultimate Phone Booth For Your Office Space with Juniper Office

Whether you’re looking to provide a boost in morale with a peaceful place to enhance productivity or you’re simply interested in splurging on an office upgrade, an office phone booth is a perfect solution.

At Juniper Office, we offer a variety of office furniture to make your dream workspace a reality. From phone booths complete with sound-reducing paneling and customizable colors to meeting pods that comfortably host up to four people at a time, you can have your office cake and eat it too. For more information on the office pod cost, make sure to check out our different styles and selections to see which ones work best with your office space.

Sources:

1. Medium. History of Public Payphones in the U.S.— What You Need to Know. https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/history-of-public-payphones-in-the-united-states-what-you-need-to-know-d2a25de7ca4f 
2. The Receptionist. Comparing Phone Booth Options for Your Office. https://thereceptionist.com/blog/comparing-phone-booth-options-for-your-office/ 
3. Lifesize. 5 Inexpensive Video Conferencing Lighting Solutions. https://www.lifesize.com/en/blog/video-conferencing-lighting-solutions/ 
4. Down to the Wire. How LED Ceiling Lights Benefit a Business. https://dttwelectric.com/blog/2021/03/09/how-led-ceiling-lights-benefit-a-business-electrical/