Brand new badges are pre-programmed with their volume set at roughly half.  Most departments have an ambient noise level that is high enough to force users to increase the volume on their badge before they are able to use it effectively.  Also many staff forget that the top and bottom side buttons only function as volume keys during a call, so they have difficulty adjusting the volume without assistance.

It would be nice to set an option in the badge.properties file to set all badges to a specific volume level (maximum is critial) and then let the users decrease the volume on their individual badge if necessary.  This would save a lot of calls to the helpdesk from people saying they cannot hear the person they are talking to.