Telemarketers Use Emotionally Intelligent Software

eldavojohn writes "There's a new kind of software that's being used more and more. It's software that detects emotion and now it's being used in call centers. It's a $400 million industry according to Forrester Research that relies on volume, pitch and even the words & phrases being used. Are we inadvertently getting closer to software that can understand us by filling the needs of telemarketers who need to know when I'm upset that they just interrupted my dinner?"

Where does it say telemarketers?

[Vellmont]

I don't see anywhere that mentions telemarketers at all (except in the "summary"). The article only mentions call centers, which are more likely to be customer service centers than someone trying to sell you carpet cleaning.

This could potentially be a good thing for the public. If you could measure how upset people get by certain people, then you could fire the ones that make people the most upset. Of course this could also lead to other problems as the goal of support is to solve peoples problems, not make them feel nice.

It could also be a bad thing. Imagine if your called up customer service a few times in a bad mood, and the system flags you as a problem child (or maybe you're just a false positive as it isn't perfect). You then always get treated like you're a jerk.

Better Article - Washington Post

[Stanistani]

Link [washingtonpost.com]

Re:Telemarketers?

[Anonymous Coward]

As I work for the company i can tell you that is false

Re:trust the marketeers

[Anonymous Coward]

good point !

that reminds me of some of the airplane black box tapes, how amazingly composed those people were, I always attributed it to training, but you are suggesting that 'ordinary' people sometimes do the exact same thing.

thanks.

btw, this is Jacquesm posting as ac because I am not at the office and too lazy to figure out how to get to my email :)

Re:Caller ID

[dcclark]

My parents live in rural central Michigan and still have a pulse line, as do many of their neighbors. They couldn't *get* caller ID if they wanted it. If they get a call during dinnertime, they can either guess about the intent, or just pick it up (and probably talk to the relative on the other end...). There are a surprising number of people in the same situation as them.

DO NOT CALL

[wowbagger]

There's your mistake - you don't want them to remove you from their lists.

You want them to add you to their do not call list - the one they are required by law to keep.

"Add me to all your do not call lists."

Re:They need software to tell them I'm upset?

[winomonkey]

I hate to break it to you, but telemarketing is based upon the solid business case that it does in fact work. Companies would not be engaging in telemarketing if it weren't for the fact that it has a decent ROI when compared to other wide-reaching marketing campaigns. This article [findarticles.com], while definitely not the most recent one out there, speaks of the 5-15% success rate.

As annoying as we find SPAM (both the food and the email), telemarketers, and mass mailings, they do show a return on the marketing investment. Yes, some people are turned away from the product or service because of the annoyance, but plenty of others buy into it to keep this machine running.

One of the best ways to hurt their bottom line is to eat up their time, so that they waste valuable time trying to convince you (or your baby daughter, or your drunk dorm buddies, or your shoutboard, or your own hold music) that the sale is worth it. If their returns dropped low enough, they would stop doing it as it became an ineffective business model.

Not that I have the patience to do that more than once a or twice a month.

Or you could use the following:
I present to you the number for your free annual credit report-
1-877-322-8228

The number to stop receiving pre-approved credit card offers and other junk mail-
1-888-567-8688

And the number to stop receiving solicitations telemarketers-
1-888-382-1222