Telemarketers Use Emotionally Intelligent Software 176
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?"
Please remove me from all lists your company owns (Score:2, Funny)
I said I want to be removed from every single fracking list that your company uses to call people.
NO I DO NOT WANT TO SUBSCRIBE!
Re:Please remove me from all lists your company ow (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Please remove me from all lists your company ow (Score:5, Funny)
Could not compute "Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all"
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I'm sure if you copy-past all of the phrase in the quoatation marks into a Google search, will find out what you want to know. (BTW- worth the effort for a good laugh- real life is funnier than fiction!)
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note to self:
USE PREVIEW next time! aga? past? Argghh!
For the pendants/grammar nazis:
correction:
aga should be ago
past should be paste
Why yes, I DO post while drinking!
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DO NOT CALL (Score:3, Informative)
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."
They need software to tell them I'm upset? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:They need software to tell them I'm upset? (Score:5, Insightful)
Telemarketing == Outbound Call Center
Customer Service == Inbound Call Center
Which does this sound like:
And this?
I think a telemarketer can judge for himself whether or not you're upset. (And promptly ignore you.) This system is intended for support calls, where the customer service rep might not realize that they need to take action to prevent the loss of your business. Presumably, the system would automatically flag a manager if it calcualted that the customer was getting frustrated.
Considering the number of inexperienced customer service reps that companies employ, it's probably not a bad idea. Especially since it's currently difficult to auto-route "easy" vs. "hard" calls between the experienced and inexperienced employees.
Editors: Can we change the headline?
Re:They need software to tell them I'm upset? (Score:5, Funny)
>Customer Service == Inbound Call Center
Me: I've been on hold for 49 minutes, and you're the third unhelpful person I've talked to. You fucked up my order, and it's been a month since you promised to fix it. No! I don't want to place a new order. I WANT YOU LYING SHIT-WEASELS TO DO WHAT YOU PROMISED THREE MONTHS AGO. I've already told fifty people at work what rat-bastards you are, posted a 5000 word screed on your perverted business practices to 13 business related blogs, and I'm getting ready to tell the Taliban that your compnay is a front for an Israeli arms manufacturer.
Them: Sir, the software on my computer is informing me that you are beginning to be upset with my fine employer. Let me put you on hold while I see if I can't find someone to help you place a new order.
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In the Technical support call center I worked in nearly 10 years ago, we had a button on the phone that would be pressed as soon as the caller became abusive. The call immediately was dumped to a special recording queue, priority attention from supervisor, and disconnected. Further contact from that customer would go directly to our Legal department. At that point they would no longer be permitted to talk to support personel.
I doubt companies are that protective of their tra
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Newsflash: If you talk like that on the phone, the FCC, given a complaint, can forbid you from using a phone in the future. Radio hosts and prank calls notwithstanding.
It's not defensable behavior if you initiated the call (as in you called support). If you're cursing a telemarketer, that's a different story. They called you.
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Clippy: I see that you are becoming upset, do you want to:
a. Terminate this call?
b. Terminate the order?
c. Nuke the Call Cente......FATAL EXCEPTION!!!!....NO CARRIE..
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Re:They need software to tell them I'm upset? (Score:4, Interesting)
So, essentially, the more frustrated and angry you sound, the better support you'll get...?
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Re:They need software to tell them I'm upset? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:They need software to tell them I'm upset? (Score:4, Interesting)
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They wouldn't do it if it didn't make money.
Annoying people apparently is a good way to get them to buy stuff.
My understanding is that they primarily pray on lonely old shut-ins, that's their bread and butter. These people are so desperate to talk to someone that they will buy your shit just to keep the conversation going a little while.
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I'm on the other end of the phone for these calls - probably take an average of 5 a day, varying from generic marketing or recruitment services, to suppliers who are at least vaguely in our industry. SOP is to give them an email address and get them off the line as quickly as possible. Generally they're polite and it's no more than a minor irritant.
What I don't understand is: why are the people selling phon
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Make no doubt about it, telemarketing does, at least to some extent, work. It might not work on the 20-30 something IT crowd, but it certainly has benefits for a company. And this software might do what it promises and make it more effective.
I find it particularly sick that it's al
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As annoying as we find SPAM (both the food and the email), telemarketers, and mass mailings, they do show a return on the marketing investm
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Good job listing the ph#'s, and the succinct but informative message with link.
Personally, I don't want bothered by telemarketing. I understand that it works enough to use, but it does not work with someone like me.
I have no credit/debit cards, no bank accounts, pretty much a cash only way of life. (got burned bad in a divorce way back- my own fault-but still gunshy) If I don't have the cash to afford something, I wait until I do. Yes,
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Dinner? What's that? (Score:4, Funny)
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You do if you're a smart one. First, you NEVER work for free......and of late, unless the company needs it, they don't like to pay OT.
Second, never work salary....there's no such thing as job security, so why not get contractor pay, if you're working for contractor job security?
I work, in general, the hours I want....you should too.
NO! No SOUP for YOU! (Score:2)
Obvious mappings (Score:4, Funny)
return SELL_MORE;
}
Still skewed by the people motivating it.
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Do forever:
If
"How many times do I have to tell you I want to cancel your f*sking SERVICES, you foreign asshat? Can't you speak ENGLISH?"
then
Offer to give them 3 more month for free if they stay
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The Future (Score:2, Funny)
Telemarketing conversations of the future:
Excuse me sir, would you be interested in..
I'm trying to eat dinner! Remove my number from your..
Thank you for your interest, if I may just have your social security number..
Let's see what it makes of... (Score:2)
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Then again, the article is actually about telephone service centres, not telemarketing... and I like the companies that have implemented these systems, since I just have to so
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-nB
emotionally intelligent software (Score:3, Interesting)
the future (Score:5, Funny)
*ring ring*
automatic secretary picks it up
"Hello, this is Phantom's answering service."
"I'd like to talk to Phantom."
"He's not in right now, may I take a message."
"This is QRX credit card services.."
answering service cuts off "He does *not* need another credit card"
"M'am, I can tell you are getting upset right now, but this is a really good deal."
"Cut the crap; NO!"
"Well, maybe you need some credit. He treat you well enough? Maybe we could keep that between the two of us.."
"tell me more..."
Telemarketers? (Score:5, Insightful)
While we all hate telemarketers here on Slashdot, I'm not convinced either of the stories is referring to them particularly.
Cheers
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Re:Telemarketers? (Score:4, Funny)
Best. system. ever.
Reminds me of Cynthia Breazeal's work (Score:2)
I read two of the links, and nowhere did it actually mention telemarketers. It seemed to indicate it was more related to customer contact things where the customer is calling about their service, and getting frustrated with the voicemail maze or the person on the phone with them.
Yeah, as usual the summary was completely misleading. Some jackass felt the need to add his two cents. Why the editors accept submissions like this while rejecting scores of others, I'll never know.
But getting back on topic, m
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So will they have the system minimize frustration or maximize it to get you off the phone faster?
-Grey [wellingtongrey.net]
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I would hope the former, but I guess that depends on the company.
Don't know if you've ever been confronted with one of those evil, broken, and annoying systems whereby you have to tell the system what you're looking for. Invariably, it understands only a few options, and drives you around in circles since it can't decide what you might want. I've hit a few of them.
You eventually get frustrated with the 'automa
Four words: (Score:2, Insightful)
Not.
Call.
List.
I put my number on the national list as soon as it came out, and we get ZERO calls now, and haven't for at least a year. The few that called before the list got widely distributed were politely told to put me on their list. I've had no problems, no dinner time calls, nothing. It really does work.
Re:Four words: my rant (Score:2)
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It's not for telemarketers... (Score:2, Interesting)
Specific case: I use Miva Merchant. All of their support is Indian. I called with a technical problem (where are the instructions for this section of software), and I ended up giving up because none of the Indians could
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Now if you said that setups in india are designed to be cheap and do one thing only as simple as possible, disregarding complications... you'd have a case.
Caller ID (Score:3, Insightful)
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It's not unlike getting cable. They *could*, but it would cost more and they don't really need it.
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I've taken using the answering machine to screen calls.
Abusing Telemarketers (Score:5, Funny)
Personally, I think it would be useful to simply confuse the software by saying horrible things in honeyed tones. Especially things that use phrases that the programmers probably wouldn't have thought to include in the code to detect annoyance. "Sure, you can tell me about your companies products, after I force you to watch as I bathe in your offsprings viscera".
You know, ever since I dropped my land line and just stick with a cell phone, I kind of miss having telemarketers to abuse...guess I'll just stick to abusing spammers.
"may I take your order please?" (Score:2)
"Do you know which department they are in?"
"thank you for getting back to me. How could it have possibly taken so long, look, I have these complaints.."
also work pretty well. Yeah, they were fun some times.
It's a only for call centers... (Score:2)
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Great flick, if you're into the kitschy 70's sci-fi like me.
"Emotionally intelligent" ... (Score:3, Funny)
Where does it say telemarketers? (Score:3, Informative)
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 (Score:4, Informative)
Even so... (Score:5, Funny)
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Never get annoying calls again (Score:2, Insightful)
expensive crap software (Score:2)
10 PRINT "Customer is annoyed"
20 GOTO 10
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10 PRINT "Attempt to sell service"
20 INPUT I$
30 REM IF I$="Customer is annoyed" THEN PRINT "Terminate call quickly"
40 GOTO 10
[warning type='psychotic nutjob' /] (Score:2)
The new fuzzing tools. (Score:2, Funny)
Entertainment (Score:4, Funny)
Mirror (Score:3, Funny)
Output:
Subject: Telemarketer
Aparent Emotion State: Cheerful
Real Emotional State: Depressed and soul crushed.
-Grey [wellingtongrey.net]
No need to worry... (Score:2)
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Roy: Uh, yes, I'm a Nexus-6 model replicant. I'm having problems with my lifespan.
Beth: What sort of problems, sir?
Roy: I've got less than two months to live because of this crazy cutoff date I just found out about.
Beth: Okay, I'll need your serial number and incept date.
Roy: Damn, it's around here somewhere... uh... N6MAA13-- I mean, 10816. Incept date is 8 January 2016.
Beth: Let me look that up for y
My Personal Telemarketer Script (Score:4, Interesting)
Telemarketer: Hi, I'm calling from $COMPANY to offer you $DEAL.
me: I'm not interested.
Telemarketer: May I ask why?
me: Because they're using telemarketing to try to sell to me.
Telemarketer: $LAME_EXCUSE. Goodbye.
I don't see how emotion analyzing software is gonne get them out of that.
Forrester Research...? (Score:2)
$400 million (Score:4, Insightful)
So next time they call start smiling and in a soft polite voice say "FUCK YOU" and hang up.
Girlfriend (Score:2)
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Similar to the device for asperger's? (Score:3, Interesting)
-matthew
Customer Service Emotions (Score:5, Funny)
"Why is windows accusing me of stealing it?"
"Sir, I can see you're feeling... 'furious'
"Wha... what? How am I threatened by pirates?"
"I understand you are... 'confused'
"So windows is making sure I can use my computer by not allowing me to use it?"
"We simply want to ensure you do not accidentally have an illegal copy of windows from a source that is not trustworthy."
"You want me to prove I'm not guilty so that there's no chance you're not making money? Why you..."
"Sir, you seem to be feeling... Um, there are too many emotion words scrolling on the screen, I can't read them fast enough. Oh shit, I shouldn't have told you about the emotion words."
"I. Will. Kill. You. Dead."
"Ok, looks like we've settled on 'furious' again. Do you have a credit card handy? Sir?" (It looks like he hung up. Now the screen is telling me to lock the call center doors.)
I shouldn't skim Slashdot summaries so fast (Score:2)
Which depending on your definition of "seed" may be going too far. I'm all in favor of sterilizing telemarketers, but once they've actually mated killing the resulting progeny would be wrong.
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Why do you say that? We already do it with weeds, bacteria, mold spores...
The software as Neo (Score:2)
(shortly before willing the five approaching human sentinels to explode)
not always a bad thing (Score:2)
1. When you're staffing call centers with people from a culture other than the one of those calling the call center, this can help them judge the emotions of the person they're talking to more effectively;
2. In various ways, this type of technology can help Autistic people figure out the emotions of the people they're dealing with, which is actually a very cool thing indeed.
Press one ... (Score:3, Funny)
Press the octothorpe if you are confused.
Repeatedly press 6 if you are impatient.
Press any key to be returned to our on hold music.
damn robots!! (Score:2)
What telemarketers? (Score:2)
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I've purposely have had multiple numbers for just this reason as an adult. Not too long ago ISDN sure beat out dialup and one circuit was simply always "busy" (inbound). Today it's even easier with VoIP -- particularly when I want to make a call and control what CID shows...
The house phone is only ever given to friends & family. Otherwise the bank, credit card companies, stores, and your brother can go ahead and try and reac
It reads: call more often. (Score:2)
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Anyway I can do the same thing with any VoIP number so if I see a number I don't want I jus
Apathy? (Score:2)
For automated, voice-activated systems no doubt (Score:2)
Anyway, the new voice-recognition system included volume and scans for common profanity to move the caller ahead in the queue if they were getting upset. (Because, as anyone who's done tech support or cust
Re:trust the marketeers (Score:5, Interesting)
"My address is xyz. My husband is lying on the floor not breathing. The front door is open. We are in the bedroom. Please tell me what to do."
Others of course were hysteric, but not all of them.
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Don't get me wrong, some of them really are that level-headed in an emergency. But I think you'll find an amazing number will break down afterwards when they'd managed to get back towards normal.
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The medical people kept telling us how calm we were, with our bloody child laying on the gurne
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Re:I've been taking advantage of this for over a y (Score:2)
You seem to get angry a lot.