Speech Technology - October 2008 - (Page 24)

NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME! SPEECH & EMOTION skill that she says many customer service supervisors still lack. Even if an emotion detection solution were able to call for real-time interference, Ryan remains skeptical that call centers will take advantage of the functionality. “We’re always asking for more and more and more tools,” she says,” but the reality is that we don’t use them all.” Conference after conference, Ryan listens to motivational speakers tell audiences that they should be listening to at least 10 calls a day and calling five customers a week to check in, regardless of whether the call was good or bad. “Everyone writes it down and says, ‘Oh yes, we should,’ but does it really happen?” she asks. Resources are already thin enough as it is. “Yeah, I think it could work, but…,” Ryan says with a laugh. Looking Ahead However, some vendors are eager to win Ryan, and many others, over. According to Fluss, Nemesysco’s is one of two solutions that can be considered a standalone emotion detection solution; the other comes from Israel-based VoiceSense. As a technology provider, Nemesysco does not provide the internal architecture for such a system, but works with companies to create seemingly endless possibilities. “We don’t want to limit people to certain ideas. We can encourage people to think out of the box here,” Liberman says. He describes the premise of a basic implementation that addresses the goal of real-time action. The technology attaches a “core priority number” to a call that gauges and quantifies the emotional degree of the call. In other words, the system ranks calls that demand immediate intervention with a higher priority. The expectation is that by being able to monitor and resolve problems in real time, call centers will be able to save tons of hours of listening to boring conversations, Liberman says. He imagines another application where instead of concentrating on customer emotions, the technology can be used to better understand agent emotions. Call him in the morning and Liberman admits you won’t get much of an interview. “I’m brain-dead before my fourth cup of coffee, and I assume there are agents like that as well,” he says. So what better way to increase efficiency than by assigning agents to work when they function best? On top of that, the problem of agent turnaround attributable to common feelings of boredom or frustration with work can be remedied by identifying an agent’s stress level during calls. To prevent “WE DON’T HAVE ANY SYSTEMS LIKE THIS AT THE MOMENT. IT’S SOMETHING WE’RE TRYING TO PREACH TO OUR VENDORS.” burnout, Liberman suggests managers monitor emotional trends to signal when to give agents a day off or some kind of bonus to restore their motivation at the moment they need it most. Though promising and seemingly feasible, Liberman may well be spewing science-fiction. “We don’t have any systems like this at the moment,” he says. “It’s something we’re trying to preach to our vendors. If you can extend every agent’s service by an average of one month, you can save tons of money.” Moving forward, industry experts anticipate that even outside the contact center, emotion detection will prove valuable in other customer service applications. Woolley illustrates futuristic scenarios where everyday technology—from automobile navigation devices, to household appli- ances, to even personal computers—can incorporate emotion detection that automatically determines user frustration levels and instantly offers assistance. “If we don’t ‘wow’ the customer,” Fluss says, “we don’t earn the right to upsell or cross-sell them.” It’s not hard to see how emotion detection will play a key role in delivering an excellent customer experience. Imagine the improvements in productivity when call centers can avoid engaging in a verbal boxing match with the customer. So while emotion detection technology in the call center has yet to make its grand debut, experts foresee a bright future. “The massive amount of data generated in the call center must be sorted in some way,” Liberman says. What better way than by emotional distress since it’s often only then that call centers really have a problem. Most of the time, believe it or not, call centers are actually doing a good job, he notes. Having come from a call center background, Fluss is determined to convince enterprises of the value of such solutions. Call centers are evolving, she says, and in the next eight to 10 years, they will be one of the most important contributors of revenue in an organization. The rationale behind this prediction is not just because of the value emotion detection brings, she says, but because if solutions fail to justify their cost, they will be eliminated. “Call centers aren’t the most respected organizations,” she says. “People are always saying, ‘What’s wrong with these people? They’re being yelled at all day. They must be doing something wrong,’ rather than, ‘Oh my God, these people are fantastic. They’re building our branding and representing us in the marketplace in a completely stressful situation.’” It’s easy to undervalue the customer service representative while completely overlooking the fact that, as Fluss states matter of factly, “Consumers aren’t very nice.” 24 | Speech Technology OCTOBER 2008 www.speechtechmag.com http://www.speechtechmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Speech Technology - October 2008

Speech Technology - October 2008 Contents Editor’s Letter Industry View Inside Outsourcing Interact Keynoter Highlights the Shrinking Technological World Former Hacker Tackles IVR and Biometrics ‘Press 1’ for Caller Thoughts Soundbytes Voice Vote A New Dragon Emerges Overheard/Underheard An Emotional Mess Emotional Intelligence The Case for Call Recording Unified in Care and Communications An Education in E-Learning Guest Column Standards Speech Solutions Voice Value Forward Thinking

Speech Technology - October 2008

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