Just imagine being a customer service representative and having the ability to read and monitor a customer’s emotions so you know exactly what to say and when to say it. If a computer program could tell you such descriptive phrases as “Struggling to contain excitement,” “Getting angry,” or “Warm and fuzzy,” you would know how to address each individual customer to maximize customer service excellence.
And that is what the new computer program called Magnify may be doing. The software is able to predict how interested a customer is in one’s product and when to stop, within a minute if a customer is getting angry; the computer will then suggest the representative end the call. Of course, a customer service representative doesn’t need a computer program to tell them how a customer is feeling when he starts screaming in the phone, but Magnify claims it can predict that outcome before it actually happens.
The Israeli company, eXaudios developed the computer program to decode the human voice and identify a person’s emotional state. The phrases read like a psychiatrist talking to a patient on a couch and can actually suggest various tactics a customer service representative could take to pitch their product or service. The program can even tell if a customer is unlikely to buy. It does this by separating frequencies and qualities of the person’s voice through wave length intensity and modulation which is the pattern of pitch changes in connected speech.
The program claims a 75% accuracy rate.
Cogito Health uses similar programs to diagnose depression, drug compliance and post traumatic stress. It is also being tested in diagnosing such medical conditions as autism, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, heart disease, and prostate cancer. According to Senior VP of Business Operations for Magnify, the program can detect a disease from the impact it has on a person’s speech. For instance, patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease may develop a form of mumbled speech still undetectable in normal conversation.
The next time you hear that your phone call may be recorded for quality purposes, it just might be figuring out if you just had a fight with your spouse.
photo credit: pixxiestails
